Ahoy, squirts. Quint here... I've taken a look at some of the reviews that have popped up on the site recently regarding the new Dark Castle film GOTHIKA. I saw the film two days ago and can say I'm genuinely shocked at how terribly it is being received. I found GOTHIKA to be a very beautifully shot, creepy flick, despite its plot holes and character inconsistancies, and has some genuinely scary moments.

Dark Castle has put out shit. No one argues that. THIRTEEN GHOSTS had decent ghost designs, an interesting story, but had ZERO ATMOSPHERE and had Shannon Elizabeth in it. GHOST SHIP is just fucking atrocious (with one good scene... the ballroom). THE HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL... I didn't like this movie very much, but I do see it's the only Dark Castle film so far that at least had some deep down B-Movie appeal... And it has Jeffrey Combs in it... Not enough Jeffrey Combs, but any Combs is better than nothing since he rules the planet earth.

So, I'm baffled when people are calling GOTHIKA another raging shitstorm from the turd-producing Dark Castle because GOTHIKA is the very first movie out of Dark Castle that doesn't (A) Suck ass and (B) look like a flat, plastic WB Universe.

GOTHIKA looks like a horror movie. It's well shot and very, very atmospheric. You may find some gaping plot holes and inconsistency with the characters (which I'll get to in a moment), but I can't see how anyone thinks this is a film anywhere near as bad as any of the previous Dark Castle flicks.

Another thing GOTHIKA has going for it are the actors. I like that they cast more than just the pretty actors and the pretty actors they do cast are made to look as ugly as possible. Robert Downey Jr. is a joy to watch onscreen. His character is way, way underdeveloped in the whole scheme of things, but he is given more true depth than anyone in either GHOST SHIP, THIRTEEN GHOSTS or HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL.

Bernard Hill (better known as King Theoden from LOTR) is very good, also, but hardly in the movie. Charles Dutton, on the other hand, is perfectly used. Just the right level of ego and sweetness in his short time onscreen. Penelope Cruz is the one generally considered pretty (I think she's kinda cute, but the rail-thin "I can fit beneath the crack under the door" women just don't do anything for me personally) person in the movie and she's shown the whole film without make-up and just ragged as can be.

Halle Berry does an adequate job. Adequate is definitely the right word for it. She's there, she does more than phone in her performance, but not much more. She doesn't quite sell the horror and the parts where she thinks she is crazy... she comes off pretty laughable. It seemed to me that she didn't invest enough into her character to make the viewer overlook certain plot holes in the story. She's very pretty and is believable as a psychiatrist, I just got the feeling that she viewed the horror aspect of the film as a little below her and she didn't give it her all.

There are some large plot holes in the film, like I mentioned above, but to get into them I will have to go into major spoilers. I won't spoil the ending, but I will spoil certain things that aren't shown in the trailers... If you leave now, that's cool. Just know that it's a flawed film, but a giant step in the right direction for Dark Castle. At least they take the subject matter seriously and don't make it a cartoon like ALL of their previous films. The movie exists somewhere below THE OTHERS and above IN DREAMS.

So, the film is about a psychiatrist at a mental hospital who one day wakes up to find herself on the opposite side of the Plexiglas. It turns out she killed her husband after a car accident. She had swerved to avoid a battered girl who was standing in the middle of the road. Something happens with her and the girl she can't remember and from that point until she wakes up, her memory is gone.

The girl is a ghost and much like THE SIXTH SENSE and the vastly overlooked gem of a flick STIR OF ECHOES she wants help. Herein lies my main problem with the movie. They don't set up the ghost enough to understand why she acts violently towards Halle Berry's character, the one she's trying to get help from. In SIXTH SENSE, we get a clear understanding that these ghosts are confused. They know they want help and get angry when they don't get it, but a lot of them don't even realize they are dead. You get nothing like that in GOTHIKA.

There's a scene (a really creepy, if too quickly cut, sequence that takes place in a shower) where Halle Berry gets attacked by the ghost and gets the words NOT ALONE slashed viciously into her arm. It's a very violent sequence and makes you fear the ghost and what it is capable of...

But in the next scene its nice and tries to help Halle escape. Then it fucks her up again. Then it shows Halle everything she needs to see. A little too inconsistent for me. If they had showed the ghost actively helping her escape the asylum (besides giving her the means to get out of her cell), I wouldn't have a problem with her character... Also, they set up the ghost as being able to really fuck you up if you piss her off...

Well, that just leads me to ask... If this ghost is pissed off enough that she can carve into people's flesh and throw them against walls... Why doesn't she just avenge her death herself? I guess it's possible she's trying to not only avenge her death, but rescue another captive girl, thus leading Halle on her quest, but there is a big showdown scene with the killer at the end of the movie and instead of helping Halle out when she needs it the most, the ghost just kind of flutters here and there, using the exact same trickery pulled off much better in countless recent ghost films like THE DEVIL'S BACKBONE and WHAT LIES BENEATH. Instead of slashing and hacking and throwing this bastard against the wall, she just kind of stands there and smiles and kinda distracts him.

Ultimately, that's my biggest complaint with the film. The ghost wasn't nearly creepy enough and it seemed they could never nail down the ghost's character... Maybe if they set her up as being clinically insane when she died due to the abuse she suffered, I could buy the here and there unmotivated sequences with the ghost.

GOTHIKA isn't the best thing to come along recently, but I greatly prefer it to CHAINSAW MASSACRE and it is certainly heads and tails above anything Dark Castle has put out so far. The horror isn't played down, the characters don't act like they're in a horror movie... It's not a joke. It's a horror movie. A flawed horror movie, but another good step in the right direction.

I'm excited the way horror is going right now. We're finally breaking free of the bloodless, WB TV staring shitty-ass horror films. Even though I didn't care much for CHAINSAW MASSACRE, it was a movie that took itself seriously and didn't view the genre as something to be embarrassed about being a part of.

That's it from me on this one, squirts. I got a few more reviews coming out to you soon, as well as my CHRISTMAS SHOPPING FOR THE GEEK IN YOUR HOUSEHOLD article, which I've officially begun work on. I'd like to thank everyone who has emailed me about the geek shopping guide report so far. I've gotten some great ideas and links. Keep 'em coming! Email me at aicnquint@yahoo.com if you have the perfect, off the wall geek wet dream of gifts. If you're working at a big toy or game developer and want me to check out some upcoming products that you think fit into the GEEK category (or just want to send me the entire SIDESHOW/WETA catalogue... hint-hint), you can email me at aicnquint@yahoo.com as well.

I'll be back soon with some goodies, I promise! 'Til that day, this is Quint bidding you a fond farewell and adieu.

-Quint

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