The Ward

Oregon, 1966: After setting fire to an abandoned farm, Kristen (Amber Heard) is taken to the psychiatric ward of a clinic. There she is to undergo therapy with four other young patients, but the ‘experimental’ treatment is initially unsuccessful: Kristen cannot remember anything. At night, she is attacked by a ghostly figure, who soon begins to kill the other girls one by one... Carpenter's cinema comeback after almost ten years with a typical state of emergency scenario was thanks to lead actress Amber Heard. With proven widescreen mastery, the psychiatric clinic is staged as an eerie labyrinth in which Sam Fuller's Shock Corridor and Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island overlap. In addition to its classic suspense signature, The Ward stands out as the first Carpenter film with an all-female ensemble at its centre. (C.H.)