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Gothika (Widescreen Edition) Customer Reviews (7 - 9 of 68 Reviews)

A surprisingly good and scary movie
Halle berry stars in this good horror movie in which Halle Berry plays a doctor (psychiatrist) at a mental institution but her life still seems to be fine. She has a nice husband and life is great until she wrecks her car to avoid hitting a naked lady in the street. When she wakes up, she's in the mental institution for murdering her husband which she doesn't remember doing. But, believe me, there's more to it and obviously something else is happening behind this. I won't say anything else because I don't want to give away what else happens or the highly unpredictable ending that no one will guess. Halle Berry gorgeous and she also can act as she does actually a very nice job. Horror movies like this are hard to find lately. Watch it and be surprised at how good it is and what a surprising ending you'll be in for.

Take it in the Asylum
A dreary and uninspired entry into the "Psychological Third Act Twist Thriller" genre, this one was only saved from distribution by Nu-Image or Troma by the presence of Halle Berry, who may have the worst taste in projects of any actress ever known. How she can go from getting an Oscar to becoming Catwoman is beyond me. In this movie, Halle clearly has her head in somebody's else's Asylum. Gothika is a colossal train wreck, a movie about a haunted asylum where absolutely nothing happens.

Joel Silver and his Dark Castle label may be the single worst thing to happen to horror movies in the history of cinema. Hard to believe that somehow they keep making these monstrosities. I won't even go into how bad Matrix Reloaded and Matrix Revolutions were. What happened to the Joel Silver who made Predator, and who is this charlatan who took his place? Now he gives us House of Wax starring Paris Hilton. Oh joy.


Logic Is Overrated
Had I read much of the description for this film I probably wouldn't have rented it. But I fell for the name and expected something in the spooky monster genre. Of course I also fell for the Halle Berry name, so maybe I would have rented it anyway. Whatever the reason, what I didn't expect was a 'psychologist gets locked up in a mental institution under suspicion of chopping her husband into little bits' film. I like procedural thrillers much more than I like psychological thrillers.

But, something happened on the way to the plot, and the more I watched, the more I liked what I saw. You see, there's a ghost. One who is trying to get Miranda (Berry) to do something, but has nearly destroyed the brilliant psychologist in the process. There are quite a few plot turns before the climax. No doubt you will guess some part of the resolution, but probably only because you will make many guesses and one has to be right.

The film builds slowly as Miranda fights for her sanity and tries to convince people who were once her friends that she is not a cold blooded psychotic. Red herrings are used to keep the viewer guessing and unprepared for the sudden rush of the last third of the film. At this point Berry has screams, and you will have jumped, so many times that you will be in a somewhat stunned shock.

Everybody in this film is spooky. The most glaring fault is how the real story took place with no one noticing, But that may very well be one of the points of the film. Cinematography is excellent and really does capture the 'gothic' flavor hidden in a thoroughly modern institution set somewhere in rural America. Berry's acting (and most of this film is Berry's acting) is really quite good considering the genre.

This isn't a hack and slash film, but there are bloody bits. It's a bit like a low key Silence of Lambs with a dash of Brian Lumley's early Necroscope novels. Unfortunately, the film ends on a hook - a vague indication of sequels to come. I hope this doesn't happen because it would cheapen the effectiveness of the work done here.

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