By Malice Intended 

The modern horror film is a wasteland of gimmickry and ideas that exist well beyond their shelf life.  The torture porn and slasher revival cycles have each run their course.  In the wake of those well-worked subgenres is a growing number of mockumentaries that populate the new wave zombie and vampire films.  For the most part, the horror genre feels hackneyed and rudderless, and the maestros that shepherded the genre from the 1970’s onward are now running on empty; their best films and ideas long behind them. 

Cult favorite John Carpenter, on hiatus for the past seven years, returns to modern multiplexes with The Ward.  The film tells the story of Kristen (Amber Heard), a young woman placed in a mental institution beyond her will with no recollection of her identity before being committed.  To make matters worse, a strange and malevolent force haunts the facility at night.  When her fellow patients start to disappear, Kristen realizes that that it is only a matter of time before the unexplained presence comes for her as well.  

Carpenter has always been an expert at using simple concepts to explore subconscious fears.  As evidenced by its trailer, The Ward looks to follow in that tradition.  The opening moments show Kristen racing through the woods just before burning down an abandoned house.  Once she is committed, the visuals take a rather disquieting turn with elements of voyeurism and violation throughout.  Patients shuffle about the creepy, sterile ward, disoriented. Though Carpenter is hardly the first to explore such themes, he is undoubtedly at home here.  

The Ward will probably not be a huge hit, as it contains no big stars and Carpenter has little to no box office cache.  At this point I suspect that he is no longer making films with the hopes of appealing to a huge cross over audiences.  His sensibilities are suited to a different age, when shock value was balanced out with a hint of subtlety.  That’s a shame, as today’s young audiences are largely being raised on lowest common denominator entertainment that appeals to nothing other than their base instincts.  Carpenter may not be at his height of his creative powers, but he still clearly has an interest in true storytelling.

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