John Carpenter is Back with "The Ward" (So Why Don't We Care?)

One of the Kings of Horror, John Carpenter is back. On July 8^th, his film "The Ward" experienced a limited release in theaters. If you didn't know about any of this, don't feel bad. Advertising for the movie seems to be virtually nonexistent. Horror film buffs would be hard-pressed to comb through every media outlet imaginable to even find out what the movie is about.

John Carpenter hasn't made a full-length feature film in more than a decade. But he's back with "The Ward" and there has barely been a ruffle in the press about his noteworthy return. The thriller, which stars Amber Heard, has all the makings of a superb horror film: young girl goes to mental institution and is tormented by a malevolent spirit. So why has this movie been kept hush-hush? Some theories...

The public has grown weary of spiritually tortured young women.

Molly Hartley was haunted. Emily Rose failed to be exorcised. And "The Last Exorcism" proved to be a flop. That's 0 for 3 for spiritually tortured young ingenues of horror. "The Ward" seems like it's got solid bones and a storyline that will hold one's attention longer than 10 minutes. But perhaps even Carpenter's re-emergence wasn't enough to move jaded fans.

Mental institutions and ghosts? Ehhh -- Been there, done that.

Hmm -- Let's see, where have we seen a storyline that focused on young crazy women and ghosts? Oh yeah: "Gothika." Although the premise is chock full of wonderful potential, we've seen this shtick before. Movies like "Shutter Island" and "Session 9" have already cluttered the collective subconscious. Adding one more insane asylum to the horror movie mix might seem like overkill.

It may be difficult to fathom; but the world just might be as tired of ghosts as it is of the incessant vampire craze. The oodles of paranormal reality shows have saturated our brains. We were already leery about ghosts and things that go bump in the night. But all these ESPs, EMFs, and EVPs have sucked all the scares out of ghost stories. Even our favorite celebrities are becoming ghost hunters. Don't be surprised if the inundation of reality TV ghosts has turned off audiences. Possibly, John Carpenter had been crafting "The Ward's" storyline for quite a while. And perhaps a wonderful story it is. But the timing of the release seems to have stunted its growth.

SOURCES:

www.movies.yahoo.com

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