| GOTHIKA |
 2003 - USADirector: Mathieu Kssovitz - Reviewed by Vickie
But, more often than not and despite whatever category the filmmakers were initially aiming for, a lot of scary movies wind up lumped in one group: the crappy ones. Gothika, though stylish, is just such a film. Set up as a quasi-ghost story in what must be the most dank and archaic fictional prison in the United States, the movie—which is set almost entirely at night—centers on criminal psychologist Miranda Grey (Halle Berry), who treats inmates with her concerned face, pulled-back hair and sensible turtlenecks. She’s married to another doctor (Charles S. Dutton) and works alongside the mildly smarmy Pete Graham (Robert Downey Jr.), who makes it pretty clear he’s got a thing for Miranda. One of Miranda’s patients (Penélope Cruz), who becomes her only ally, seems to be suffering from violent paranoid delusions complicated by troublesome overacting. Anyway, long story short: Miranda’s driving home on a dark and stormy night when she comes upon the ghost of a bruised, battered and beaten young woman (Kathleen Mackey) standing in the middle of a road. A shriek, a dramatic flash cut and a serious drop in hair and wardrobe budget later, Miranda, dazed and confused, awakens in a cell in the very same prison at which she works. Gasp! Evidently, she’s brutally murdered her husband, but has no memory of the crime. And, at this moment, the film begins its long, arduous, gruesome and fright-filled journey to its entirely predictable and overly drawn-out conclusion as said mightily pissed-off ghost appears time and time again for tiresome reasons. It suddenly becomes a simple-to-solve mystery that’s made needlessly difficult and complicated for the sole purpose of boring, I mean thrilling, the audience. At one point, a character onscreen says something like "try to stay awake." I leaned over to my friend and said, "Is he talking to the audience?" Directed by Matthieu Kassovitz and produced by Warner Bros.’ schlock-horror sub-division, Dark Castle, Gothika is nice to look at but painful to sit through. The art direction and set design are good, but those things are soon overshadowed by lame implausibilities, shock-less shock value and more rain than the cast and crew of the water-logged Underworld had to endure. The film is also very dark and unpleasant on an emotional level—I felt ill and dirty when it was over, almost like I couldn’t quite believe I’d participated in it in any way, shape or form. It didn’t come from a place of entertainment, but seemed to emerge from one that is decidedly angry and violent, and I really don’t like those kinds of films. Ick. The acting was bordering on over-the-top, yet not over-the-top enough to make it fun. Try watching the extras playing the "insane" prison inmates without laughing. They all look like average folks who walked in from Central Casting after being told to "find some crazy-person clothes and act weird." Penélope Cruz’s character is especially entertaining for all the wrong reasons. We don’t really know why she’s in prison in the first place (one assumes she’s done something very bad), save for being wacky, but evidently it doesn’t take much for her to be released. Is she cured? Is she better? What happened? Who knows? Who cares! Clearly not the filmmakers. The end of the film (unfortunately) leaves room for a sequel. Let me say it now for all to read: please no. |
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There are all kinds of scary movies out there. There are funny ones
(Scream), creepy ones (The Sixth Sense), silly ones
(Scary Movie), gory ones (much of the Halloween and
Elm Street ouevre), campy ones (think Ghost Ship) and
ones so frightening that I will never, ever see them. In fact, those
ones are so scary I won’t even type their titles here.
