Visually it feels like the graceful old school John Carpenter. He is modest when interviewed, that it's all about team, but there is a distinctive stamp especially at the beginning. As the film goes along we are engaged by the content so the presentation isn't dominant in our minds. But there is whimsy and jolts of horror for any of us happy to see Carpenter directing a feature again.
Not to spoil the ending, but although it works and has its jolts, it belongs to the Identity and Secret Window school of Endings. This is not my favourite brand of resolution. But the hint might have been that the workers in the Ward weren't especially sinister. So it wasn't a retro Cuckoo's Nest about reforming the care system but closer to Girl Interrupted. (So that's two James Mangold titles Identity and Girl Interrupted mentioned in a Carpenter commend.)
My thought early on was that the patients must be there for the treatment of Extreme Hotness, including the pyro protagonist we appear to meet at the start.
Ultimately a good, contained film with style.
Interesting that so much of it takes place by necessity in the walls of the mental hospital. John Carpenter had complained years ago about writing Halloween II and realizing that it was limiting to have a protagonist who is either confined or sedated and stuck in a hospital for 90 minutes. And now he has come full circle to choose someone else' script which does exactly that. But I think confinement and the appearance of isolation are essential for horror.
I'm not sure why reviews have been Luke warm about this film. Essentially if you like John Carpenter films this movie is worth watching. My only quibble would be as a Monday morning quarterback I would have preferred if the protagonist Kristen had maintained to the end a reality and character that she starts out with which seems to be the rebellious Pliskenesque bad-ass. Instead the film becomes more twist-reliant.
Over-all, though, its well executed and occasionally jarring.
Not to spoil the ending, but although it works and has its jolts, it belongs to the Identity and Secret Window school of Endings. This is not my favourite brand of resolution. But the hint might have been that the workers in the Ward weren't especially sinister. So it wasn't a retro Cuckoo's Nest about reforming the care system but closer to Girl Interrupted. (So that's two James Mangold titles Identity and Girl Interrupted mentioned in a Carpenter commend.)
My thought early on was that the patients must be there for the treatment of Extreme Hotness, including the pyro protagonist we appear to meet at the start.
Ultimately a good, contained film with style.
Interesting that so much of it takes place by necessity in the walls of the mental hospital. John Carpenter had complained years ago about writing Halloween II and realizing that it was limiting to have a protagonist who is either confined or sedated and stuck in a hospital for 90 minutes. And now he has come full circle to choose someone else' script which does exactly that. But I think confinement and the appearance of isolation are essential for horror.
I'm not sure why reviews have been Luke warm about this film. Essentially if you like John Carpenter films this movie is worth watching. My only quibble would be as a Monday morning quarterback I would have preferred if the protagonist Kristen had maintained to the end a reality and character that she starts out with which seems to be the rebellious Pliskenesque bad-ass. Instead the film becomes more twist-reliant.
Over-all, though, its well executed and occasionally jarring.