Rating: 
Summary: Mediocre
Review: Session 9 was of an odd sort. It seemed to be leading up to something much greater than what it was. Although slow, it was to build up the characters, and it did a very good job of keeping interest during that. I thought the sessions were quite creepy, and the movie itself I found in many parts suspencful. I enjoyed the movie untill the end, pointless violence was shown, along with an not exciting twist. I thought if the climax was a bit more shocking of somesort the movie would have been pulled together better.
Rating: 
Summary: A Creepy and Atmospheric Thriller
Review: Danvers Mental Hospital, built in the mid-1870s, now sits empty on a hill in Massachusetts, closed since 1985. The Hazmat Evacuation Company underbids other crews to clean up the asbestos that can be found all over the asylum. The team members: Mike (played by Stephen Gevedon, one of the film's writers) finds a series of taped sessions in the basement. Henry (Josh Lucas) discovers hidden treasure in the tunnels beneath the asylum. Jeff (Brendon Sexton III) struggles with his fear of the dark. Phil (David Caruso) tries to keep the crew working as a team. The team leader, Gordon (Peter Mullan), longs to return to his wife and child.As the team begins to work, the eerie building begins to work on them. This is a surprising thriller. It doesn't rely on special effects to creep out the viewers. It's all done with lighting, with story, and the use of a video camera instead of a big, bulky movie camera. You feel that you're right there with the team, working in that immense building. (A good example is when Henry is walking back alone from the tunnels, up a staircase that is divided by a gate for staff on one side and patients on the other. The camera work and editing make this a genuinely creepy scene.) When the team is told some of the sordid history of the asylum, that lends to the fear that both the actors and the viewers sense. All the actors give fine performances. That, coupled with a great script and great directing, make for one of the scarier thrillers to be made in a long time. The DVD picture and sound quality are fantastic. Plus, the extras are definitely worth watching: a featurette on the Danvers Mental Hospital (a real place in Massachusetts), audio commentary, deleted scenes, story-to-screen with commentary. This is a creepy and atmospheric thriller that deserved much better at the box office.
Rating: 
Summary: Slow start, couple good frights, stupid ending (spoilers)
Review: Was REALLY disappointed in this film. Starts slowly, seems like a typical haunted-house set-up - old, disused, abandoned building where disturbing things happened once; whispers are whisped; noises are heard in the dark; people die. The end. The part where Hank is collecting his stash was very well-done, but nothing else in the film WAS. And the ending just went on and on and on with the stereotypical slasher stuff, gratuitously violent and, worst of all, in my opinion, decent, sympathetic people die, leaving me sad, not scared. Whoever wrote the script did a poor job. Do not waste your money/time on this poorly-done film.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Movie
Review: I read the amazon.com review and realized that it wasn't accurate. The tapes that "Mike" finds have nothing to do with a sexual abuse case, but rather a woman who was institutionalized as a young girl for killing her family. She has three alter's (personalities).
The movie is very well acted, scripted and directed. Everything that the director shows is for a reason and that also goes for everything said. There are no coincidences. I had to watch this movie about three times to really go back and see all the subtle connections, but it was worth it. The guy who plays Mike also helped to write the script. This movie is very believable which makes it even more scary. There are no monsters or aliens, just the monsters inside each and every one of us who are just waiting for the right time to be set free.
This movie is also very good because it doesn't have to rely on blockbuster actors (actually, David Caruso is the only actor that I knew, but all of the actors did a fine job) and million dollar special effects. This movie is too smart for that.
Sit back and enjoy- you are in for a real treat!
Rating: 
Summary: Disturbing in an understated way
Review: Very few movies disturb me to the point of actually making me too uncomfortable to turn off the lights in my house. This is one of those movies. I have always felt the truly scariest of movies, are the ones that leave a lot up to the viewers imagination. It's most often what you DON'T see that ends up being the most frightening . This movie tells the story of a group of 4 men, hired to remove hazordous material from an abandoned insane asylum. Each of these men have their own reasons for being there, and the first half of "Session 9" goes about explaining what they are, through various subtle and not so subtle clues. There's the failed lawyer who becomes obsessed with listening to old tapes of therapy sessions with a woman named Mary and her 3 alter-personalities. Then there is the lottery-ticket obsessed Hank who thinks he's found his "escape plan" buried deep inside the tunnels of the asylum. David Caruso's character is hard-working, but you can't help but think he's hiding his own secrets. Gordon...the leader of the group is the hardest character to figure out. You are shown flashbacks that make you suspect that something horrible has happened in his life recently, but you're not sure exactly what until very near the end. The plot is a bit slow-moving at first, but it succeeds in drawing you in, and making you want to know what exactly is driving these characters. and there is the asylum. The aspect of the film that disburbed me more then anything else...without giving too much away...is what ends up happening to the Hank character. The scenes of him running down the shadow-filled tunnels, and subsequent re-emergence of his character later in the film left me feeling incredibly uneasy. that is the one thing that will end up staying with me more then anything else. The performances and the intriguing style of storytelling...but above all, the entire eerie atmosphere is what makes this one of the best horror movies to come around in quite some time.
Rating: 
Summary: Stop the Insanity...........
Review: One of the worst movies I've ever sat through. Don't be fooled.
I'd rather have my skin slowly peeled off my body before I'd watch it again.
Good acting does not a good movie make.
Rating:
Summary: So scary I never want to see it again
Review: There are only a few films which I consider very good, but which have disturbed me on such a level that I never want to see them again. "Session 9" has been added to that short list.
Bear in mind that this means I consider "Session 9" to be a very effective, skillfully-made movie; perhaps one of the best horror films (in the classic sense) I've seen in some time. Far more genuinely frightening than "The Ring" or "The Blair Witch Project," while avoiding the "hipness" of the Scream series or "Jeepers Creepers," "Session 9" is filled with everything any real fan of horror movies can't help but appreciate. To be honest, I haven't been this creeped out while watching a movie since I saw "Jacob's Ladder" for the first time, and even that film (though fascinating) didn't disturb me on the level that "Session 9" did. The medium of film makes the telling of a horror story particularly difficult, as a careful filmmaker has to decide just what to show, and when. A good horror writer knows when the best moment to show the monster is... or if to show it at all. In film, this becomes even more of a problem, as it is a medium based largely on visuals. Not showing the Monster to the audience can either enhance suspense or increase frustration, depending on how its handled, but once the monster is seen it is almost always a disappointment. A film like "The Haunting" (the original version, mind you, not the recent remake) succeeds because it maintains suspense through sound and great cinematography, despite the fact that we never see what's making all the noise, while the aforementioned "Jacob's Ladder" works so well because while we are given glimpses of frightening things and creatures, they are never shown clearly. What we come away with is flashes of frightening imagery, leaving plenty of room for an active imagination to fill in the gaps. As Alfred Hitchcock put it, "There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it." "Session 9" is almost nothing but anticipation, but it is masterfully handled and never becomes frustrating. From the first minutes of the film to the very end, the viewer is never sure what to expect, and often expects the worst. In a particularly good segment, near the end of the film, several points of view on the story are advancing all at once, independent of one another but intersecting at key events. The level of suspense maintained in this sequence is nothing short of intense, and yet it is done while showing very little graphically. In fact, we don't find out what actually happened in that sequence until several minutes later, and even then the answers come with only subtle visuals. Like an Edgar Allen Poe story, the entire purpose of "Session 9" seems to be to establish and maintain a level of fear and uncertainty in the viewer, keeping them guessing until the very end. And this it does, with surprising subtlety. Perhaps one of the most important elements of a good horror movie for me is effective use of imagery, a task which "Session 9" accomplishes easily. This goes back to the earlier point about subtlety and anticipation. There are a number of scenes in "Session 9" which make excellent use of imagery to this end. A shot of a narrow hallway, for example, lit along its length by several bare lightbulbs. A young man is running through this hallway, and lights are going out rapidly behind him. The darkness overtakes and engulfs the young man in a matter of a couple seconds. What makes this shot especially effective is that we already know that he is afraid of the dark. The "signature" shot of the film, a beat-up wheelchair caught in a ray of sun at the end of a decrepit hallway, sets the mood early on in the film quite effectively. Other details, such as a shape moving in darkness, or a bloody handprint smeared on a door, or the plastic sheeting covering the walls in the old asylum, are all handled well. "Session 9" is a movie of exceptional detail in its imagery. Another important element to good horror movies is sound. Perhaps even moreso than imagery, sound can convey fear and anticipation quite effectively if used correctly. In "Session 9," there are a number of uses of sound that are notable. In the old asylum, particularly, there are noises throughout the film. It drips, it scrapes, it creaks, it echoes. The asylum seems almost to have a life of its own, with all of the strange sounds it makes. And the taped recordings, from which "Session 9" gets it name, have a subtle yet creepy warble in them, in which the voices are periodically warped. It's a small thing that added to the overall effect, but then most effective elements of filmmaking are small things. While watching this film, it's just as important to listen as it is to look. The devil is in the details, and in "Session 9," all the skillful details add up to a devilish movie indeed. The film makes no compunction about being simply a scary movie, one which is intended to unnerve its audience, and by the time it is over it has accomplished this goal admirably. Its ending touches on a subject which disturbs me pretty deeply, which is the reason I'll likely never watch it again. However, the way I see it, that is merely another testament to the fact that it remains a deeply effective horror film, in that it got under my skin so completely. Not many movies can do that, and those that do are worthy of attention.
Rating:
Summary: Session 9
Review: This is the best psychological thriller I've seen in a long time. It's absolutely brilliant. Its subtle horror eerily creeps up on you as the film progresses. The ending is shocking and keeps you momentarily spellbound as you rewind the movie through your mind, in order to try to capture the scenes and signs that led to the disturbing finish. This movie's creepiness stems from the fact that it has a very believable quality to it. Yes, the asylum is a real place in MA, the characters have a purpose for hanging out at the asylum(cleaning out the asbestos), and the revelations of the characters' lives unfold in a way that's realistic and ties the unexpected ending together. The film's pace is deliberate, which some people may find too slow and confusing, but the reason behind it is to develop the plot and build the connections. It all comes together, so be patient! This is not your typical scary movie and that's what makes it so much better.
Rating:
Summary: Chilling...
Review: Session 9 is without a doubt one of the most intelligently made, atmospheric and truly compelling films I have seen in a long while. It's not an easy film to watch in many ways, and it's not a disposable film that will leave you sleeping like a baby. You will have to engage your brain, but the narrative is so excellently structured and driven by such superb performances that you won't feel cheated or lost. This is the type of horror that really has the repeated power to scare because of the fine line it straddles between reality and the supernatural, and boasts some of the creepiest visuals, and downright chilling moments I have seen for a long time. All in all, an absolute gem of a film.
Rating:
Summary: Quite Good, But Deleted Scenes Should Have Been Left In
Review: Session 9 is an atmospheric thriller that takes place in a creepy mental institution. It's unsettling to say the least. A work crew has been assigned to remove the asbestos from the old abandoned facility. The more time they spend there, the more the place gets under their skin and things start to go awry. I wish they would release this in an uncut version, because the deleted scenes would have added a lot to the movie. The scenes were cut because in previews, some audience members were confused about the identity of a female character. Check out the deleted scenes on the DVD and you'll see what I mean. Overall though, a good flick to watch late at night with the lights off.
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