What’s worse? Not remembering your past, waking up in a mental institution or having your account of being attacked by a ghost ignored and being punished with electro-shock therapy? What’s worse is having all 3 happen to you, as is the case of  Kristen (Amber Heard).

A few days after her attempted escape and recapture by the psychiatric ward orderly, she takes a shower, only to be overcome with horror when a ghastly figure attacks her. It’s not Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho shower scene, but it sends chills down your spine nonetheless.

The ghost strangles Kristen while she's bathing.

During a group therapy session with the other girls, Dr Stringer quizzes Kristen about the bathroom incident, but she refuses to say anything about it, having learnt that the insane are not really believed, and will only get a taste of supervised electrocution to keep them quiet.

After questioning Zoey (Laura-Leigh) and Emily (Mamie Gummer) about the ghost, she’s identified as possibly being Alice Hudson (Mika Boorem), a patient who used to live in the institution, but was murdered by the other inmates.

They believe that Alice is back for revenge when Iris (Lyndsy Fonseca) and Sarah (Danielle Panabaker) don’t return from their respective therapy sessions.

If she needed any additional motivation to break out, being hunted by a vengeful ghost must have tipped the balance for Kristen, who know constantly tries to think of a way to escape.

Emily (left) and Kristen (right) planning their escape route out of the institute.

Resorting to holding Zoey hostage as a final attempt for escape, Kristen finds out the truth about everything: the girls, the previous patients, and so much more, when she arrives at Stringer’s office.

In technical terms, the film uses too many video transitions (cross-fading), and this tends to get a little irritating because it causes the viewers to lose focus.

However, if the scare factor is what you’re looking for, this may just be the perfect movie for you. You have your typical sudden ghostly appearance (when Kristen turns her head back in front, only to be greeted by Alice) as well as the suspenseful music that makes you panic in the scene of Sarah’s escape from her phantom clutches.

Not only are the sound effects sudden, they’re a few notches louder than the actors’ voices as well, thus bringing fear to a whole new level.

The various personas that the uniformly attractive actresses took on were realistically portrayed.

For example, Laura-Leigh makes use of the habit of thumb-sucking and wears her hair in 2 innocuous-looking ponytails to bring out Zoey’s child-like personality, while Danielle highlighted Sarah’s diva character with cynicism and flirtations.

The former was demonstrated when she commented that she didn’t see anything (with regards to the bathroom incident) and even laughed when Emily believed Kristen, hinting that it was reliable to have a lunatic on her side.

And when one of the orderlies, Roy, was cleaning the toilet, she hit on him by asking if he wanted to date her. Despite being turned down, Sarah still thinks about Roy, deciding to look for him after quarrelling with Emily.

Having seen Amber in Drive Angry as Piper, Kristen was portrayed in a totally different light, changing from the feisty girl who swears and fights for her life to one who seeks the truth and, like almost all of us, is fearful of the dead. Amber is able to exhibit more acting range in The Ward, however, because Kristen has more depth as a character, as compared to Piper, who only had to be angsty all the time.

Kristen when she first arrived at the institute, lost and confused.

She was the new, confused girl who couldn’t remember her past no matter how hard she tried, but despite knowing that, would rather escape from the mental institute than let them treat her as a lunatic.

To sum it all up, be prepared for a little Inception-ism because the twist in the story catches you off-guard and throws you into a roller-coaster ride of an ending. If you think that John Carpenter’s The Ward is all that you’ve understood it to be, you’re definitely wrong.

Movie: The Ward
Rating: ★★★✩✩
Opens: 8 July
Duration: 88 minutes
Language: English
Age Rating: G
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Director: John Carpenter
Cast: Amber Heard, Lyndsy Fonseca, Jared Harris