Synopsis and First (Partial) International Trailer for John Carpenter's The Ward
Posted 01.03.11 by BrentJS
Moviegoers will have the opportunity to watch two very different movies about attractive young women imprisoned against their will in psychiatric facilities in 2011. We've already seen and heard a great deal about writer-director Zack Snyder's (Watchmen) visually arresting genre movie mash-up, Sucker Punch, about a group of female patients led by Emily Browning who venture into a fantasy world of their own creation in the hopes of finding the key to their salvation, but we've heard almost nothing about acclaimed director John Carpenter's (Halloween) new psychological horror thriller, The Ward, which stars Amber Heard as a troubled young woman who is admitted to a psychiatric facility against her will after she burns down an old farmhouse. Recently, a detailed synopsis of the movie appeared online and now the first, albeit only partial, trailer for The Ward has been leaked online, offering a look at Carpenter's first directorial effort since 2001's Ghosts of Mars.
Here is the synopsis of The Ward:
When an old farmhouse is set ablaze by Kristen (Amber Heard), a distraught young woman, she is taken by police to the North Bend Psychiatric Hospital. She awakens in a special ward with four similarly unbalanced and wayward girls: Sarah (Danielle Panabaker), a flirty and sass-talking know it all; Iris (Lyndsy Fonseca), a sensitive and talented artist who tries to make her feel welcome; Emily (Mamie Gummer), a reckless but playful outcast; and Zoey (Laura-Leigh), who hides behind a childlike persona and her beloved stuffed bunny. Kirsten’s therapist, Dr. Stringer (Jared Harris), tries to uncover the root cause of her breakdown, but despite his calm and understanding manner, she resists any attempts at help and rehabilitation. Unfortunately, the hospital is not the sanctuary it seems to be. Kristen begins to have strange run-ins with a shadowy phantom who roams the halls when the ward is locked down at night. Persistent and inquisitive, she goes digging for information about former patients and soon becomes convinced that no one ever leaves the ward alive.
The Ward premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2010 and was originally scheduled for an October 2010 theatrical release, but it is currently without an official release date and may end up going directly to DVD in U.S.