MovieFreak.Com - Session 9 Review

Session 9 (2001) | Review #2

Starring: David Caruso, Stephen Gevedon, Paul Guilfoyle, Josh Lucas, Peter Mullan, Brendan Sexton III
Director: Brad Anderson

Rating: R

Studio: USA Films

Reviews Posted: 8.17.01

Review #1

Spoilers: Major

By Angelo

Rating: 3/4

If you have ever been to an abandoned warehouse or visited a really old cemetery or have seen MTV’s “Fear”, then you know what an unnerving chill one can get from just the atmosphere and the look of such places. In “Session 9”, the backdrop is an abandoned mental institution and one can just imagine the terror that this setting can instill. Dirty, decadent and with the dark shadows of the occult looming in its halls, “Session 9” takes full advantage of its location for it’s one of those suspense/thrillers that makes you keep thinking, “It’s only a movie”.

The film takes place on or around the Danvers State Mental Hospital, forsaken since 1985 due to budget cuts and what not. From the outside, it looks quite elegant, but the inside is another story. The floors are dilapidated, graffiti fills up the walls and dust permeates the air. As one goes deeper into the building, “therapy” rooms (or torture chambers) are found and eventually one reaches the ward where the most serious mental patients were housed. Here, the rooms are almost completely dark and utterly silent. It is so quiet that you could hear your thoughts…or are they your thoughts that you hear?

The hospital has been named a historic landmark and must be renovated. An asbestos-removal team has been hired, led by Gordon (Peter Mullan) and Phil (David Caruso), and for a $10,000 bonus, they have agreed to finish the daunting task of cleaning up the entire behemoth of a compound in one week. Hiring three more guys for the job, these five men must race time to finish such an uninviting project. However, they get a rude awakening and are totally unprepared for what awaits them.

Then there is a side story about Mary Hobbes, one of the more serious mental cases who used to reside in the hospital. Everything we learn about Mary comes from recorded tapes that one of the men unearths. Mary has had a very troubled past, with repressed memories of Satanic abductions when she was a young girl. Her interviews with the psychiatrist reveal that Mary has three other personalities. One of them is “The Princess”, symbolizing her innocence, while the other one is “Billy”, her protector. Then there is the more unsettling voice that comes from Mary’s mouth…the voice of “Simon”. One can just sense the evil in Simon, but it is not until the last interview takes place, session 9, that we discover who and what Simon really is.

“Session 9” is a combination of a psychological thriller and a gory slasher flick. It has the eeriness of “The Shining” and the intimate terror of “The Blair Witch Project”. The movie has its share of scenes where you just want to cover your eyes, but it wisely takes its time to build up to its climactic half hour. It is scary when it means to be scary, and I really liked it for that. The acting was uniformly good, and I also appreciated the ambiguities the film brings to us. Was the hospital actually possessed? Was “Simon” a real entity? Or was everything in the men’s minds? It leaves you wondering about what really happened, and the ambiguity adds to the suspense because we don’t exactly know what we are dealing with. “Session 9” is an effective thriller, however, my main problem is the resolution of the film. It had a lot to do with the fragile mental states of Gordon and some of the other men, but we never really get to see the whole picture. Their pasts are not really brought to light effectively. I also really liked the visuals and the style Anderson use to extract fear from the viewer, although he tries a bit too hard to impress us sometimes.

“Session 9” is not the most intellectual horror movie out there, but it will give you a good scare.

Review #2

Spoilers: Minor

By Jon Bjorling

Rating: 3.5/4

Mainstream horror films today have become nothing more than brainless slasher flicks. Audiences flock to theaters to watch a batch of idiot teens drink, screw around, and get butchered by some maniac who's only reason for doing so is to fill the time in-between the beginning of the film, and the end.

But Session 9 is different. Much different. This is not a Kevin Williamson "I Know What You Screamed At The Faculty Last Valentines Day Which Happened To Fall On Friday The 13th In My Nightmare On Elm Street Which Also Happened To Be On Halloween"-type film. There are no pop-culture references or idiot teens who only exist to be fodder for a maniac's rampage.

The story is this: An asbestos abatement team wins the bid to clean up an old and abandoned insane asylum, but in order to get their hefty bonus they must finish within a week. The job becomes complicated when two of the workers cannot get along, due to their past, and another worker discovers tapes in the basement of a former patient and her spit personalities. But that's just the beginning. Soon, one of the workers turns up missing and the tapes begin to take a darker turn as the interviewing doctor tries to discover who the mysterious personality 'Simon' is.

Still, darker things are to come..... Session 9 is possibly the best horror film to come out in decades. It has a simple story, devoid of any CGI, and slowly builds to it's horrifying climax. There is no sex. There is hardly any gore. This is a film that creates an atmosphere that can only be described as chilling. The cool and musty air that runs inside the bowls of the asylum rushes from the screen and passes by your face. You are no longer inside a safe theater, you feel as though you are actually inside the asylum. It's a frightening feeling.

I urge people to see this film. It is an excellent example of what the horror genre has been missing for years.....horror. In the world of clones, this is an original. Do yourself a favor, listen to the voices in your head and see Session 9. You know you want to.

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