Session 9

Rating:
Summary: Number nine...number nine...
Review: Take "The Shining" and the better parts of "The Blair Witch Project," let them go k-i-s-s-i-n-g up in a tree, and "Session 9" is what you'll get. I can't say enough good things about this movie. It's the best-made, most atmospheric, genuinely creepiest horror movie I've seen in a long, long time. It's the kind of movie that restores your faith in a whole genre, making up for every bad teen horror film and mindless sequel you might've sat through in the last few years. What can I say? "Session 9" is the fleck of gold you hope against hope to catch gleaming amid the broken rocks and sand at the bottom of your pan.

Directed by Brad Anderson ("Next Stop Wonderland"), "Session 9" tells the story of a team of six asbestos abatement workers hired to clean out in one week's time the deserted Danvers Mental Hospital in Massachusettes. The film was shot onsite in the historic red-bricked monster of a building once known as the Danvers Lunatic Asylum. There's no shortage of creepy atmosphere at hand, and the film-makers use it to their purpose, slowly bringing to boil a tale of escalating interpersonal frictions and dizzying madness.

"Session 9" works on many levels. On the surface, it's a taught thriller, offering more than a few jump-out-of-your seat scares; it's also an interesting character study of six men thrown together under high-pressure conditions. The acting is all top-notch, but Peter Mullen and David Caruso are particularly good as the boss and foreman of the asbestos team. At its heart, "Session 9" is a compelling psychology tapestry, woven together from haunted voices, spooky sounds, and rich visual metaphor.

From the opening scenes where the team tours the massive building, it's pretty obvious that Brad Anderson didn't miss the day in film school when they studied Stanley Kubrick. The prominence of slow, wide tracking shots, ironic daylight, and place-as-character motifs are all strongly reminiscent of The Shining." So is much of the storyline. But "Session 9" is more than just a "Shining" knock-off. It slowly builds its own character and atmosphere, managing to create something original, modern, and truly scary. If you're a fan of great horror films and have begun to worry that they don't even try to make them anymore, please see "Session 9."

Rating:
Summary: Fear Is A Place
Review: Session 9 was barely a blip on the movie radar in 2002. If it was in theaters at all, it must not have been for very long. After seeing the film on DVD, I can honestly say that, this thriller deserved a better reception than it got.

A team from the Hazmat Elimination Company is sent in to remove hazzardous from an abandoned mental hospital. Little does the group realize that the halls of Danvers hides many a shocking secret from its past. Mike (Stephen Gevedon), Phil (David Caruso), Henry (Josh Lucas), and the others begin their work; one of them clears out a doctor's office, and stumbles upon the recorded sessions of a multiple personality patient. From that moment on, strange things start to happen, as the men confont not only the building's demons, but their personal demons as well.

Unlike the recent effects laden haunted house movies like 13 Ghosts and The Haunting, Session 9, relies more on psychological fear to tell its tale. Director Brad Anderson uses atmosphere and the rising tensions between the characters very effectively. The 5 main charaters play well off of one another--and the "Danvers Hospital" makes for a creepy place to be as well. Obviously, the comparisons to The Blair Witch Project are going to be there, ultimately though the similarities are few in number.

The DVD boasts a few solid extra features. The audio commentary by Anderson and Gevedon (both of whom also wrote the film) is very good. Rather than give viewers a play by play of the action, both men offer quite a bit of info about the film and how it came together. There's also a series of deleted scenes and an alternate ending--with optional commentary. The added footage is mostly concerning a very minor subplot, that's not all missed,when you think of the final cut. A script to screen comparision, a featurette called "The Haunted Palace", and the theatrical trailer top off the bonus material.

Session 9 is a film with enough going on to intrigue entertain, and just plain creep you out. Recommended.

Rating:
Summary: The REAL Danvers Mental Hospital,MA-Pioneers Of The LOBOTOMY
Review: The Danvers Mental Hospital is a REAL, honest-to-goodness asylum in Massachusetts that pioneered and perfected the frontal lobotomy. Built in the 1850's and closed in the mid-1980's due to lack of state funding, this movie is filmed entirely(camcorder style)in the once crowded (with over 2500 patients) & still to this day, horribly sinister asylum. I must say, that the undisputed STAR OF THIS FILM is the ASYLUM, itself. The cast does a better than average job in delivering real characters, however... A group of Hazmat workers are hired to accomplish the task of asbestos removal in the gargantuan hospital. Gordon, the crew boss, promises that the job will be finished in 7 days. Each crew member will receive 10 LARGE as a bonus once they meet the deadline, which, no matter how many eerie, odd & unexplained things start to happen in the asylum and to the workers, the promise of the money keeps them all to their appointed task. This movie is filmed very effectively a la Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining" style. That is to say, each day of the week is stated, a shot of the asylum is shown & then the day is filmed. This is a frequently used tactic that screenwriters/directors use to build a sense of foreboding, and BOY, DOES IT EVER WORK in this film. Great cinematography & a really frighteningly strange musical score help to build the sense of inducing madness that this film makes you feel. It also has borrowings of "The Sixth Sense" inasmuch, clues are given throughout the film so that you may figure out for yourself, (if you are paying close attention) what oddities and malevolent forces are at work in the asylum & in the plot. You will experience what REALLY "Lives in the Weak and Wounded..." I guarantee it! If you liked the plot twists in Sixth Sense, the madness of The Shining, or the otherworldly spirits that inhabited Stir Of Echos, you will enjoy Session 9!

Rating:
Summary: Stylish exercise in 'creeping dread'
Review: SESSION 9 (USA 2001): Five professional contractors - each with their own personal problems - are hired to strip asbestos from a huge, abandoned asylum where the horrific events of the past intrude on the present, invoking a murderous confrontation.

Notable as the first movie shot in the scope format using high-definition video at 24fps (transferred to 35mm film for theatrical screenings) - the same process used by George Lucas for STAR WARS EPISODE II ATTACK OF THE CLONES the following year - director Brad Anderson describes SESSION 9 as an exercise in 'creeping dread', filmed at the deserted Danvers Mental Institution in Massachusetts whose crumbling interior suggests nothing less than the hellish Marsten House of Stephen King's 'Salem's Lot'. As the audio commentary on this DVD attests, Anderson takes his visual cue from slow-burning thrillers like THE SHINING and DON'T LOOK NOW, favoring long, deliberate camera movements and wide-angle shots which transform the Institute's vast, empty spaces into an oppressive, tomb-like structure. Few Hollywood movies of recent years have used the scope format to such impressive effect. A terrific ensemble cast is headlined by David Caruso (TV's "CSI: Miami") and Scottish actor-director Peter Mullan (MY NAME IS JOE), both of whom give committed performances as men on the edge of despair, and strong support is given by Josh Lucas (THE DEEP END), Brendan Sexton III (WELCOME TO THE DOLLHOUSE) and co-writer Steven Gevedon as the hapless co-worker who stumbles on a series of audio tapes which contain ultra-creepy psychiatric sessions involving a former patient suffering from split personality disorder.

Memorable sequences include Lucas' unscheduled late-night visit to the Institute, where he finds himself sharing the darkness with... something that shouldn't be there, and the inevitable moment when Sexton - who had earlier declared his morbid fear of the dark - finds himself trapped in the bowels of the building just as the lights begin to go out... Two endings were filmed, one of which involves a subplot that was ultimately dropped from the final assembly, but in truth, neither one of them lives up to expectations. The combination of tragedy and horror will still take many viewers by surprise, but one is left with the distinct impression that few of the participants were interested in making a REAL horror film, even if the movie ends up being one anyway, in spite of itself. Beautifully judged for the most part, and genuinely frightening in places, SESSION 9 is worth a look, despite minor reservations.

USA Films' region 1 DVD - which runs 99m 39s - letterboxes the HD24p scope frame at 2.35:1 (anamorphically enhanced), and while the film's origins as a video production are betrayed by evidence of smearing during rapid movements by the actors, picture quality is otherwise flawless. Unhappily, the disc's 2.0 surround track is a downmix of the theatrical Dolby Digital format, and while the results are entirely serviceable, it doesn't represent the soundtrack as originally intended. Extras include a number of deleted sequences, including the aforementioned subplot and 'alternative' ending, and a short documentary in which various actors and film crew pay tribute to the Danvers Institute and its gruesome history. A trailer has been included, and there are closed captions but no subtitles.

Rating:
Summary: CREEPY!
Review: This is a very disturbing film! Creepy special effects, excellent (yet creepy) cinematography, and a VERY creepy soundtrack that will send chills down your spine. The acting (for the most part) was nothing to brag about, but the performance on behalf of Peter Mullan was excellent.

This is not a movie for people who are without a brain; you will have to put your thinking caps on for this one. I strongly recommend watching it more then once because there are things that you will probably miss the first time around. This truly is a psychological thriller, and one that will most likely freak you out! I found the amount of profanity in this movie to be both unnecessary and annoying, but other then that....it's pretty clean. If you like intelligently made horror movies (they are rare today) you will love this film.

Rating:
Summary: Confusing and Boring
Review: I rented this movie (thankfully) because it looked like the type of suspense/thriller movie that I'd enjoy. I was wrong. The movie starts out asbestos cleaning crew that wins the bid for an abandoned insane asylum. What should be a straightforward job, is complicated by the personal histories of the crew. In particular, Hank is dating Phil's old girlfriend, and Gordon's new baby seems to be unnerving him more than should be expected. Things get more complicated as wanna be lawyer Mike plays the tapes from a former patient with multiple personalities, including the mysterious Simon who does not appear until Session 9, and as Hank disappears after finding some old coins.
This was supposedly a horror film but I didn't find any chilling or frightening scenes.

Rating:
Summary: WAIT! WAIT! WAIT!
Review: I was expected to watch a horror & dark mystery movie in a weekend. "Session 9" seems pretty interesting enough for its story, feels so creepy & big swallowing atomsphere & its experimental filming for such an abandoned large enclosure.

Take a deep breath to follow the cameras moving along, into the deep long corridors and many more rooms at far lonely end with barely lights in. I admitted it wasn't all that bad at the beginning.

Not until those misguided sub plots getting in, purposed to kill time obviously. Otherwise, the audience'd keep counting how much time left. e.g. in the middle of the story those coins, rings, eyeballs & then those dropped old coins again makes me going mad, ideas like counting days from Mon, Tue, Wed isn't a good idea particularly for already a loosen structure. It wouldn't help those audiences already felt asleep. Many more plots like old patient Mary/ her graveyard broken pieces/ her room no./ old photos etc...which mean they are all actually being no big deals at the end??? Truly big disappointment.

This isn't a deep pyschological shocking, frightening piece of drama like "The Shining", "Rosemary's Baby" or "The Fog". While it gives you rarely thrilling but only a bit at the end of around 5 minutes, it's getting similar as finish watching "Identity" that also finally rushes to an very uncompromising & unsatisfying ending.

Rating:
Summary: much more realistic than i expected
Review: i thought this would be a supernatural movie. its not. its about these several guys who go to an abandoned mental asylum to clean it from its old, old...stuff. 2 of the cleaners in particualr are alittle off from the begining. one of them keeps having flashbacks and suffers a hidden mental breakdown, while the rest endure odd happenings inside the creepy asylum. throughout the entire movie it somehow keeps you interested. i guess because its so confusing and you just want to figure out what the hells going on! theres very few scary parts, which makes those few parts even more impactful. at the end, the film reveals, somewhat, what all the twists in the movie were about and what exactly was going on with the characters. they all go alittle crazy by the end, yet one in particular just loses it and...well, youll see. the first time i watched it, and so far the only time i watched it, i hated the movie because it gave all of this suspense which lead up to a completely confusing dud ending. but then, after i thought about it for hours, i figured it out...partially. i do believe they shouldve left the alternate subplot in there about the homeless lady. yes, it would have made it even more confusing, but still, it was a better ending. and by the way, for those of you who didnt understand what was going on with the alternate footage---turn the commentary on! my suggestions is dont buy it at first. rent it. then, dont judge it at first. think about it till your head falls off. but heres a hint: the only reason its so complicated, is because its so simple. oh, and i forgot to mention one of the best addons in the movie---the very believable mary hobbes. shes the woman in the session tapes that has multiple personalities. at the end we finally get to hear simon speak as he infests our imagination with lines that tie the movies plots all together...kind of.

Rating:
Summary: The weak and the wounded...
Review: I can forgive the guy who said that the Session 9 tape after which the film is title, was 'Ultimately, a Macguffin', because I assume that he thinks a Macguffin is something served at McDonalds with egg and bacon.. Quite obviously to anyone who experiences the film with their eyes and ears, the 'session 9' tape is the complete embodiment of the psycholoogical theme of the film. It's the recorded session where the personification of the patient's potential repressed capability for evil finally manifests - the trait of humanity that the voice describes as living in 'the weak and the wounded'. So there's a huge and blindingly obvious parallel between the patient's final session, and Gordon - even to the extent that the final tape plays out as we begin to uncover the truth about him. And as for 'confusing sub-plots', what sub plots? Is someone really complaining about a subplot about a vagrant woman that was REMOVED in it's entirity from the film by the director because he felt it didn't work? Erm... what? Incidently, these scenes are available as extras along side a nice documentary and a superb commentary from some great filmmakers. The film expertly straddles the line between psychological and supernatural horror intermingling the two with creepy and disturbing expertese. It's superb, a great story that is brilliantly performed, and directed. If you're not afraid to engage your brain, give it a watch!

Rating:
Summary: An underappriciated beauty
Review: I had never heard of "Session 9" until a couple of weeks ago. Ever since I saw it, I can talk of nothing else. It's absolutely AMAZING, and it's sad that it's so overlooked. "Session 9" is like no other horror movie I've ever seen and leaves the viewer absolutely dumbfounded. If nothing else, it'll make you more afraid of the dark than you ever were before.

It's nearly impossible to summarize the plot without giving away the entire film, but I'll do my best. The setup: a crew is preparing an abandoned mental hospital for construction. Gordon, the leader of the crew, has held his position for a long time, and thinks that the stress is beginning to get to him. Then the strange things start to happen. One member of the crew discovers a room filled with psycologist's session tapes of the various patients. He starts listening to the sessions of a schizophrenic girl named Mary, who has three personalities: The Princess, Billy, and the eluisve Simon, who we don't hear from until the very end of the film. Another crew member goes missing, and Phil, Gordon's second in command, starts becoming wary of his superior's behavior, and maybe even gets a little power-hungry when he realizes that Gordon might not last too much longer. After a strange discovery, things begin to spiral out of control, leading to a completely unexpected ending.

"Session 9" is one of the most unpredictable horror films I've ever seen, which is a rarity in today's films like "Gothika" and "The Ring" which, while artsy, most people had figured out a quarter of the way into the movie. Everything is shot very cleanly and artfully and never sacrifices explanations for aesthetics. The soundtrack is very minimal, just a few well-placed "pings" of piano keys, as well as the occasional weird sound effect.

Every horror buff should see this movie. It's one of those rare beauties that sparks lengthy and entertaining discussions afterwards. Oh, one more word of warning: DO NOT WATCH THIS MOVIE BY YOURSELF. Doing so would make it terrifying beyond belief. Enjoy.