Psych 9

Introduction

Abandoned hospitals or similar big buildings late at night are a staple of the horror genre and as pure coincidence was featured in a ghost-ridden episode of Midsommer Murders just this past week. There's definitely something rather eerie about abandoned hospitals when you can't help but think of all the people who have died there over the years, but becomes much worse if there's some kind of psychiatric unit attached - now by no fault of its own, there's an element of evil attached due to the madness and psychosis of mental patients.

Rosslyn (Sara Foster) is a nurse who takes a job at one such hospital, tasked with working night shift all alone, apart from a male Doctor on a different floor. Her job is to catalogue and box all the hospital's files prior to the hospital being closed completely. This may be more than enough for most people, but in the background there is concern in the local area regarding a serial killer nicknamed the Nighthawk, who targets blonde woman and caves their heads in with a hammer. Rosslyn is not without issues, she can't conceive a child and would like a baby, although her doctors have told her that the problem isn't a physical one. Her relationship with her taxi driver husband Cole (Gabriel Mann) is also deteriorating under the strain.

All is well for a while as Rosslyn gets into a routine of working the night and then sleeping through the day, but then starts to see strange things at the hospital either on the CCTV or whilst wandering the corridor. Fearful that she's cracking up, she is pleased to bump into British psychologist Dr Clement (Cary Elwes), who is working upstairs in the old Psych ward. Despite her misgivings about the dark atmosphere up there and her fear of opening up about her past, Rosslyn eventually starts to open up to Clement.

Meanwhile, local detective Marling (Michael Biehn) is keeping an eye on Rosslyn and the hospital as bodies start to mount as the Nighthawk continues to spread his love around. It's not long before things start to escalate and Rosslyn feels she's losing grip on reality, can Clement and
Marling work out what's happening before it's too late?

Note the initial DVD release of this film on 11th October is an ASDA exclusive, it would appear that this will get a more general release in January 2011.

Overall

Psych 9 is a rather mundane thriller that attempts to better itself with some creepy atmospherics and the chill factor of an abandoned psych ward in a bigger abandoned hospital. Sadly, it just ends up confusing itself. I can appreciate some of the shock tactics implemented by the director but sadly they're mostly out of place as they have no connection to the story, so are really only there to get the audience to jump at the requisite time. Anyone can do that, a scary face appearing full on in camera is a standard technique, the art is to have it as a real part of the story and therefore this fails the test.

Foster does a good job as a woman who starts to feel her sanity spiralling out of control, trouble is that she's supposed to be an experienced A&E nurse. On one hand I buy the performance but can't quite reconcile it with the backstory to her character, and it starts to unravel further as you learn more about her. Cary Elwes puts in a rather deliberately stilted performance as the slightly awkward British psychologist who helps Rosslyn remember who she is and get to the root of her issues. Michael Biehn is barely in the film and does very little in all honesty, he deserves better. Gabriel Mann is fine but I found his character more than a little confusing, with some major conflicts in his relationship with Rosslyn that I couldn't quite resolve.

You suspect you think that you know what you're getting when you start watching this film, and you're mostly right, but things start to unravel
pretty badly in the final quarter of an hour or so. I guess it's supposed to keep the viewer on their toes and decide for themselves what's real and what isn't but in all honesty I found that I didn't actually care. I would much rather that the film was wrapped up in more conventional terms as it just seemed to attempt too much and there were far too many loose ends left.

Still, it wasn't as boring as Paranormal Activity, so that's something...