Session
9 (2001)
Suppose you were a filmmaker and your grandfather left
you a spooky old mansion in his will. Could you come
up with a creative and unique story set at that mansion
to establish yourself as a filmmaker? Could you film
it well.
Writer/Director Brad Anderdson ("Next Stop Wonderland")
has just such a chance, albeit, apparently, without
the help of our imaginary patriarchal beneficiary. His
film, "Session 9," has one of the most creepy and gothic
settings imaginable, a huge abandonned building that
looks like an old hospital or something. It's massive,
dank and forebodding. In Anderson's hands (and mind,
I guess) this place becomes a former mental institution
shut down in the mid-80's due to Regan era economics.
But the setting never becomes austere or spooky enough.
This is a fabulous setting, but Anderson wastes most
of it. The building should become a seperate character
in the film. It does not.
The biggest problem here is the storyline. Well, that's
not exactly true. The biggest problem with the film
is the pay- off of the plot which is weak, stupid and
totally inane. But let's talk about plot nonetheless.
The film centers around a crew of workers hired to remove
the asbestos from the abandonned asylum. The personal
stories here of the crew are typical and lame. We spend
far too much time with plotlines about these characters
that not only have nothing to do with the real plot
here but are not interesting anyway. One guy is having
troubles at home. Another has stolen his workmate's
girlfriend, causing tension on the jobsite. Another
is a well-educated young man who gave up law school.
And finally there is the neophyte nephew coming in to
help out his foreman uncle. The only truly interesting
character here is the former law student who goes into
the archieves of files still stored at the asylum and
begins to listen to old reel- to-reel tapes of sessions
with psychiatric patients. This provides ample opportunity
for some amazing storytelling, but Anderson's script,
instead, becomes a weak amalgem of "Sybil" and "The
Shining" with a dash of TV-Movie discussion of Satanic
Ritual Syndrome abuse tossed in.
The actors in the piece are pretty drab with David
Caruso leading the way as the most tepid of the actors.
Caruso hasn't been able to get a decent role since foolishly
chucking his gig at "NYPD Blue" a number of years ago.
Caruso has had to take every stupid role offered to
him since. He really must need work. (His cats must
be starving for him to take a role in this tripe). Brendan
Sexton III also suffers here. After being discovered
by Todd Solondz and used by John Waters, Sexton, a remarkable
young actor, hasn't been offered much of value. I guess
he suffers because he isn't "pretty" by the Hollywood
standard. He does a remarkable job here even if you
have premonitions of him running like a screaming git
throughout the film, which he does, in fact, do, towards
the end of the movie.
"Session 9" is filmed on some sort of Hi-Definition
video so it looks like the very best DV movie you've
ever seen. There is no pixelation yet the film is obviously
not shot on film. But Anderson doesn't seem adept at
using the new technology to achieve any sort of ambience
in the film. Perhaps, in the end, part of the problem
is that this is the wrong way, technically, to shoot
the film. Or at least, it should have been done in black
and white. In the end, with all the blood and gore that
comes in the supposed climax, however, black and white
would not have achieved the desired gross-out factor
perhaps. There's a lot of scenes where a knitting needle
like device, which exposition tells us is a device inserted
in the corner of the eye to do a lobotomy, is used as
a weapon in the film. It's nauseating and far to nerve-
wracking to view.
"Session 9" is a major disappointment. It's not just
that it sucks, but rather a its real lack of inventiveness
that makes one angry at the film. There is a missed
opportunity to create a truly gothic and chilling film
here. How Anderson got this remarkable locale to use
as a setting I do not know but I could just kick his
ass for wasting this chance.
Note:
Shot at the Danvers State Hospital in Massachutses.
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Report
Card
Script:
F
Acting: C+
Cinematography\Lighting: F
Special Effects\Make Up: B+
Music: D-
Final
Grade: F
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