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Tons of suspense and atmosphere that.... doesn't go anywhere. If something had actually happened on screen, then it would have gotten a better review. It's got David Caruso in it, so how good can it be, ya know?
This movie has NO jump scares at all, and still, it works alot better! The movie is one of the most effective horror movies, and it's REALLY creepy! My favorite sub-genre in horror must be psychological horror, and this is one of the great ones!
I personally really liked this movie, a good psychological thriller.
Posted By: crazy4life at 12:58am, October 22, 2009
ive lost all respect for you mr bd wtf deserves 8/10 at least
Posted By: CountOrlok at 1:59am, September 12, 2009
Psychological horror is an often over-looked sub-genre but it can be just as effective if not more so than jump-scares, suspense or gore. Though this does contain a good deal of suspense and some very scary scenes. It's not something that will automatically jump out at you and grab you by the throat.
It creeps up on you, especially after that ending and you realise what the movie is about. One of the most chilling endings to a film, ever.
I think what makes it most effective is so much is based in reality - this is shot in a real abandoned mental institution, every frame of film in this dark place carries some hint of it's dark history (they loved hammering ice picks in people's brains for real!). They don't need to sell the horror - the horror is already there in spades.
The Mary Hobbes tapes - extremely effective narrative device. As the plot moves along you kind of wonder what it has to do with anything until it wraps it all up stunningly into the conclusion. Creepy as all hell - wait until it gets to "Simon" (and I won't spoil it but this revelation really made the movie for me).
Movie looks great too, shot in HD. But sometimes it comes across as slightly amateurish mainly because of the low budget.
Just great. A must see. Essential if you're a true horror fan.
I have to agree with the dude below; does the BD guy who reviewed this have a clue as to what he's doing? Objectivity?! Anyway (before my comments are deleted by the staff here at BD). You need to pay attention to this one folks. Its not a Friday night beer and takeaway, throw away kind of movie, and if you have the concentration and focus, will keep you on your toes on the edge, all the way through the film. Its atmospheric with a sense of dead permeating every pixel. What is probably even more disarming (at least for me) is the fact that you don't quite know what's going on and if the malevolence is either human or supernatural or both, and are connected. You only have the vaguest of ideas as to the causes, but the hints are there, and slowly unfold before your eyes, but not in the way you might expect. This is a great movie and one of my top ten of all time.
A horror for the thinker. This film has so many layers and interpretations, and all of them are equally terrifying. A malevolent demon, or just an inner demon? Watch it again and again and you might find more questions and answers than you can shake a stick at. Truly remarkable.
B-D has this horribly wrong. Not only that, the guy who reviewed sucks at reviewing. Now with that out of the way here are my thoughts: This movie was awesome. A very well put together psychological thriller that keeps you wondering what the hell is going on. Although it did take a while for it to get good, the slow parts are still revlevent, it's very eerie and the sanitarium they are working in gives off a very uncomforting vibe. The story visually and mentally is crazy and very enjoyable, the characters, plain but well put together. I thought they complimented each other well. This is one of the best thriller films I've seen in a while and I would definately recamend it to those who are gonna want to watch it by themselves.
This is one of those disquieting psychological horror movies that sneaks into your unconscious mind at night quickly after you have watched it. It's subliminal treatment of disturbing imagery and outstanding use of aural stimuli underscore the dialogue and haunting stories being told by the actors onscreen. Never once does it lose its creepy atmosphere and it builds on such an air of menace that one scene in particular involving a character with nictophobia gave me palpitations. Taking advantage of the actual Danvers State Hospital as its location was an intelligent move of Director Brad Anderson as its history of medical abuse, rumoured Satanism and even murder emanate from every frame onscreen. In many ways this movie is a true homage to Kubricks "The Shining" even playing out with title cards over aerial shots of the eerie building to announce each new day of the week. Each of the characters have certain underlying emotional issues that the atmosphere of the hospital seems to awaken and feed but it would appear that the building itself contains the real evil here, a malevolent being known as "Simon" that seems to prey upon "The weak and the wounded" and we slowly discover that this applies to all of the characters onscreen. But the movie itself operates on the most raw elements of mankinds fears: Fear of the dark, fear of the unknown, fear of sharp objects and fear of our own evil that dwells within and these elements are what keep it unique and haunting long after the credits roll. This really is the stuff nightmares are made of.
One of the most amazing horror films ever made. Atmospheric, intelligent and nightmarish with tons of symbolism. The reason why this film works so well on such a profoundly creepy level is because its so subliminal in it's intent to drive its audience a little mad. To give too much away but spoil the films purpose but lets just say that you'll have a hard time sleeping if you can grasp the gravity of the horror thats presented on screen.
Atmospheric, well directed, superbly acted and able to divide opinion tellingly in a way only a movie this subtle and intelligent can. One of the top ten horror movies of the decade.
Indie filmmakers and big-name Hollywood screenwriters have one thing in common: Neither of them even tries anymore.
Or, more accurately, neither of them even tries to come up with a plot. If they’re making a comedy, they just use an overabundance of generic sex jokes and have some nerdy teens do predictable off-the-wall things. If they’re making an action film, they form a generic main character, give him a clichéd reason to care about him, and insert some explosions between his melodramatic scenes. If they’re making a horror film, they just create a generic plotline for whatever subgenre they’re trying to appease. For this review, however, let’s look at psychological horror. The generic formula for psychological horror films: A sole event takes place (i.e. a death, a job, a problem in school), which the mentally unstable main character is caught up in, then finds out the event had/has some sort of “dark” psychological back-story, then the movie comes crashing down with the main character finally realizes his true mental state. Think how many movies that describes. I can think of about 30 off the top of my head. I’m sure there is even more. And Session 9 is just another one.
In reality, I could end this review with that. Session 9 is just another predictable, generic, typical, unoriginal, cliché psychological horror film. There is nothing else to review, really. If you’ve seen one cow, you don’t need someone to describe in detail what a different cow looks like—give or take trivial details, they’re all exactly the same. If you have some sort of stupid desire to waste your life on viewing a carbon copy of 30 films you’ve already seen (which were all carbon copies of each other to begin with), then watch Session 9. If you have any intelligence at all, don’t watch Session 9. There isn’t any more to be said. However . . .
There are even more problems here. The biggest one, second only to the unabashed unoriginality, is the sheer boredom of the film. This is mainly due to the fact you know everything that is going to happen in the opening 10 seconds. When you know what’s going to happen, how can you NOT be bored? But, to add to that, the pacing is so slow it’s nearly unbearable. The dialogue is unintentionally hilarious at points, but it’s still some of the driest and most uninteresting dialogue I’ve ever heard in my life. And dialogue is over 3/4th of film.
The other major problem is the stupidity of the plot in the first place. It amuses me how many writers/directors uses cliché psychological plot points, but they don’t even understand them. I think of just watched Fight Club or Se7en, went in their pants out of amazement, and decided to copy those ideas and paste them into their own script. But beside that, the psychological elements are so obviously innocent it had me laughing out loud. This movie has been called “thinking man’s horror”, and that is about the equivalent of calling the SpongeBob Halloween episode “thinking man’s horror”. They both present about the same amount of thought-provoking ideas, morals, and clever plotting.
Beyond that, Session 9 uses every horror cliché ever used, and it adds yet another layer of cheese to the plot. Generators fail right at the most tense moments—who would have guessed? All the characters have some sort of generic dark past and/or disorder—who would have guessed? For a movie that tries to take itself so seriously, all these Hollywood conventions suck any realism out of the film completely.
Because of all these factors I just listed, Session 9 is the single most laughable horror film I’ve seen in years. I’m sorry, but there is nothing scary about a cheesy plot that I’ve literally seen hundreds of times, pumped to overflowing with absolute stupidity and cliché conventions. I call that comedy.
I went in to this movie thinking it was going to be terrifying. I'd heard awesome things about it, but ultimately it was a disappointment. The plot doesn't hold together very well, especially since the 'session tapes' don't correspond to the story in any tangible way, and it seems that the title of this movie should not relate to what ends up as a fairly minuscule side story. Even so, the atmosphere is good, and after watching the first half-hour it seems to be set up for an insanely scary thrill. Let's just say that it goes downhill from there...
The redeeming quality is the philosophy behind this film, which basically states that there is evil in us all and we just have different ways of rationalizing it (in my interpretation). As previous reviewers have said, the 'plot twist' is complete bogus, but it might be interesting to those who like slow-moving, slightly disappointing, gore-lacking, character-driven thrillers. I just can't quite call it a 'horror movie...'
Posted By: spilnkspawn at 8:40pm, January 25, 2009
This is a movie that is made to make you think about the hidden evil in us all. It doesn't create a monster for it as in "the devils chair", which leaves it up to the mind to create, and for what seemed like a limited budget, they secured a great asylum for the backdrop, and for what it was I believe this movie was good, not great but damn good.
Posted By: Bloodymuffins at 9:48pm, January 22, 2009
It was a slow burner for sure but it had a good plot and it effectively explored the depths of insanity. Very creepy movie.
Posted By: embewalker at 10:07am, January 21, 2009
For sure a creepy one! If you like to sit back and listen to case studies on insane asylum patients this is your movie. Very dry and long in some spots. Plot not really all that great. But the tapes themselves. A key element of the creep factor in this film. I enjoyed my time while watching this film. It did give me chill to think of the possible reality of this hopsital.
Posted By: clau ap groce at 7:59am, January 21, 2009
I must have watched a different version of this film than a lot of the reviewers. I found it painfully boring. After 30 minutes, I found the tediousness frustrating. The "surprise" ending was lame. The two of us watching actually exclaimed, "You have to be f***ing kidding me" when it was revealed. The asylum setting, especially the tunnels, was definitely creepy. Too bad the film wasn't.
Posted By: PromNight2008 at 2:16am, November 27, 2008
I thought it was absolutely dreadful. Everybody seems to be going on about some sort of sense of dread and terror that "built up" throughout the film, but was I saw was an hour and a half long 'session' of watching paint dry (or grass grow, etc.) rather than what felt like an actual film. Horribly overrated (by everybody except B-D, as it were.)
I've tried to view this one multiple amounts of times, now even though I did finish it each time, the last time is really the only time I decided to remember anything from it, still it is not significantly ingrained in my mind. Despite that, I will try to review it as I somewhat agree with what BD was saying about the film. Session nine had an AWESOME location for this flick. And not only that, but also a fairly original story that was intriguing in the very beginning. This did go down hill from here on out though, as nothing substantial really started happening. Now the cinematography IMHO was top notch, but I think that it was the building itself loaning its monstrous hand immensly in that category, without the old asylum, this would have been pure rubbish. What's strange is how many positive reviews I've read about the film, even my close friends highly recommended it. But all in all it just really isn't my type of horror film. If you're into the unecessarily slow pace, and the rather thin plot, with barely any horror involved besides creepy child whispers, and spooky sounds and cheap thrills, aka pg13 JP Horror flicks this might be up your alley, for those of us with a more of an aquired taste for viscerality and gore this will just not suffice.
The session tapes were the only creepy thing about this movie. The movie was way too slow to explain everything, the ending saves this from being a boring movie with a decent budget. BD review got it right.
I waited a while to see this and even remember my friend falling asleep halfway through. I couldn't even turn the lights off after this movie. It was the first horror movie I had seen that used atmosphere to its fullest potential. I always had a thing about abandoned asylums and this fit the image I always had in my mind of what it would be like to go inside one. In my opinion, there won't be another horror movie like this for a long time. Not to say that it was my favorite all time, but it did spook the hell out of me and I would recommend it to anyone.
Posted By: alienfetus at 11:35pm, November 12, 2008
I rented Session 9 expecting a crappy story with great visuals, what I got was a highly psychological ghost story. This is one of the creepier movies I've seen in a long, long time. The atmosphere is just...spooky as fuck. The filming location couldn't have been better, the acting was spot on, and the story was a slow burning mind game. I'm kind of surprised that BD gave it such a low rating. This is a great movie! Highly underrated.
The BD review crew have to be the worst Horror reviewers ever. Here I go:
This is a movie that separates the intelligent movie-goer and the posers. Session 9 is one of the oddest movie experiences I've ever had. Most of the movie is pretty slow paced and parts of it must be pushed through. But, if you are fortunate enough to sit and pay attention to it from start to finish, it becomes one of the scariest movies one can watch. This is done with only ONE LINE! spoken by a character that you never even see. It's incredible that such a small piece of a film can turn a movie around so well. If you watch this movie only half paying attention or with immediate cynicism you will not get it. Please, only watch this movie with the greatest intent of getting involved in it; otherwise you will miss something great.
This movie delivers the goods. The atmoshere is nothing short of brilliant,this movie is not boring its maybe slow paced at times but its just setting u up. The official rating is wackkk its far better than those big budget crap that rely on special effects to make the movie. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!!!!
Another one that the official review is completly wrong on. This movie is a masterpiece!
Posted By: awillowcabin at 12:20pm, October 15, 2008
Creepy as shit.
Posted By: javard5455 at 11:54am, October 15, 2008
when I was a wee lil lad my buds and i used to take the hour drive up to this place. as soon as we pulled up to main building we could feel how EVIL this place was. we would dare one another to get out and go in, but we would always get chased out buy security before we could. keep in mind we were kids in the early 90's WAY befor this flick came out. The Danvers state mental institution is long gone now but i'll always have this flick to remind me of the true horror we would always feel there.
This is a very atmospheric movie that keeps ya guessing the whole way through. Even if you think you know what's happening, you don't know why its happening until the very end.
The strong all male cast (David Caruso, Stephen Gevedon,Paul Guilfoyle, Josh Lucas,Peter Mullan, Brendan Sexton III) each give fine performances as their characters slip further and further into the creepy madness of the Danvers Mental Hospital.
A little slow throughout- but necessary to build suspense- (as with almost all thrillers) Session 9 delivers a nice 1-2 punch during it's final 30 minutes.
This is a really boring movie, but if you can get past that and actually follow the story then you'll find out this is a good flick. Its about a team of men cleaning for asbestos an abandoned crazy house. they soon find tapes 1-9 sessions.
then as the movie keeps on soon they find items hidden in walls, after that the mystery unfolds into a very unexpected ending. so look into seeing this slow but scary movie.
