Session 9 is a 2001 American psychological horror film directed by Brad Anderson and written by Anderson and Stephen Gevedon. The film stars David Caruso, Peter Mullan, Brendan Sexton III, Josh Lucas, and Gevedon as an asbestos abatement crew who take a clean-up job at an abandoned mental asylum amid an intense work schedule, growing tensions, and mysterious events occurring around them. Its title refers to a series of audio-taped sessions with an asylum patient that run parallel to the crew's experiences.
The film marked a tonal departure for Anderson, who previously only directed romantic comedies. Production took place on location at the Danvers State Mental Hospital in Danvers, Massachusetts. While not a financial success, Session 9 developed a reputation as a cult film.
Plot[]
Gordon Fleming, the owner of an asbestos abatement company in Massachusetts, makes a bid to remove asbestos from an abandoned psychiatric hospital. Desperate for money, he promises to complete the job in only one week, despite requiring two to three weeks. His crew includes Mike, a law school dropout who is knowledgeable about the asylum's history; Phil, who is dealing with his grief over a recent breakup; Hank, a gambling addict; and Gordon's nephew Jeff, who has a pathological fear of the dark.
While surveying the job site, Gordon hears a disembodied voice that greets him by name. The men begin their job, and Mike discovers a box containing nine audio-taped sessions that were recorded with Mary Hobbes, a patient who suffered from dissociative identity disorder. Mike begins listening to the tapes in the ensuing days. In the sessions, Mary's psychologist attempts to unveil details surrounding a crime she committed at her home two decades prior and Mary exhibits numerous personalities who have unique voices and demeanors. Meanwhile, Hank discovers a cache of antique silver dollar coins and other valuables from the crematory. Late that night, Hank returns to the hospital to retrieve the items, and discovers a lobotomy pick among them. He becomes frightened by noises and a shadowy figure, and is confronted by an unknown assailant.
Hank fails to show up to work the next day. An additional worker, Craig McManus, is hired to take his place. Gordon confides in Phil that he slapped his wife Wendy after she inadvertently splashed him with boiling water, and that she refuses to answer his calls or let him see their infant daughter. In a stairwell in the hospital, Jeff witnesses Hank staring out a window wearing sunglasses, talking to himself.
Hank goes missing and the men split up to search for Hank, but Mike is compelled to continue listening to the tapes. Jeff and Phil descend into the tunnels underneath the hospital where Phil finds Hank, half-nude, muttering to himself. The generator runs out of fuel, leaving a terrified Jeff trapped in darkness. Mike restores the electricity and continues listening to the ninth session tape, which reveals that one of Mary's malignant personalities, "Simon," was responsible for Mary stabbing her little brother and parents to death. Phil finds Gordon in Mary's former hospital room, staring at photos from his daughter's baptism which he has pasted to the wall. Jeff emerges from the tunnels and is attacked by an unseen assailant at the company van.
The following day, Gordon arrives at the hospital and finds Hank wrapped in plastic sheeting in one of the rooms, the lobotomy pick protruding from his eye. Gordon is then confronted by Phil, who repeatedly tells him to "wake up" before vanishing in front of him. Craig witnesses Gordon standing over Hank, who is barely alive. Gordon attacks Craig before pulling the lobotomy pick from Hank's eye and stabbing it into Craig′s. Gordon, in a dissociated state, finds the bodies of each of his crew members in various rooms in the hospital, and recounts his murdering each of them. He also recalls killing Wendy, his daughter, and the dog after Wendy spilled the boiling water on him.
Distraught, Gordon confusedly attempts to call his home to apologize to Wendy. An excerpt from the ninth session tape plays: Mary's doctor asks her "And where do you live, Simon?" to which "Simon" responds: "I live in the weak and the wounded, Doc."