Monday, March 2, 2009
Gothika
Gothika is the latest from Dark Castle Entertainment, specializing in horror movies with updated special effects, including House on Haunted Hill and Thir13en Ghosts, two of my favorites. So I wasn't expecting much, but I figured a movie like Gothika would be, well, gothic. I was not disappointed.
Miranda Grey (Halle Berry) is a monotone-voiced psychiatrist consulting with a patient (apparently, she only ever talks to one), Chloe Sava (Penelope Cruz), in a sanitarium. Chloe believes she is being raped by the devil in prison. Miranda is the wife of Dr. Douglas Grey (Charles Dutton), a blubbery man that you can't believe is married to such a delicious package. Doug is also the mental hospital's chief psychiatrist. When the two kiss, it's squeamishly unnerving-kudos to the director (Mathieu Kassovitz) for telegraphing the awful while filming something as mundane as a spousal embrace.
Miranda works with another psychiatrist, Pete Graham (Robert Downey Jr.), a mumbly, ferret-like character who lusts for her from afar. The three characters casually discuss psychological problems as if they were discussing the weather. There's no warmth in any of the relationships, even though a storm rages in the background, crackling with thunder at appropriate moments.
Then weird stuff happens. Miranda crashes her car in an effort to avoid running over a woman (Kathleen Mackey) she sees standing in the road. The woman touches Miranda's face and the two burst into flames...
Miranda wakes up in the same mental hospital she once worked at. She's now a patient, accused of hacking her husband to death with an axe. Pete is her psychiatrist. And just like that, Miranda's world falls apart.
The movie strains credibility with the absurd notion that Miranda would be placed in the very same mental facility that she worked at. No effort is made to explain this particular plot point, so integral to the horror Miranda experiences. Similarly, Miranda doesn't act particularly professional or even argue her case very well. She collapses into a shrieking mess and pretty much stays that way throughout the film.
Complicating matters is the ghost that haunts the facility. In a refreshing horror movie turn, this is no Capser the Friendly Ghost. She possesses people, she uses said possessed people to do awful things, and beats the crap out of anyone who doesn't do what she wants them to do. In fact, she's so powerful and intrusive that you can't help but wonder why the ghost just doesn't do everything herself.
Unfortunately, there are lots of problems with Gothika. Halle Berry is too pretty for the role and lacks sufficient warmth to bring any real emotion to the screen but shrill hysteria. Pete is so mush-mouthed, so wandering in his conversations, that he seems more like a patient than a doctor at the hospital. But the real villain is the writer (Sebastian Gutierrez), who filled the plot with holes (security guards hand over their car keys to Miranda for WHAT reason exactly?), ridiculous punch lines (think Trinity from the Matrix's maxim "Dodge this" thrown into a movie that's supposed to be all about psychological horror), and awful dialogue.
Gothika is one of those movies that is defined primarily by its lensing; everything is a bluish gray. This is obviously intentional to set the mood of a dreary psychological horror. The relentless blue is punctuated by are occasional flashes of red-red lights, a red nametag, red outfits. But unlike Sixth Sense, the red doesn't have any real symbolism behind it (except, perhaps, "DANGER!"). It's as if Kassovitz liked the idea of putting a blue lens over the film but didn't know what to do with the technique.
And yet, Gothika has genuinely creepy moments that caused my various family members to jump out of their seats. The horror, both of role reversal (the psychologist becomes the patient) and of the capacity of normal people to commit acts if horrible violence, is striking. The insane asylum is its own character, a gaping series of hallways with wide-open spaces and cold glass walls.
Gothika is no Sixth Sense or Stir of Echoes, and a little too slickly produced for its own good. It's hampered by high-minded goals, burdened with a patchwork plot, and really, really blue. But it's just scary enough, just freaky enough, and just interesting enough to make it worth watching.
Miranda Grey (Halle Berry) is a monotone-voiced psychiatrist consulting with a patient (apparently, she only ever talks to one), Chloe Sava (Penelope Cruz), in a sanitarium. Chloe believes she is being raped by the devil in prison. Miranda is the wife of Dr. Douglas Grey (Charles Dutton), a blubbery man that you can't believe is married to such a delicious package. Doug is also the mental hospital's chief psychiatrist. When the two kiss, it's squeamishly unnerving-kudos to the director (Mathieu Kassovitz) for telegraphing the awful while filming something as mundane as a spousal embrace.
Miranda works with another psychiatrist, Pete Graham (Robert Downey Jr.), a mumbly, ferret-like character who lusts for her from afar. The three characters casually discuss psychological problems as if they were discussing the weather. There's no warmth in any of the relationships, even though a storm rages in the background, crackling with thunder at appropriate moments.
Then weird stuff happens. Miranda crashes her car in an effort to avoid running over a woman (Kathleen Mackey) she sees standing in the road. The woman touches Miranda's face and the two burst into flames...
Miranda wakes up in the same mental hospital she once worked at. She's now a patient, accused of hacking her husband to death with an axe. Pete is her psychiatrist. And just like that, Miranda's world falls apart.
The movie strains credibility with the absurd notion that Miranda would be placed in the very same mental facility that she worked at. No effort is made to explain this particular plot point, so integral to the horror Miranda experiences. Similarly, Miranda doesn't act particularly professional or even argue her case very well. She collapses into a shrieking mess and pretty much stays that way throughout the film.
Complicating matters is the ghost that haunts the facility. In a refreshing horror movie turn, this is no Capser the Friendly Ghost. She possesses people, she uses said possessed people to do awful things, and beats the crap out of anyone who doesn't do what she wants them to do. In fact, she's so powerful and intrusive that you can't help but wonder why the ghost just doesn't do everything herself.
Unfortunately, there are lots of problems with Gothika. Halle Berry is too pretty for the role and lacks sufficient warmth to bring any real emotion to the screen but shrill hysteria. Pete is so mush-mouthed, so wandering in his conversations, that he seems more like a patient than a doctor at the hospital. But the real villain is the writer (Sebastian Gutierrez), who filled the plot with holes (security guards hand over their car keys to Miranda for WHAT reason exactly?), ridiculous punch lines (think Trinity from the Matrix's maxim "Dodge this" thrown into a movie that's supposed to be all about psychological horror), and awful dialogue.
Gothika is one of those movies that is defined primarily by its lensing; everything is a bluish gray. This is obviously intentional to set the mood of a dreary psychological horror. The relentless blue is punctuated by are occasional flashes of red-red lights, a red nametag, red outfits. But unlike Sixth Sense, the red doesn't have any real symbolism behind it (except, perhaps, "DANGER!"). It's as if Kassovitz liked the idea of putting a blue lens over the film but didn't know what to do with the technique.
And yet, Gothika has genuinely creepy moments that caused my various family members to jump out of their seats. The horror, both of role reversal (the psychologist becomes the patient) and of the capacity of normal people to commit acts if horrible violence, is striking. The insane asylum is its own character, a gaping series of hallways with wide-open spaces and cold glass walls.
Gothika is no Sixth Sense or Stir of Echoes, and a little too slickly produced for its own good. It's hampered by high-minded goals, burdened with a patchwork plot, and really, really blue. But it's just scary enough, just freaky enough, and just interesting enough to make it worth watching.
Labels: Ghost Reviews
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