I know in the past I have talked about the low budget psychological horror films that seem to take place in some kind of closed down hospital where the past comes back to haunt the new security guard or construction worker or whatever job a person would have in an closed down heath facility. It’s been a while, because I think Session 9 was the last low budget psychological horror film that happened to take place in a closed down hospital that I actually enjoyed. All of the ones I see now are kind of boring and for the most part, I don’t really care for them. I guess you can say that for this film, Psych9, it’s heavy on the suspense but the story is slow.
Psych9 is about a young women named Roslyn (Sara Foster) that has a troubled past. She takes a job in an abandon hospital collating patient records, working the night shift alone. While working there she begins to see and experience events that are linked to the hospitals past. She believes that they are connected to recent murders in the area. As the days go by, and Roslyn begins to experience more and more visions and experiences; she digs deeper into the hospitals past and will try to find out the truth as to what really happened behind the walls of Psych9.
There are some films that I just don’t understand where the idea for the story came from. This is one of those stories that may have looked good on paper but did not translate well to film. Psych9 is a slow paced film, with a lot of dialogue that does not go anywhere. The filmmakers try to make the film look scary with artistic shots and camera angles to give the film this uneasy feel. However, the lack in pacing and the sub-par editing do not do any justice to the film and we’re left bored with a film that tries to hard to be scary, but lacks what it takes to be a horror film, or scare us with its psychological feel.
The films strong points are its acting. Sara Foster really seemed to fall right into the role of Roslyn and her performance shined in the film. She was also however, surrounded by a cast of genre professionals such as Michael Biehn, Gabriel Mann and Cary Elwes. The film also has some decent art direction and set design. There is one scene involving a bathtub that works really well, that’s one of the many reasons I was impressed with the sets and art direction. However, most of the scenes look like something we’ve seen in recent horror films such as Saw and Gothika.
The DVD has a few special features such as deleted scenes, outtakes, and a trailer gallery. There is also a making of featurette titled Fear and Desire: The Making of Psych9. There are also English and Spanish subtitles with 5.1 Dolby Digital audio.
Overall, Psych9 triumphs are within its actor’s performances, but the writers and filmmakers fail to give a story that can keep our interest. Sure! The film does have a nice little twist in its story when it’s all said and done. However, after two hours of boring scene to scene extensive dialogue the film goes no where fast and what we’re left with is a film where we’re confused by its story, and left scratching our heads as to what really happened.
– Horror Bob
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
