Session 9


Title: Session 9
Rating: 4/5
Genre: Psychological Horror/Thriller
Starring: Peter Mullan, David Caruso

A "haunted-house" themed film that manages to actually accomplish is what we encounter will set in "Danvers State Mental Hospital", the bat. A striving small business owner of a cleaning, asbestos removing company, "Gordon Fleming" (Mullan) promises to handle the hospital and get the job done in one week. He needs the money. Yes we are introduced to seemingly clichéd aspects of this film, big scary place with voices calling people, but the film, thanks to the director "Brad Anderson", takes us literally through a maze of paranoia that truly makes this film a pleasant/unpleasant experience to watch. The film is atmospheric; we don't get bombarded with information about the past events, but little by little fined out, yet remains an air of obscurity to get us involved.

The film is a mélange of horror and insanity. As each day of the week pass, we see how each of the characters is driven into possession. For instance, we have one with finding out the history of a former patient there by secretly here recordings of her therapy, gradually mounting to the ninth session, hence the title of the film. One suspects treachery from the others, and that is augmented by a seemingly by a seemingly unstable household situation. It becomes a labyrinth, and the history of the hospital doesn't facilitate the situation. We ourselves as viewers begin to doubt what we see, until finally we reach a macabre ending that well leave us bewildered, yet wanting to watch the film again, with hope to catch more signs. "Anderson" has this natural ability to carefully utilize the cinematography to present us with an eerie feeling. Those who have seen some of his other films, notably "The Machinist", will understand more what I mean.

One of the major downturns on this film that I find is the casting of some actors, especially that of "Caruso". I just couldn't help myself of getting the impression that he will come up with some cheesy line to say. He tried his best, I don't deny that, but I just felt he wasn't the right one to this job. There's also something I can't elaborate more on, lest I spoil, but I felt that in some parts the film focuses on superfluous details that end up confusing us for without a purpose. I get the concept of mystery, the films works well on it, but I just felt some parts should have been treated in a better way.

To any fan of the psychological horror genre, this shall be good to watch. I added the "thriller" tag because the film isn't exclusively horror. It borrows some elements, and uses them well. I heard good talk about this one here before I saw it, and when I did, I wasn't disappointed. The way of presentation alone, with the camera movements to explore the paranoia and madness, earns the film praise. It isn't perfect, but it sure is a good experience to watch it during a stormy light with the speakers on high volume. I know I saw it on my laptop, but I won't hesitate seeing it again in cinema if I find it.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Female Prisoner: Scorpion

Image
Title: Female Prisoner: Scorpion Rating: 4/5 Genre: Drama, Thriller, Crime Starring: Meiko Kaji, Rie Yokoyama, Isao Natsuyagi Director: Shunya Ito Language: Japanese It was the 70s that saw the rise in Japanese grindhouse cinema (also known as ‘Pinky Violence); tired of the very ‘traditional’ style of many local films, and with the rise in success of Hollywood titles such as ‘Dirty Harry’ and ‘The Great Escape,’ a new wave of daring and experimental directors came to light. Armed with a low budget and all the influences of the early Western grindhouse cheap gore flicks, they combined it with traditional Japanese film-making sensibilities to create a style that somehow succeeded in being both artistic in style whilst retaining those cheap traditions such as gratuitous nudity and violence to result in something rather unique. And it was with this, the first instalment in the ‘Female Prisoner’ series, that would influence a wave known as ‘Women in Prison’ films; with a strong the...
Read more

Slasher Hunter

Image
Title: Slasher Hunter (2011) Rating: 3/5 Genre: Horror, Comedy Starring: Chad Phillips, Derek Rothermund, Ryan Sullivan Director: Steve Rudzinski Duration: 35 mins Four pals are planning to have a great weekend of sex and brews in an old cabin in the woods. Now, I know what you’re thinking: “this is the exact set up to every slasher movie from ‘79 to ‘99; this can’t end well.” Well our group of campers have thought of that, that’s why they brought sci-fi nerd Lee along for the ride who carries within him the so-called “survivor gene.” This special gene helps prevent him from being the unfortunate victim of any slasher maniacs that may be lurking about. Unfortunately this gene is also highly coveted by a group of the most dastardly slashers around: Frank, Larry, Jay, Charles, Pleatherface, and Puzzle (I didn’t say their names were very dastardly, did I?). It’s up to a renegade, federally-employed Slasher Hunter to thwart the slashers’ plan and save Lee and his friends before it’...
Read more

Chinese Erotic Ghost Story

Image
Title: Chinese Erotic Ghost Story Original Title: Yuk lui liu chai Genre: Comedy, Exploitation Rating: 2.5/5 Starring: Ben Ko Chu, Chun Chung, Siu Wan Hung Director: Kin-Nam Cho Language: Chinese It's always a little tricky to think how these sort of films should be rated; from the title it's apparent that they aren't perhaps the most creative when it comes to titles, though if nothing else it certainly is an accurate one, with perhaps some mention of how batshit insane the bizarre events of the actual film are being the only thing missing. It all kicks off rather normally; Chu is introduced as the debt collector working for an asshole of a King with a beautiful mistress, two beautiful daughters and an even prettier wife, whilst he's stuck with a woman who sleeps 20 hours a day and spends the remaining four awake eating. Caught in the embrace of one of the King's daughters he's punished with the task of entering Satan's Temple and stealing the statu...
Read more