Review by djolley87

I certainly didn't suspect such a rookie-like ending from John Carpenter, and I have to say that those final moments take something away from an already somewhat weak storyline leading up to it. Perhaps all those years away from directing feature-length films has left Carpenter a little rusty; even apart from the droll predictability of the ending, The Ward just doesn't strike me as the work of a master director. The film succeeds in drawing you into the story, but you never truly bond with the characters and there is very little in the way of real suspense or horror. Carpenter is seemingly content to keep reaching his hand into the same old bag of tricks that every other Hollywood horror director has relied upon for years and years. The Ward isn't a bad film, but it's certainly a disappointing John Carpenter film - derivative, much too predictable, and far too reliant on scare tactics that stopped being scary in the 1980s.

We don't know much about Kristen (Amber Heard) when she is first brought to North Bend Psychiatric Hospital. She's bruised and battered and wearing nothing but a slip - just the way police found her after she burned down a farmhouse for reasons even she can't explain. Even though she doesn't remember anything before the fire, the whole amnesia thing doesn't seem to bother her a bit, though -- she is far too concerned with escaping from the psych ward. I can't say I blame her, really - what with some spooky and hideous looking girl roaming the halls at night and stealing her blanket from her locked room. On the other hand, the place isn't all that bad for a psych ward, especially given the fact that there are only four other girls in the entire ward, none of whom are the drooling zombie type roaming the less restricted halls. Apparently, Kristen and the other girls are part of some experiment on the part of Dr. Stringer (Jared Harris). Iris (Lyndsy Fonseca) is a talented sketch artist; Sarah's (Danielle Panabaker) only fault seems to be the type of self-conceit that goes along with being beautiful; Zoey (Laura-Leigh) has the intellect of a child; only Emily (Meryl Streep's daughter Mamie Gummer) demonstrates the type of behavior that would typically be considered crazy. A rebel at heart, Kristen proves a rather trying patient for Dr. Springer, Nurse Lundt, and the orderlies, attempting to escape on multiple occasions. She tries to tell them that there's a ghost on the ward who is trying to kill her, but of course they don't believe her. Things only get worse when the other girls begin disappearing.

If this sounds a lot like your run-of-the-mill Hollywood horror plot, that's because that is exactly what it is. There is nothing her that any horror fan hasn't already seen before - probably in more effective films than this one. Here and there, Carpenter manages to generate a slight amount of tension and suspense, but these moments are fleeting - and there are no chills to be had from the sudden appearance of the ghost in any situation. Truth be told, Carpenter even fails to generate an atmosphere appropriate for any mental health ward - haunted or not. His over-reliance on character stereotypes and utterly predictable plot twists make this a most uninspired effort. Even a much less renowned director could have phoned this one in and achieved similar results.