The Ward (titled onscreen as John Carpenter's The Ward) is a 2010 American supernatural psychological horror film directed by John Carpenter and starring Amber Heard, Mamie Gummer, Danielle Panabaker, Laura-Leigh, Lyndsy Fonseca and Jared Harris. Set in 1966, the film chronicles a young woman who is institutionalized after setting fire to a house, and who finds herself haunted by the ghost of a former inmate at the psychiatric ward. As of 2022, this is Carpenter's most recent film as a director.
The film was shot on location at the Eastern State Hospital in Medical Lake, Washington.
Plot[]
In rural Oregon, at the Coos Bay Psychiatric Hospital in 1966, a young patient named Tammy is killed by an unseen force at night.
Kristen (Amber Heard), a troubled young woman, sets fire to an abandoned farmhouse and is arrested. The local police take her to Coos Bay, where she meets the other patients in the ward: artistic Iris (Lyndsy Fonseca), seductive Sarah (Danielle Panabaker), wild Emily (Mamie Gummer), and child-like Zoey (Laura-Leigh). Kristen is taken to a room previously occupied by their friend, Tammy, and meets therapist, Dr. Stringer (Jared Harris). She reveals that she is unable to recall anything about her past. She is attacked by a horribly deformed figure that had been staring at her earlier, but upon telling the nurse this, she is drugged and put through intense electroshock therapy.
Dr. Stringer uses hypnotherapy to unlock Iris's hidden memories. After the session, Iris is killed by transorbital lobotomy by the deformed figure. Kristen finds Iris' sketch of her attacker with the name 'Alice Hudson', a former patient at the hospital. That night, Kristen and Emily attempt to find Iris and escape. However, Kristen is thwarted by Alice, and loses consciousness while Emily is caught.
Sarah is killed by Alice. Kristen discovers that all of the girls had killed Alice together because Alice constantly hurt them. Now she is after the girls for revenge. Kristen tries to talk Emily down from attempting suicide but Alice kills her by slitting her throat with a scalpel. Kristen plans to escape again by holding Zoey as a pretend hostage but is drugged and placed in a straitjacket. She escapes it and she and Zoey try to get out. Zoey is killed by Alice off-screen. After a lengthy chase, Kristen seemingly manages to destroy Alice. She finds Alice's file in Dr. Stringer's office, which has each of the girls' names, including Kristen herself.
Dr. Stringer, catching her in his office, reveals that Kristen is actually one of many personalities of the real Alice Hudson, who was kidnapped at age eleven, eight years earlier, and left chained for two months in the basement of the same farmhouse Kristen burned down. In order to survive the trauma, she developed multiple personality disorder, creating each one of the girls from the ward as a different personality. Over time, Alice's own personality became so overwhelmed by the others that she became lost. Dr. Stringer attempted experimental techniques to bring Alice's own personality back, resulting in the manifestation of Ghost Alice, who destroyed the individual personalities one by one. Her treatments were working until 'Kristen' appeared, as an attempt of Alice's mind to protect the other personalities so she wouldn't need to face her trauma.
At the end of the movie, Alice packs a suitcase with her belonging as she prepares to leave the hospital. When she opens the medicine cabinet above her sink, Kristen lunges out at her.