The genetic make-up of the film was all in place. You have the young girl who's suffering from a psychiatric disorder but insistent that she's perfectly sane. You have the evil psychiatric ward staff who are just out to get the girl that you sympathise with, much like 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'. And you have the notorious killing off of the cast one by one so you're waiting in suspense for the main character's turn. But what it ended up having was a plot line that had more holes in it than fishnet tights.
Having studied Psychology I was more than intrigued what condition they were going to assign the confused lead character, but never would I have ever guessed that they would select what they did and try and pull it off with little plausibility. Ending it with the generic ghostly spirit who still lives on in the ward ready for it's future victims may be a tired formula by now but it works. So why they decided to create a twist that was so twisted it was unrecognisable as to why it was put in there, I have no clue. And why it was set in the 60's is still something I'm trying to fathom out having finished watching it.
You can also tell it's a low budget movie when you consider that it's supposed to be set in a massive psychiatric hospital and the cast (with the exception of the staff) was limited to five girls and a ghost-like thing. Despite budget constraints the quality of the film is still on par with films of it's age which is at least a plus point of the film.
However, this is not to criticise John Carpenter's films. As we all know he's widely acknowledged as one of the kings of horror films, but somewhere somehow this film just went wrong - and I'm hazarding a guess at somewhere around the 10 minutes before it finished.
Having studied Psychology I was more than intrigued what condition they were going to assign the confused lead character, but never would I have ever guessed that they would select what they did and try and pull it off with little plausibility. Ending it with the generic ghostly spirit who still lives on in the ward ready for it's future victims may be a tired formula by now but it works. So why they decided to create a twist that was so twisted it was unrecognisable as to why it was put in there, I have no clue. And why it was set in the 60's is still something I'm trying to fathom out having finished watching it.
You can also tell it's a low budget movie when you consider that it's supposed to be set in a massive psychiatric hospital and the cast (with the exception of the staff) was limited to five girls and a ghost-like thing. Despite budget constraints the quality of the film is still on par with films of it's age which is at least a plus point of the film.
However, this is not to criticise John Carpenter's films. As we all know he's widely acknowledged as one of the kings of horror films, but somewhere somehow this film just went wrong - and I'm hazarding a guess at somewhere around the 10 minutes before it finished.
Tell Your Friends