Gothika (2003)

I love to be scared…but this movie gets the fundamentals all wrong. Yeah - the psychiatrist winding up in the asylum unable to remember why she was incarcerated is scary...hallucinations & disorientations are scary…and the film seemed to know that for the first 40 minutes or so. But then it decides that more is more. So they shove about 40 jump scenes in our faces and tack on an oh-so-banal "who's the baddie" hunt with a couple of red herrings thrown in for good measure. And then it doesn't even bother to explain how the characters get to the denouement, let alone the final ridiculous scene. So - bah at the film as a whole, and especially at the first third, which got my hopes up.

C-