Review: Session 9 (2001)

Session 9 is a frequently creepy little chiller that has long been considered one of the great "sleeper hits" of the horror genre. It has a good cast (and David Caruso) and has perhaps one of the greatest settings of any horror picture. It does manage to wring just about every last bit of suspense out of the setting, but some unintentional hilarity at the hands of Mr. Caruso (who is actually quite good for the first three-quarters), and a rather weak ending (just another in the long line of post-Sixth Sense twist endings) fall what could have been a true horror classic.

Phil (the inimitable David Caruso) and Gordon (Peter Mullan) are the heads of an asbestos cleaning crew, who are bidding on the right to work on Danvers State Hospital, an abandoned insane asylum that once served the Massachusetts area. Despite Phil's insistence that the project will take at least three weeks, Gordon assures the state worker that they can get it done in two, then in a one-on-one discussion with the state worker, changes it to one week claiming he "needs the job." With that, they win the bid (not to mention a $10K bonus from the state if they can finish in time).

So Phil and Gordon go to work, but not alone: They are joined by Mike, a wannabe lawyer, Hank, a former friend of Phil's who is dating Phil's old girlfriend, and Jeff, a young kid who seems more into partying than working. They start on a Monday, and are given until the following Monday to complete the task.

It soon becomes apparent that they are not only in a race against time, but in a battle for survival. It all begins when Mike unearths a secret stash of tapes (totaling nine sessions) from a former resident, a Mary Hobbes, who suffers from multiple personalities. The doctor keeps wanting to get to the bottom of what happened on the night of December 22nd, something that neither Mary, nor Billy or The Princess (Mary's "alters") seem willing to reveal. However, there is one more personality that she is hiding, one that may hold the answer to what happened on that fateful day...

Meanwhile, bizarre things begin happening to the rest of the crew: Hank, after finding a hidden stash of old and valuable coins, suddenly disappears; Gordon, who is otherwise cool and calm, seems to be overly stressed-out by the arrival of his new baby; and Phil is seen "talking" to two boys, though it looks oddly like a drug deal. Are the spirits of the former residents driving them mad? Needless to say that by about Thursday, completing the job is the last thing on their minds...

Though I have acknowledged that Session 9 definitely gets an "A" in the atmosphere department, it is not without its flaws. First off, is David Caruso, that man that proves anyone can make it as an actor, even if you can't truly act. His performance actually starts off great, but quickly drops downhill once the stress levels of all the characters start to rise. There is an unintentionally hilarious sequence late in the film in which his character yells "Fuck you" to Gordon, while the camera zooms in for dramatic effect. The end result is so cheesy that it cannot possibly be taken seriously, but it occurs at such a late stage in the film that it could not possibly have been played for laughs. Needless to say, this scene ruins some of the momentum that the film otherwise had going for it.

I was also a little off-put by the story. The events of December 22nd, in relation to Mary Hobbes, is something that is repetitively kept from the audience until the grand finale, but it was something that can easily be guessed within hearing just three minutes of Mary's first session. Was it supposed to be shocking? By the tenth minute of hearing the doctor repeatedly ask her (or each of her "alters") what happened on that night, it really starts getting old. I was not a fan of the ending, either, which conveniently tosses us a few ideas of what might have happened, but doesn't really give us anything concrete. The "open-ended" ending used to be novel a few years back, but now it seems to be included in every horror film, as if the writers couldn't decide between two endings, so they found a way to throw both of them in there. For most people, I guess part of the fun for most people is debating what exactly happened, but when there's no right answer (as director Brad Anderson has confirmed is the case), then really what's the point? It's like arguing religion: You can go at it for days, but in the end, you are always right back at square one.

Despite all this, I would heartily recommend Session 9. Yes, it has its flaws, but they can't entirely overpower the film's intense atmosphere and great use of an already creepy location. The film's pacing, while slow, is also a strong point in that it leads to some genuinely chilling sequences, rather than being slow for the sake of being slow. ("The Shining", anyone?) This is a film that true fans of horror can sink their teeth into, a rather unnerving horror experience that, unfortunately, is nearly destroyed by a rather unimaginative ending, and a couple horribly-acted scenes that, not surprisingly, involve David Caruso.

Rating: * * * (out of 4)