John Carpenter may not be the Master of Horror he once was, but he can still frame a shot like nobody’s business — and he’s still got enough tricks up his sleeve with which to show all the young whippersnappers out there how it’s done. JC’s first feature film in ten years (following the underrated but still not very good Ghosts of Mars) stars Amber Heard as a pyromaniac locked up in an all-female loony bin; she and her fellow patients have to deal not only with their own various tics and twitches but also the fact that there’s a damn ghost running around the various rooms, hallways, dark corners and supply closets. Jared Harris plays the doctor who seems to genuinely want to help these poor souls — and may know more about this “ghost” than he lets on. The Ward is nothing special, but Heard is a firecracker and a hottie to be reckoned with, and her fellow “troubled ladies” — including Danielle Panabaker, Mamie Gummer, Laura-Leigh and Lyndsy Fonesca — all deliver solid performances. Above all, though, it’s a pleasure to watch Carpenter work and play in this haunted house, stretching his muscles and getting his feet wet again; hopefully, this unremarkable yet entertaining and efficient little creepshow is just a warm-up to something much more worthy of even a former Master of Horror.
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New On Netflix: The Ward