Gothika

23 May 2005 18:33 pm

This movie got absolutely slammed by the critics. Living proof that you should never believe anything that critics write ;). Although the exception there of course me and the rest of the Rawice staff. We know what we are on about! A bunch of average Joes that write from the heart. Enough plugging, on with the review.

Even though I am a one hundred percent total wuss, there are few horror movies that have scared me. I kind of regret watching Blair Witch Project with friends as I think that stopped it scaring me. And if a film like that can’t do it (Blair Witch was a damn fine horror movie), it’s easy to see why I have trouble finding my horror fix. I’m guessing a lot of you are in the same situation.

Some films get to me though, they really have what I consider some quality horror elements and put some decent fear into me over the two hours they brighten (or in horror movies case darken) my life.

Putting aside Muppet’s Christmas Carol (horrifying but I was a kid so I’m not counting it) the first film to achieve this was Flatliners. Kiefer Sutherland gives an excellent performance in that as always and it got to me like few horror films do. I say few because it is one of only two. The second, as you may have guessed, is Gothika.

The film stars Hallie Berry as a psychiatrist who works at a mental hospital for the criminal insane. Driving home one night she is run off the road by a girl standing in the middle of it. That was the last thing she remembered before waking up as a patient in her own hospital, accused of killing her husband.

I thought that was a good plot, don’t you? Apparently nobody else who has reviewed it does. As the movie progresses, the events of what happened are slowly revealed. As much as I like to pretend it is all psychological it isn’t though. That is probably the films major failing point to actually delve into the supernatural.

That said, it is shot very well, none of this weird ghosts fading in and out. Everything is done through quick cuts and psychological questions, the way it should be. The way that makes it believable – is Miranda really seeing these things or is she just crazy?

Ok so yeah it is a bit clichéd. The thunderstorm that seems to roll on for around three weeks may be a little extreme but hey, you sent to see a movie called Gothika what the hell did you expect? Hmm, I really should stop shouting at people when reviewing. And then commenting on it.

Let’s simple things down a bit – Gothika could have been better. It could have relied totally on psychotically questions rather than the paranormal; it could have had a better ending. But as it stands I still think it is effective horror movie – it does its job and that’s something few horror movies do these days.

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