Rating: 
Summary: thriller masterpeice
Review: i saw this movie on starz theater one night and i was shocked at the fact this movie was THIS good yet it didn't win anything!the movie's setting is an insane asylum and about an 120 into the movie you'll know who the killer is and it's the older worker. because of the movie's LOW volume and UNAUDIOBLE dialog i couldn't tell who was who in this film they kept on jumping from one storyline to the next like a soap opera! the main dead pateint in the film who posses one of the workers is mary who has mutpile personality disorder and her NUMBER in the papers and grave marker is #444 you'll SEE it alot! one of the workers finds the tapes in the basement with mary's sessions in it and a tape player as he plays each one MORE AND MORE BIZZARE things happen! one worker find some old coins and other items in a brick wall and runs off to with it someplace,but comes back to the nut house to help clean up anyway. the teen worker(the dude with the mullet)devlops a fear of the dark! the other worker has to keep on checking at home(his the killer)he then goes to the gazbo which LEADS to the mental patients cemetaray which we see mary's marker #444 under a log which he SITS ON! as more and more errie things start to occur the dude he keeps on calling his wife keeps on being temped to go to the room with the chair he FINALLY goes in and then as he goes in ON THE WALL we see MARY HASSON'S ROOM #444. he then takes out a knife! then the teen worker sees the lights are going out and runs up out of the house and into the light then the other worker listening to the tapes notices the power generator is having problems so he goes outside and fixes it as he does the SESSION 9 tape MARY'S THIRD ALTER emergies and the dude who keeps on calling kills! then after killing the teen worker's dad and all his co-workers he goes home and kills his wife,his pooch,and his baby! IRONIC TWIST SPOILER AHEAD! HE THEN ENDS UP IN AN INSANE ASYLUM! this movie is good for the hithock fans and ANY fan of thriller/sespense movies!
Rating:
Summary: Extremely tense, often terrifying
Review: It is unfortunate that this was an independent release because it was the best horror film of 2001 in my opinion. It truly puts recent mainstream horror releases such as Dracula 2000, Halloween Resurrection, Urban Legends, Eight Legged Freaks, etc. to shame. Session 9 has probably the most tense buildup of any horror film of the last 20 years. What I mean by this is that you will be on the edge of your chair trying not to watch, yet at the same time wanting to see what will happen. There are some well-done scares that are not just sudden loud noises but they are deeply unsettling images. Although it hs a couple bloody moments, the film overall has little gore and instead scares with psychological horror, isolation, and helplessness. You will never interpret the phrase "abandoned insane asylum" in quite the same way again. My reason for not giving 5 stars is the ending is a let-down. But still, the film is well worth watching. See what good horror films are supposed to look like!
Rating:
Summary: Creepy. Very, very creepy.
Review: (I only gave this three stars because I hold very high standards for five.) This *is* a very good movie. Very creepy. Do not do what I just did and start it at 3am because you cannot sleep and are home alone. So very, very alone. Very alone with creepy noises emanating from your apartment building. Brrr. So yes, this movie definitely has "creeptitude" and scary atmosphere out the wazoo. Recommended if you are having problems getting too much sleep, or simply dislike taut psychological creepy thrillers in the dead of night. Double brrr.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent psychological thriller
Review: This movie ranks among my top five favorite suspense/thriller movies of all time (along with The Shining, Jacob's Ladder, Sixth Sense, and ... I can't remember the fifth but you get the idea). If you enjoy psychological thrillers, the ones that really get inside your head, this movie is for you. It seems to be a relatively low-budget film, given that I never saw it promoted at all, but that just makes it even more amazing that it's so well-acted and directed. It draws you in and gradually builds the horror until you're on the edge of your seat. I couldn't sleep for a week thinking I was going to hear that voice talking to me. Highly recommended for thriller buffs who are more keen on psychological terror than on gore.
Rating:
Summary: I'm still scared from this one!
Review: I'd heard about this movie for months before I actually rented it on DVD. 2 days after watching the movie, I was still freaked out and seriously thinking twice about sleeping with the lights out. Comparisons to "The Shining" are absolutely warranted as "Session 9" is more of a mental exercise and slow burn than a Jason/Freddy Krueger-type bloodfest. Like many of the reviewers, I was a bit confused by the end of the movie. However, after re-watching the film with the commentary of director Brad Anderson and co-writer Stephen Gevedon, everything became much clearer and the smallest, seemingly inconsequential details took on more significance. I hesitate recommending this film to everyone simply because many people just "won't get it," sort of like some people just don't get "Memento." So that you won't be disappointed (for the wrong reasons- after all you have every right not to like the movie even if you do understand it) with this movie, go into it knowing that:
1.This is not a ghost story. Don't expect ghosts. No ghosts.
2.This movie starts out very slow and continues that way for quite awhile. If you have a short attention span or lack patience, you might want to skip this one.
3.Be open to the idea that mental instability and being trapped in one's own private hell can be far more terrifying than guys walking around with knives for fingers. Now go forth and be scared!
Rating:
Summary: Excellently Creepy
Review: I rented Session 9 the other day with low expectations. I figured it would be "The House on Haunted Hill" or "The Haunting" which are movies I liked, but were not really scary. "Session 9" on the other hand IS quite scary. I'm not going to bother rehashing the story, but I will say that if you're more into supernatural suspense-thrillers (like "The Sixth Sense", "The Others", Stephen King's "Storm of the Century") than slasher flicks, then you'll LOVE this movie. The suspenseful and hinting scenes build up to a climax that makes sense, but is also very surpising and unexpected. It's not a gore-fest definitely, and the actual violence is fairly short. The insane asylum (which is a real place actually) and the tapes one of the characters discover of a former inmates psychological evaluation supply the main creepiness of the film. Also, the extra scenes are interesting, and the segments about the real insane asylum this movie is based on are quite interesting. All-in-all an excellent pick for a scary-movie lover.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome movie
Review: This is an awesome movie!!!! It gets in yor head and stuff. I had to take a walk out side afterwards. I recommend this movie to a true horror fan. It's not like those slasher films, it's a film like the shining. ...
Rating: 
Summary: A lot of potential to be a great movie....
Review: but unfortunately it tried to do be a lot of different things and did them only adequately at best. The asylum seems almost haunted but not really. The characters almost flesh themselves out but not really. The movie started to be a psychological thriller at one point but not really... You get the point. One of the biggest hindrances was the music or misuse of it. The minimalist style used would have worked a lot better if something scary actually happened when the music was building up. But instead, except for the last 10 minutes of the movie every time the music built up, it would just stop and nothing, climactic or anti-climactic, would happen. It's like the climax golden twins just decides to play around with an oboe and piano whenever they felt like it, without even watching the movie. The premise for the movie really was great, but it ended up being a thriller without thrills. Had the madness started creeping into the characters as the movie progressed; had there been a few false alarms; had some more paranormal stuff happened it really would have been a great movie even with most of the events happening in broad daylight. But unfortunately the writers started with a great idea and never really took advantage of it. as far as the actors go, they did the best they could with what they were given. I really wanted to like this movie, and there were some points were it really shone, but unfortunately those parts couldn't overcome the long streaches of boring scenes that didn't really make sense. And it's not that I couldn't understand it in the end, there are just way too many logical gaps.
Rating:
Summary: Good Acting, Good Directing, Lazy Writing
Review: This movie seems to me to be another case of a director filming the first draft of his script rather than taking the time to construct a good story. The script is a jumble of creepy ideas, creepy scenes, creepy sounds, all thrown together but never successfully TIED together. Anderson himself says in one of the special features that he came up with the story because of the location. It shows. He started with an eerie place and tried to force a story into it, rather than starting with interesting people and putting them into a situation they had to deal with. One of many examples of what's wrong with this movie--what's with the chair at the end of the hall? It's the main visual image in the poster, it is shown repeatedly during the movie, leading one to think that the climactic moment and the key to the richly-layered mystery one hopes one is being caught up in involves this chair, in this room, and guess what? The chair doesn't mean a thing. Nothing. Anderson just thought it looked spooky. And that pretty well sums up the whole film. The ending is a lame attempt at tying together all the disconnected images that come before, and it fails completely. It's a shame, too, because Anderson's superbly atmospheric direction and the wonderful performances (they're all wonderful) are very enticing. But it's a fake. Anderson really has no story to tell. He just couldn't wait to shoot and edit some footage.
Rating: 
Summary: A real head scratcher, but not for the right reasons
Review: Session Nine really left me scratching my head. To be fair, the first time I watched it the conditions were somewhat shy of optimal. I broke it up over two days and was pulled away during several key sequences by phone calls and babies crying. To make sure that I gave the film it's proper attention I locked all the doors and watched it through a second time, but was still left with most of the same questions. To start off, the characters are the basic archetypes that inhabit thrillers such as these. This being a 'working man thriller', the roles do not include one of the most recognizable; the mad (or at least quirky) scientist. Alien made it without one, so I guess we can survive sans one here. Present are: The business owner/corporate guy focused on saving the business/profits and damn the rest of the world. (Except, of course, his family back home usually shown through rain swept windows or in a nice soft focus memory) The hard working, morally centered second in command who has recently lost the love of his life to... The lazy bastard everyone loves to hate. Also present are: The intellectual who doesn't really fit in working with the blue collar guys, but has a secret; and the rookie kid on his first job who we all know will end up dying some horrible way. The first third of the movie is dedicate to the set up and loaded with the required exposition. I always find it amazing that security guards and DPW workers can be such a thorough source of back story and vital historical information. The head of the DPW who contracts our heroes to remove the asbestos from the soon to be remodeled asylum is conveniently married to the local historian; a slightly contrived convenience, but forgivable since the device does allow the story to move along quicker. Looking back, I see that most of what I've stated thus far has been pretty harsh, but I did like this flick. The characters, though broadly sketched, are likeable (well, except for the lazy bastard) and the acting made me forgive most of the weaknesses of the script. What really pulled me out of the experience, even in the second viewing, was the "twist" ending. The way the clues are laid out as to who the killer is really do point to pretty much any one of the guys working (young guy who you know will die horribly excluded, of course) and a few other folks as well. What it reminded me of, strangely enough, was a stage play my wife and I saw in Boston several years ago called Shear Madness. The plot revolves around a murder in a hair salon and at the end the audience actually votes to decide who the killer is. There are enough 'facts' pointing at each cast member that when the detective starts explaining the motives and opportunities we can believe the person we selected is guilty. Session 9 could easily subject itself to such a gimmick. (Hmm. With DVD's branching abilities...) I don't know if this is supposed to be a puzzle movie, like the Sixth Sense, or a straight on psychological/haunted house horror like The Shining and I'm not convinced that the movie itself knows what it wants to be. If only the cast weren't so damn likeable it would be easy to pan this flick entirely, but I can't. David Caruso and company bring such believability and a wonderfully grounded nature to this movie that I really do feel compelled to watch it a third time and really 'get' it. I only hope that there really is something to get.
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