The Ward Reviews

Summary In The Ward, Kristen, early 20’s, wakes to find herself bruised, cut, drugged and held against her will in a remote ward of a psychiatric hospital. She is disoriented and has no idea why she was brought to this place. The other patients in the ward, four equally troubled girls, offer no answers and Kristen quickly realizes things are not...

• Horror

• Mystery

• Thriller

My Score

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Carpenter does what he's always done well here: individualizing shorthand personalities in a group under siege. This is Carpenter's first all-female ensemble, and the inmates are uniformly well-played.

The story's obvious and various potential is left to stand on its own, and the scares are largely uninspired.

We love you carpenter, but if you follow this with another ghosts of mars, i will be very disappointed, this is a perfect film, this lets us know that you are still an exceptional director, please, don't crush my faith in you - samarathenymph xoxo

John Carpenter proves why he's a legend in the horror genre once again. While perhaps not the most original of concepts, The Ward manages to be very entertaining nonetheless. The atmosphere, style, dialog, and score are all reminiscent of those cult classic horror flicks of the 70's and 80's. Particularly the ones based on Stephen King's works. It's also got some of the best jump scares I've ever seen. Even when you can see them coming from a mile away, (which honestly most of the time you can) the way they are handled still makes for a good shock. Admittedly none of the horror is actually scary, so don't expect any of this to stick with you into the night after watching. The plot itself is very entertaining and filled with mystery. The big reveal, while perhaps a bit confusing to wrap your head around, is very satisfying. It's nice to get the answers when they finally arrive and I honestly did not see that coming. Mix in fantastic performances all around and you've got a really entertaining horror film. Carpenter excellently brings back the horror movies of yesteryear after a lengthy departure. It's already been a few years since this one has come out, and based on what I've seen here, I really hope he doesn't wait as long to return to filmmaking like he did after Ghosts of Mars. I personally want to see more new stuff from the guy.

Quaintly old-fashioned in style, plot and special effects, this familiar tale of female derangement and institutional abuse is too tame to scare and too shallow to engage.

The Ward feels less indebted to cinema's past than a desperate attempt to keep up with the present. Carpenter has made his approximation of a cheap, twisty, shock-filled modern horror movie, and he has lost all but faint sighs of his minimalist swagger in the process.

In the end, Carpenter offers a reasonably nice payoff to this whole misfire.

A dull, by-the-numbers psych-ward horror thriller that's sadly a lot closer in quality to "Sucker Punch" than "Shutter Island."

Lacking a single serious scare or sly idea, the movie dies in ways that merely mediocre horror films can't even dream of.

You know those films which you see bad reviews of online but then you're totally confused why when you watch them cause it turns out that they're actually really good? Yes, this is one of them. Contrary to those that criticize Carpenter for this film, I actually commend him for it as I find that it reflects his growth and sophistication as a director and as a human being. It's not just really entertaining but also thought-provoking. Watch it and you'll see what I mean.

The Ward is not original or the best thriller but it still isn't that **** has scary moments and some really good parts that are worth seeing them but the bad thing about The Ward is the ending that has been seen and watched over and over in the past years. It is quite similar to Shutter Island and Identity which were much better in many ways. However it is not that bad so as to avoid it but the sad thing is that lacks of originality

The movie is average, it is not that great, but it stands out as a horror movie with a thought provoking story that makes the watcher asks questions that can't be answered, this is what makes it special, especially with the end that makes you confused which is a good thing about movies, it is just not a simple ghost story with characters, no it is a terrifying story of murder and revenge, although it has a tall boring scenes and not that shocking and scary as you think it might be but it is way too better than other ghost stories.

John Carpenter, am begging you, please do not let this be your "final" movie. End with a bang, not a whimper. 'The Ward' is by far Carpenters worst movie. It's a generic horror thriller that lacks any suspense or atmosphere. Instead the move relays way too much on jump scares to the point it became irritating to watch. It also doesn't help that the twist-ending is just the worst. Some of the performances were pretty decent; the standout being Jared Harris who is at least trying, bless his heart. However the other performances were pretty terrible; the standout being Amber Turd.

I had high hopes for this movie but inevitably avoided watching "The Ward" in theatres after reading so many negative reviews. Needless to say, I ended up renting for my own disappointing experience. Terrible character development and the supposed twist of an ending will likely be predictable for most. I give props to the makeup artists and for a few scenes that made me jump a bit but overall, Carpenter's latest flick failed to deliver. I would not recommend this movie to a friend and will avoid watching this in the future.