Bare-bones plot: a HAZ MAT team gets a contract to decontaminate Danvers Mental Hospital, a defunct asylum that was shut down in the 80s due to scandalous treatment improprieties. With a juicy bonus as the carrot for bringing the job in ahead of schedule, the asbestos removal team finds itself laid siege to by the sprawling institute's rancid, psychic residue, as well as the internal resentments and discord that grow with each day. The team includes the group's Scottish boss, Gordon (Peter Mullan), the foreman, Phil (David Caruso), Mike (Stephen Gevedon, the film's co-writer), Hank (Josh Lucas), and Jeff (Brendon Sexton III), Gordon's nephew.
I thought this was a superior horror film, for three-quarters of its running time.
I believe the movie scores best when it concentrates on creating an atmosphere of comprehensive, smothering dread. It is less a Horror Movie than a Dread Movie: every festering duct and basement in Danvers (the juxtaposition of real and imagined poisons is on the spot) seems to be poised for the arrival of some Impending Awful Event. When the mystery is solved, it seems a tad perfunctory and less disturbing than the build-up that came before.
(Comments below may contain some spoilers or semi-spoilers)
Still, the director, Brad Aderson, really ladled on a lot of deep-dish, disturbing atmosphere. Danvers Hospital is such a great setting. The simple shots of a disquieting collage of photos on a wall with the captions, "No one will leave feeling neutral, " and "Some Day it's going to dawn on you" are far scarier than a slasher with a knife. The movie was drizzled with a sense of claustrophobic doom: characters fleeing down the hospital corridors as the lights go out behind them; the constant oppressive rumble of generators; the slow leak of coins and last effects from a hole in a wall. Like past cinematic houses of the damned in The Shining, The Haunting, Suspiria or any Roger Corman Poe film, the place is The Monster, and a great one at that: with its decaying tunnels, basements, kitchens, wards, and 'treatment" accessories, it's a vivid, nightmarish piece of turf, a perfect stomping ground for demons of the mind.
Peter Mullan gave a terrific performance as the team's troubled Gael boss: his ability to communicate his character's mental distress with a mere cock of his head or the way he rubs his eyes and distractedly nods at some half-heard query, conveys the workings of his trammeled mind. As Phil, Gordon's best friend and foreman, David Caruso was just as fine as Mullan: you feel a sense that, given his personal life, the team's unity is the only thing keeping him going, and watching Caruso's working-class brio ("I'm here for you Gordon")turn to paranoid task-mastering and desperation is great. Josh Lucas as the cynical wiseacre picking at Phil's particular Achilles heel was also very good. On the technical side, Uta Brieswitz' lensing really captures the dark nuances of the hospital's vast and creepy space, and the music, mostly brittle keyboards, is a definite assist.
(Possible Spoiler Below)
The movie keeps you guessing as to whether the chief culprit on hand is a diseased mind or some sort of demoniac infestation and the clues that are provided by the cache of "Session 9" tapes Mike has discovered, provide plenty of ambivalent grist. Those conversations, between a patient named 'Mary", and her doctor, are squirm inducing in the extreme and had me looking over my shoulder when I previewed this at 2:00am in the morning. My own theory is that, in this case, like Takashi Miike's MPD Psycho, the villain is a demon/parasite; however, the film has you asking questions long after the credits crawl.
Even if the movie's unmasking of The Minotaur is not as frightening as it could have been, it sure serves up one hell of a labyrinth.
I will admit that I wish the filmmakers had used the hydro-therapy Tub, and some of those nasty-looking chairs.
I thought this was a superior horror film, for three-quarters of its running time.
I believe the movie scores best when it concentrates on creating an atmosphere of comprehensive, smothering dread. It is less a Horror Movie than a Dread Movie: every festering duct and basement in Danvers (the juxtaposition of real and imagined poisons is on the spot) seems to be poised for the arrival of some Impending Awful Event. When the mystery is solved, it seems a tad perfunctory and less disturbing than the build-up that came before.
(Comments below may contain some spoilers or semi-spoilers)
Still, the director, Brad Aderson, really ladled on a lot of deep-dish, disturbing atmosphere. Danvers Hospital is such a great setting. The simple shots of a disquieting collage of photos on a wall with the captions, "No one will leave feeling neutral, " and "Some Day it's going to dawn on you" are far scarier than a slasher with a knife. The movie was drizzled with a sense of claustrophobic doom: characters fleeing down the hospital corridors as the lights go out behind them; the constant oppressive rumble of generators; the slow leak of coins and last effects from a hole in a wall. Like past cinematic houses of the damned in The Shining, The Haunting, Suspiria or any Roger Corman Poe film, the place is The Monster, and a great one at that: with its decaying tunnels, basements, kitchens, wards, and 'treatment" accessories, it's a vivid, nightmarish piece of turf, a perfect stomping ground for demons of the mind.
Peter Mullan gave a terrific performance as the team's troubled Gael boss: his ability to communicate his character's mental distress with a mere cock of his head or the way he rubs his eyes and distractedly nods at some half-heard query, conveys the workings of his trammeled mind. As Phil, Gordon's best friend and foreman, David Caruso was just as fine as Mullan: you feel a sense that, given his personal life, the team's unity is the only thing keeping him going, and watching Caruso's working-class brio ("I'm here for you Gordon")turn to paranoid task-mastering and desperation is great. Josh Lucas as the cynical wiseacre picking at Phil's particular Achilles heel was also very good. On the technical side, Uta Brieswitz' lensing really captures the dark nuances of the hospital's vast and creepy space, and the music, mostly brittle keyboards, is a definite assist.
(Possible Spoiler Below)
The movie keeps you guessing as to whether the chief culprit on hand is a diseased mind or some sort of demoniac infestation and the clues that are provided by the cache of "Session 9" tapes Mike has discovered, provide plenty of ambivalent grist. Those conversations, between a patient named 'Mary", and her doctor, are squirm inducing in the extreme and had me looking over my shoulder when I previewed this at 2:00am in the morning. My own theory is that, in this case, like Takashi Miike's MPD Psycho, the villain is a demon/parasite; however, the film has you asking questions long after the credits crawl.
Even if the movie's unmasking of The Minotaur is not as frightening as it could have been, it sure serves up one hell of a labyrinth.
I will admit that I wish the filmmakers had used the hydro-therapy Tub, and some of those nasty-looking chairs.