Rating: 
Summary: Effective and creepy
Review: I read one of the other reviews on this site, specifically the one that feels Session 9 sets back any realistic and modern view of the mentally disturbed. I have to disagree with it completely. Never at any time did I find myself left with the impression that "THIS COULD HAPPEN TO YOU!! FEAR THE MENTALLY DISTURBED!!!" What I did get was, that sometimes, the bottom falls out of your life and how far you fall is the true depth of horror.Mood and setting in this film are simply excellent. I've seen comparisons to Blair Witch, but honestly BW had 5 good minutes of footage and a lot of unneeded dialouge. Session 9 does not. It is a slowly crafted masterpiece that evolves over the course of the film and takes you to some pretty dark places. Honestly, I can't recommend this movie highly enough if you like your horror of the suspense variety and don't need buckets of gore to creep you out.
Rating:
Summary: A Haunted House full of Haunted Men. Viciously Terrifying.
Review: "Session 9" is one of the most terrifying, disturbing, and haunting haunted house movies ever made. If you're looking for a horror film that truly gets down under your skin and really disturbs, this is the movie that's going to deliver the goods. Watch the first 10 minutes of the movie, and you're already glancing around at noises in the darkness, wondering if maybe, just maybe, you might want to turn a light on. Just to see your popcorn, of course. Yes, I'm telling you---'Session 9' is that good. Of course, the movie will always be close to my heart, for two reasons: 1) I was invited to attend a screening of the rough cut of the film; not knowing that the movie had been filmed at the Danvers State Hospital, I demurred. In one sense, I'm glad I did: seeing the finished product, shot beautifully in digital video, with no spoilers and no idea what I should expect, was far better. 2) The movie, as I mentioned, is filmed in and around the now de-commissioned Danvers State Hospital, about 20 miles north of Boston. Danvers, as locals referred to it, was the infamous state insane asylum, and is a wonderfully creepy, amazingly powerful location to shoot a horror film. Back in 2001 I planned a day trip from New York up to Danvers, originally intending to spend the night in Danvers town and spend a few days exploring the asylum. I was fascinated by its dark history, and more importantly by the crenellated battlements and dragonlike exterior of what had been a model "McBride" institution, built originally as the state-of-the-art in 19th century psychotheraphy. Its vast, Victorian rooms were proportioned with plenty of space and designed to let in light, and the central refectory, where inmates dined communally, had a loft where a chamber orchestra played music. Music, of course, to soothe the savage soul. Overcrowding in the early 20th century perverted Danver's original mission, and by the 1960's the place was a snakepit, with non-violent inmates thrown together with the worst of the criminally insane; it was closed for good in 1991 and stands empty on its high, lonely hill today. It is now, to my mind, as it is to director Brad Anderson and screenwriter Stephen Gevedon, a place of darkness; if you accept that there are haunted places on Earth, then Danvers is assuredly the king of them. When I first arrived in front of the asylum---and I am a hardheaded realist, with no patience for superstition---I felt watched, leered at by countless eyes who wished me gone, wished my destruction. Anderson and Gevedon have captured that oppression perfectly in "Session 9", a little too perfectly. With that in mind, "Session 9" is about a haunted, tortured place that begins to infect the minds and bodies of a hazardous materials team sent to clean out the building's massive asbestos contamination. The team, headed up by the anxious but domineering Gordon Fleming (played taciturnly and perfectly by Peter Mullan), narrowly won the bid to clean the facility, a bid critical to the company, and Fleming's, future. But there's a slight complication: to get the bid, Gordon promised to do the job in two weeks, a feat that may prove impossible, with dire consequences for Gordon's company. Adding to problem is the team itself, who have their own secrets and problems. Under the pressure of the looming deadline, and in the shadow of Danver's turrets and the darkness of its halls, the men begin to fall under the spooky, unnerving influence of the old asylum, particularly when one of them discovers a set of psychiatric interview tapes of a long-dead female patient, carefully stored away and labelled "Sessions 1-9". To say more would be unfair to the viewer: "Session 9" is a perfect little gem of a horror movie with its own deep black secrets. The acting is all excellent, particularly Mullan's portrayal of a man on the edge, and David Caruso is outstanding as the team foreman, his nervous face twitching with carefully constrained emotion. But by far the best actor in "Session 9" is the gloomy old Danvers insane asylum, which acts as a character in its own right. It would be hard to think of a set, however cleverly crafted, that would have worked as well as the ruined asylum, whose degenerate Victorian beauty figures prominently in every scene; particularly good is the way the still stoic, sturdy red-brick Moorish exterior contrasts with the rotting, molting, peeling guts of the asylum, and cinematographer Uta Brieswitz pushes the digital video envelope in capturing the stinking center of this heart of darkness. "Session 9" is not an obvious movie; it is like getting a kiss on the nape of the neck in a graveyard. It is a movie of subtle but overwhelming terror, a terror that mounts throughout the film, but one that hides; this is not a film about slashers or zombies or vampires or monsters, but the horror that lurks in forgotten, forsaken places. It is about a hungry house, a forgotten temple of sacrificed souls that still wants to eat.
Rating: 
Summary: Reactionary attitude to the mentally ill
Review: Here's a film to put back community attitudes towards mental illness by a hundred years. Actually, it's positively medieval. Cast and crew in the special features go out of their way to express how 'creeped out' they were by the asylum, Mallen even going as far to suggest he was haunted by voices. All this furthers the distasteful equation the film pushes that mental illness=evil. 'They' cannot be trusted to walk amongst you because they will KILL YOU, your WORKMATES and even their OWN FAMILIES! It's as nastily exploitative a message as 'Black Christmas'. Still, those of you who like this sort of thing, this is the sort of thing that you will like. It has a squirm inducing ending up (or down?) there with the eye gouging scene in '28 Days Later'. In fairness, the film manages to induce a sense of dread about three quarters the way through that never lets up. But this is where we came in. Ironically, the director's soporific, monotonous commentary suggests what it might be like to experience a frontal lobotomy.
Rating: 
Summary: Creepy isn't even the word to describe it!!!
Review: BORING is more like it. A new entry in the recent trend toward more cerebral/psychological haunting movies that aim for something more than cheap, popcorn-spilling jolts, "Session 9" is blessed with a great concept but burdened by bland execution. This was a big waste of time. Not at one point was this movie scary, suspenseful, or creepy. This movie put me to sleep. It wasn't scary at all. I don't know why it is getting good reviews. It [is bad]! Horror movie that lets its location do all the work. It takes place in an old, abandoned asylum and wants you to be scared of all of its dark empty rooms and the medieval-style torture devices they contain. The victims of this race to see who freaks out last are a dislikeable hazmat crew with lots of personal issues. An attempt to shoehorn a supernatural mystery in to the movie doesn't cover for the characters' lack of substantive fear or despair. Features an over-the-top David Caruso performance that's entertaining for all the wrong reasons. Don't bother with this snoozer. There are so much better horror films out there than this. This is just pathetic.
Rating:
Summary: Having just seen it two days ago...
Review: I was very disappointed with this film. Though it was well acted, the storyline left alot to be desired. The movie plodded along with a lot of character development, which is usually a good thing. However in this case, the development came at the expense of any sort of real or long lasting suspense. I found myself entrenched in the people and their relationships, wondering when the "thrills" were going to begin. They never really do. [SPOILER ALERT!] Along the way there are hints of an evil presence, an entity that "lives in the weak and wounded" and causes people to hurt others violently. The movie never really decides if this is the twist they want to give the events, or if its just a story to up the creepy factor. In so doing, it was questionable that the movie was really "Session 9" and not "Crazy Waste Eliminators 5."
Rating:
Summary: Solid acting, tight script, creepy and atmospheric
Review: It's tremendously spooky and atmospheric. Very disturbing. It's filmed on location at Danvers State Mental Hospital in Danvers, MA. I was just up there a couple weeks back with a friend, but we couldn't get onto the property because we hadn't cleared it yet with the MA Film Commission and the State Police -- we're planning on another outing in June. The film is very simple. It's about five Hazmat guys who go in to remove asbestos with a one week time limit (or they lose their big bonus). While there, odd things start happening, they start acting differently, one of them stumbles upon some old reel-to-reel tapes in a deserted storage room. They are recordings of psychiatric sessions between a doctor and a woman who harbors a terrible secret buried beneath layers of multiple personalities. The setting is downright creepy. The hospital itself seems alive, like a character all its own. This movie is successful in bringing to the screen something THE HAUNTING (remake of the Shirley Jackson novel inspired film) and Stephen King's ROSE RED failed to do -- it proved that some "houses" are just "born bad." Watching this film reminded me of some of the images I'd seen personally when doing a little "investigation" of the old Connecticut Valley Hospital a few years back, and of stories my Mom had told me earlier about her investigations of the place -- she was actually able to get a worker to give her a tour of the subterranean tunnels and "cells" where they housed the more "disturbed" patients -- the violent psychotics, the criminally insane. It's full of dark passages, cramped areas (claustrophobes will go nuts! ;) It's not your typical modern horror film. It's mostly psychological. The director compares it to films like THE SHINING and DON'T LOOK NOW (and even THE EXORCIST). Give it a look. Solid acting from David Caruso, Steven Gevedon and others make the characters real. A tight script with an emphasis on dialogue keeps them alive (for awhile anyway ;) No flashy special effects means the scares come from other places ;) All in all, a fine horror flick that will satisfy fans of atmospheric and psychiatric horror. Fans of only the teeny bopper pseudo slasher films like I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER and SCREAM will find it mostly boring and too difficult to follow ;)
Rating: 
Summary: Consider yourself warned.
Review: Absolutely chilling. One of the scariest films I've ever seen. The director should be commended for managing to make a horror movie look so stylish and artful and for treating the material (and audience) with intelligence. I would highly advise against watching this alone.
Rating:
Summary: Do not watch this movie.
Review: It is horrible and it makes no sense at all. I feel depressed after watching it particularly wasting an hour on this film hoping there will be answers at the end but no!
Rating:
Summary: FAILS TO DELIVER
Review: I was very disappointed with this movie. There was too much profanity and too much gore - for my taste.
It really had the potential to deliver a frightening story with it's location and atmosphere. Instead I felt that I had wasted my time watching it and it also left me feeling depressed.
Rating:
Summary: Very Thrilling Movie!
Review: Session 9, was a very thrilling movie with twists and turns. I loved it because it was a mystery with a scary setting and creepy mood. I live right near the Danvers State Hospital, and that is another reason why I liked it. The director took a historical building, and put it to a great use. The movie is also well presented with awesome actors such as David Caruso and Josh Lucas. All the actors put on such a great performance and I highly recomend this movie for anyone who wants a great thrill. The movie might scare you or leave you with an odd feeling, but either way you should really enjoy it if you like mystery and suspense films.
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