Gothika (2003)
Horror | Thriller | Mystery

Not Alone

At Woodward Penitentiary for Women, an unexpected and highly disturbed inmate is now held in the psych ward once overseen by criminal psychologist Miranda Grey. The inmate: Dr. Grey herself.

Halle Berry portrays Grey, accused of a savage murder and clinging to her sanity as she copes with a series of ghostly encounters in Gothika, from Dark Castle Entertainment. A fellow doctor (Robert Downey Jr.), a volatile inmate (Penelope Cruz) and others figure in her harrowing ordeal. Mathieu Kassovitz directs this jolting ghost story in which strange voices cry out, messages scrawled in blood appear, specters arise - and the only thing more gripping than Grey's stark awakening into madness is her feverish attempt to escape it.

User Comment: the unemployed critic • Gothika An expert psychiatrist working in a hospital for the mentally disturbed, Miranda Grey (Halle Berry, painfully miscast) is a master at deducing the logical mind and separating fact from fiction. Driving home one rainy night, Miranda finds a bloodied little girl standing in the road. As she tries to help the child, Miranda blacks out, and when she wakes up three days later she finds herself a prisoner in her own hospital. Learning from a co-worker (Robert Downey Jr.) that she has murdered her husband (Charles Dutton) with an axe, Miranda has no recollections of the event, and with only the violent memories and reappearances of the ghostly girl as clues to what really happened that night.

Summary: Dull, routine chiller without any fresh ideas and a decided lack of logic...

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