The Ward
ARC Entertainment (II) | Release Date: July 8, 2011 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
38
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 18 Critic Reviews
Positive:
5
Mixed:
6
Negative:
7
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
70
The Hollywood ReporterMichael RechtshaffenJul 5, 2011
While by no means a masterpiece of the form, John Carpenter's The Ward is an economical period piece that still effectively demonstrates what a skilled technician can accomplish in a single location with a compact cast and sturdy old-school effects. Read full review
70
Village VoiceNick PinkertonJul 5, 2011
Carpenter does what he's always done well here: individualizing shorthand personalities in a group under siege. This is Carpenter's first all-female ensemble, and the inmates are uniformly well-played. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanJul 5, 2011
At least Carpenter the spook-meister knows how to goose you. Read full review
65
MovielineMichelle OrangeJul 9, 2011
The story's obvious and various potential is left to stand on its own, and the scares are largely uninspired. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineEd GonzalezJul 5, 2011
Its ostentatious sense of horror -- think later-day Argento -- is far from suggestive, though some of its queasier moments effectively tap into our fears of not-so-bygone forms of invasive physical therapy. Read full review
60
VarietyDennis HarveyJul 5, 2011
Fans excited to see John Carpenter back in bigscreen action after nine years' absence will find limited cause for joy in The Ward, a horror opus that briskly -- maybe too briskly -- charts ghostly doings at a nuthouse. Read full review
50
The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisJul 7, 2011
Quaintly old-fashioned in style, plot and special effects, this familiar tale of female derangement and institutional abuse is too tame to scare and too shallow to engage. Read full review
42
The A.V. ClubNoel MurrayJul 7, 2011
Nothing about The Ward's script or direction has much snap. The dialogue is never witty, the characters are indistinct, the story is set in 1966 for no relevant reason, and the scares are strictly of the "thing jumps loudly out of the shadows" variety. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleJul 8, 2011
The Ward is bland shock therapy from the guy who reinvented bloody peek-a-boo with the classic "Halloween." Read full review
40
NPRScott TobiasJul 8, 2011
The Ward feels less indebted to cinema's past than a desperate attempt to keep up with the present. Carpenter has made his approximation of a cheap, twisty, shock-filled modern horror movie, and he has lost all but faint sighs of his minimalist swagger in the process. Read full review
40
Boxoffice MagazineSteve RamosJul 5, 2011
Typically, Carpenter thrives on modestly budgeted films like The Ward, but this one comes off as an amateurish misstep due to unoriginal storytelling from fledgling screenwriters Michael and Shawn Rasmussen. Read full review
38
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottJul 8, 2011
In the end, Carpenter offers a reasonably nice payoff to this whole misfire. Read full review
33
IndieWireEric KohnJul 6, 2011
The Ward succeeds mainly as a checklist that keeps it consistent with Carpenter's nearly forty years of work. It has none of the smart genre appeal that put him on the map, instead resembling a desperate knock-off by someone with far less talent. Carpenter either lost his groove or the will to use it. Read full review
30
Austin ChronicleStaff (Not credited)Jul 7, 2011
So yeah, the great man is welcome on our screens any day. On the other hand, Carpenter's comeback packs very little of his usual cinematic flair. It's not even all that scary. Read full review
25
New York PostLou LumenickJul 8, 2011
A dull, by-the-numbers psych-ward horror thriller that's sadly a lot closer in quality to "Sucker Punch" than "Shutter Island." Read full review
25
Boston GlobeWesley MorrisJul 7, 2011
Even by the standards of mental-institution-movie misogyny, what an accidental but predictable creepshow this is. Read full review
20
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierJul 8, 2011
Carpenter's economical but mundane chiller is possessed more by previous ghoul-friend flicks than it is by his better work. Read full review
20
Time OutJoshua RothkopfJul 5, 2011
Lacking a single serious scare or sly idea, the movie dies in ways that merely mediocre horror films can't even dream of. Read full review
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