The plot for this movie is supposed to involve an asbestos removal team that go into a creepy hospital/sanitarium. The movie sounded good enough, but then I watched it.
It's first flaw is in dragging its audience laboriously through the arguments of the team members as they take on the almost impossible task of removing hazardous building materials from a structure that is monstrous (no pun intended). One team member, through tape-recorded sessions (hence the title), recounts the trauma of one of the patients that lived at the facility. We understand that they have multiple personalities that lead to murder. About this time, one of the other team members winds up missing. We when see him later on it is difficult to know if he is alive or a ghost or something. I figured him for a ghost. Then the film begins to rapidly proceed through the remaining events, almost at breakneck speed. Killing after killing occurs at the pace of Session 9's recording, supposedly as some eerie backdrop to tell us how these killing are happening. The film tries to trick you into thinking it's a ghost (not altogether untrue), but (SPOILER) then reveals its antagonist to be that of one of the team members.
He is slaying all of his buddies because he's possessed or something. This transformation occurs so quickly and without much explanation that is appears lame. In fact, I thought I was going to seem something further or some spirit or an elaboration on a reason for the change that I mistakenly kept watching. The ending is ultimately pathetic in the possessed crew-boss wandering around as some sort of troubled invalid. Repeated shots (like that on the movie's cover) are given of a chair sitting in the light. This is a reference to the psychological counseling sessions held. But the director focuses on it frequently as to suggest more than the obvious, which is only so because it's easy enough to associate. In retrospect, he probably should have had the chair grow wings or jump hoops or something.
Bottom line - this movie does not pay off. And there's hardly any built up or suspense until toward the end. Then that peters out pretty fast as the film heads toward its ridiculously lame ending. A good plot was there for the taking, but this director looks like he did his best to miss all the right opportunities.
It's first flaw is in dragging its audience laboriously through the arguments of the team members as they take on the almost impossible task of removing hazardous building materials from a structure that is monstrous (no pun intended). One team member, through tape-recorded sessions (hence the title), recounts the trauma of one of the patients that lived at the facility. We understand that they have multiple personalities that lead to murder. About this time, one of the other team members winds up missing. We when see him later on it is difficult to know if he is alive or a ghost or something. I figured him for a ghost. Then the film begins to rapidly proceed through the remaining events, almost at breakneck speed. Killing after killing occurs at the pace of Session 9's recording, supposedly as some eerie backdrop to tell us how these killing are happening. The film tries to trick you into thinking it's a ghost (not altogether untrue), but (SPOILER) then reveals its antagonist to be that of one of the team members.
He is slaying all of his buddies because he's possessed or something. This transformation occurs so quickly and without much explanation that is appears lame. In fact, I thought I was going to seem something further or some spirit or an elaboration on a reason for the change that I mistakenly kept watching. The ending is ultimately pathetic in the possessed crew-boss wandering around as some sort of troubled invalid. Repeated shots (like that on the movie's cover) are given of a chair sitting in the light. This is a reference to the psychological counseling sessions held. But the director focuses on it frequently as to suggest more than the obvious, which is only so because it's easy enough to associate. In retrospect, he probably should have had the chair grow wings or jump hoops or something.
Bottom line - this movie does not pay off. And there's hardly any built up or suspense until toward the end. Then that peters out pretty fast as the film heads toward its ridiculously lame ending. A good plot was there for the taking, but this director looks like he did his best to miss all the right opportunities.