of 2010’s “The Ward,” a mental hospital thriller starring Amber Heard. It also came after a long hiatus in Carpenter’s filmmaking career, as he hadn’t released a film since “Ghosts of Mars” in 2001. His only directorial gigs in the interim were two episodes of the “Masters of Horror” anthology project, released in 2005 and 2006. Carpenter was no longer prolific … and he seemed to like it that way. He often mentioned in interviews that he was content to compose music at home and while away the hours with video games. He once expressed happiness that so many of his films had been remade (“Halloween,” “Assault on Precinct 13,” “The Thing,” and “The Fog”) as he receives a paycheck for doing absolutely no work. Carpenter is a refreshingly unpretentious filmmaker.
“The Ward,” rather bafflingly, came and went in 2010 without much fanfare. Despite Carpenter’s status as one of the most celebrated horror directors of his generation, most people ignored “The Ward,” leaving it to exit theaters swiftly. The film only made $5.3 million on its $10 million budget, and it has stayed kind of obscure; it’s not currently available to stream on any of the major commercial services (although one can see it on Kanopy and Pluto TV).
In the film, Heard plays Kirsten, a young woman who has been committed to a mental institution in 1966 because of a bout of amnesia. She is told many things about how she was previously a patient there, but Kristen cannot trust anyone. Kristen is hypnotized and has visions of a girl, a mysterious figure with long blonde hair. Is this person from her past? Is it her? Is it a ghost? The mysteries of “The Ward” will eventually be revealed.
What we can say for sure is that the mysterious girl, named Alice, is played by Sydney Sweeney, now one of Hollywood’s current preeminent “It” girls.
