The Ward's plot is described as "a young woman fighting off a malicious ghost when she becomes trapped in a mental hospital." Which sounds generic as hell, but in Carpenter's hands, it could be something special. Think about it....this is the guy who turned "escaped mental patient stalks babysitters on Halloween" into a sublime piece of cinema (Halloween), and "vengeful pirate ghosts seek vengeance on a waterside town" into one of the creepiest flicks I've ever seen (his original The Fog, not that piece-of-dung remake with the tool from Smallville, DeRay Davis' "Black-male-supporting-character cliche on steroids" and Maggie Grace's vapid acting skills).
Carpenter hasn't made a good genre flick since, shit, 1998, when Vampires hit, and thankfully didn't totally bite ***pats self on back***. Nothing stellar, but the James Woods-starring bloodsucker show had its charms. So the man has been sitting back, looking for the right material to bring his awesome side back (I can hope). Here's his thoughts on The Ward's script: "the kind of script that I've been looking for: a complex, visceral story, full of suspense and scares." Again, sounds generic, but Carpenter doing "complex, visceral" feels about right.
And then there's Amber Heard, a ten-spot with I'm more appreciative of for her looks than her chops. She was a commanding lead in All the Boys Love Mandy Lane, though, so hopefully The Ward is a platform for her to show and prove.
If she fails and the performance is a mess, on top of the movie sucking and painfully proving that Carpenter has gone the way of Dario Argento (i.e., a stale master), at least I'll have some pupil treats before me. It's happened many times before in my horror flicks---see Jessica Alba in The Eye, for starters.
And now, a scene from All the Boys Love Mandy Lane that, umm, implies for itself.
Finger-lickin' good. Sorry for just saying that.
News of The Ward first spotted over at: Empire
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