Inclubabu Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

Tedfoldol everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Myron Clemons A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Majikat One of my favourite films of all time. Who will believe you when you are mad? This is a murder mystery, a supernatural thriller, a psychological drama and much much more. Clever storyline, good performance by Halle Berry, a frustrating watch, but very enjoyable

a_chinn Weak psychological thriller would have been better as a 30-minute "Tales from the Crypt" or "Twilight Zone" episode. Halle Berry plays a psychiatrist who wakes up to find herself a patient in the asylum she works. She has no idea how she how she got there or why and then spends the rest of the movie trying to figure that out why she's there, trying to convince others she's not crazy, and trying to get out. It's not a terribly clever set-up, but the Berry is a a solid lead for the film and is supported by an able cast that includes Penélope Cruz, and Robert Downey Jr. before his career blew up with "Iron Man." The weak script is also bolstered by slick directions, photography, and production design. Overall, this is a dull mystery without a lot of thrills, suspense, or interesting of characters, but it's well crafted from a technical standpoint and does feature a handsome cast, which is enough to make it watchable.

NateWatchesCoolMovies Matthieu Kassovitz's underrated chiller Gothika is thick with a horror atmosphere that goes straight for the jugular in terms of scares, a psychological ghost story that actually raises hairs a frightens, or at least did for me. It sometimes sacrifices logic for style, but what style it's got! Any horror flick set in an asylum just has to to be cloaked in workable atmosphere to be effective, and this one is positively dripping with it, hence the evocative title. Halle Berry plays a laid back psychiatrist who wakes up one day in the asylum she works at, only now a patient. She's told she brutally murdered her husband (Charles S. Dutton) yet has no memory of the act. As if that weren't a terrifying enough situation for her to be in, she starts having waking nightmares, haunted by a gnarly ghost of a girl (Kathleen Mackey) with mysterious ties to the facility's past. Her colleague and friend (Robert Downey Jr. gives the dour proceedings his usual chipper pep) seems unable to help her. A guard (John Carroll Lynch) is hostile towards her, angry at the loss of her husband who was his friend. An erratic fellow patient (a de-glammed Penelope Cruz) seems to know more than her vacuous babbling would suggest. The asylum Director (Bernard Hill, excellent) is perplexed by the whole situation. It's a twisty funhouse of a plot that probably piles on one stark plot turn too many, they're nevertheless fun to be left aghast by as the rattle by with little regard for plausibility. Berry is convincing in her tormenting position, radiating desperation and resilience that claws at the cobwebs of insanity. Kassovitz piles on the Gothic atmosphere relentlessly, and it really works, until we have a visual palette that looks like the dark underside of Tim Burton's unconscious mind. The ghostly scenes have a threatening, intense edge to them and feel unnervingly realistic, putting us right in the hot seat with wide eyed Berry. Style over substance? Maybe. Okay, probably. But I care not. If the style, composition and palette are enough to draw me into a story, I can roll with it. This one imprints troubling negatives on the celluloid which latch themselves onto your psyche. Maybe it works well because it's got a European director, and they're more in tune with the supernatural in general. Maybe it just does a nice job at being effective horror. Either way, I enjoyed.

imdb-45 Saw this on cable. Might be the worst script I've ever read in contrast to the level of talent in this movie. When you can make Robert Downey Jr., Halle Berry and Penelope Cruz look this bad and take name actresses and create an awkward dialogue throughout the movie, you know it has to be putrid.The problem - the story is a random bunch of nonsense that is supposed to come together. Well, it does when it's convenient to the story, which is nothing but "how many red herrings can we create until we get into the big reveal?" The bigger problem: there is no payoff. I won't give away the ending but it's enough for me to say that whatever redeeming aspects about the movie that exist, perhaps some of the atmosphere, is undermined by the colossally stupid payoff.Every time Downey Jr is on the screen, he seems to want to run off and wash the dialogue away. He's clearly trying to get into his character and make the dumb, illogical dialog work, but it doesn't. Cruz doesn't really have much to do and Halle Berry is in just one muddled scene after another with stilted dialogue that is nonsensical. Nobody acts this way, even in dumb horror films. The only thing that kept me watching was that I was working and had it on in the background. The payoff was so bad that I had to roll my eyes and ask whether the writer could have been any lazier. And the answer was "no, he could not be lazier." This is a serious waste of time and you'll regret listening to any of the reviews here that even try to rationalize why you should watch this tripe. Read a synopsis of the film to understand what you're getting into. This is a loser that never should have been made.