A brilliant & respected criminal psychologist dr miranda grey is an expert at knowing what is rational. Under the direction of her husband she treats dangerously disturbed patients. But her life is thrust into terrifying jeopardy after a cryptic encounter with a mysterious young girl leads to a nightmare. Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 11/13/2007 Starring: Penelope Cruz Halle Berry Run time: 98 minutes Rating: R

The title of Gothika prepares you for a spooky, atmospheric thriller with an emphasis on supernatural mystery. The best way to appreciate the movie itself is to understand that it's a waking nightmare that needn't make sense in the realm of sanity. Making a flashy Hollywood debut after his superior 2000 thriller Crimson Rivers, French actor-director Mathieu Kassovitz pours on the dark and stormy atmosphere, trapping a competent psychologist (Halle Berry) in the prison ward where she treated inmates (including Penelope Cruz) until she was committed for killing her husband (Charles S. Dutton), who was also her boss. Did a car crash cause her to suffer ghostly delusions, or is a young girl--dead for four years--sending clues from beyond the grave? Berry has to prove her innocence while Kassovitz keeps everything--including the viewer and costar Robert Downey Jr. (as Berry's colleague)--in the dark about just where the nonsensical plot is leading. There's a better movie in here somewhere, among the catwalks and crannies of the impressive prison-castle setting, and Berry gives 100% in a performance that's consistent with the movie's overwrought tone. Attentive viewers will identify the killer early on, and the ending is anticlimactic, but Gothika serves up a few good shocks for ghost-story connoisseurs. --Jeff Shannon

"Gothika" doesn't seem to be a fitting title for this film, but the story truly is gothic. After a car crash, Dr. Miranda Grey (Berry) awakens a prisoner in the forensic mental hospital where she formerly worked. She's accused of killing her husband and boss (Dutton), but cannot recall.

This is a very atmospheric and tense thriller. One of Berry's best performances to date and haunting to say the least. Strongly recommend you do not watch this on a dark and stormy night.

Rebecca Kyle, November 2008

Blood and Rain
Blood for the Masses

Originally Reviewed for Sinesteria Magazine.

Gothica

Starring
Halle Berry, Robert Downing Jr.

Reviewed by
B.L.Morgan

3 Stars

Gothica is one of those movies that I was intrigued by the first time I saw the commercial, missed at the theatre, then walked past at least a dozen times at the rental store because for some reason it just didn't grab me any more. Well, I finally did rent Gothica last Sunday after making so many laps around the store that the clerks probably thought I was getting ready for The Indy 500.

Despite a few glaring flaws Gothica was a real nail-biter of a horror/mystery movie. The film began with a bang and had some serious scares and the story mostly made sense. I say mostly because one of the glaring flaws that I will not tell you about, because it would destroy the entire story for you, jumped out at me during the closing credits.

Gothica was very entertaining. A wild horrific ride. If you're the kind of person who watches a movie as an event to experience then not think about too much afterward, you'll think Gothica was a great film.

Unfortunately I tend to analyze what I see on the screen a bit too much to be able to blindly enjoy anything.

Here comes the analysis:

First the good things:
Gothica was incredibly moody. Dark ominous lighting and rainy outdoor scenery set the overall tone of the movie. Gothica was aptly named. The whole movie had a modern Gothic tone.

The acting was very professional and very convincing. Charles Dutton and Robert Downey Jr. gave their usual excellent performances. Penelope Cruz was suitably squirly as a dangerous mental patient in a women's prison.

Halle Berry deserves an Oscar for most believable freaked out performance. She has reasons to look disturbed, distraught and totally whacked out. Berry plays a criminal psychologist who wakes up to find herself locked up in the prison where she was employed and accused of murdering her husband. She plays the distraught doctor perfectly.

Now for the bad things:
The women's prison that Halle Berry started the movie as a doctor in and later is an inmate just did not look like a prison. It looked like a hospital. One huge detail was missing that my wife pointed out. There were no toilets in the cells. Sorry, but you gotta go sometime.

Some of the actions of the characters are so far-fetched as to cause actual jaw-dropping. One example; a guard sees an escaping prisoner. He tells a lie for her so she isn't caught, smiles and gives her his car keys.

I don't want to live in the same county where this prison is. The inmates would be strolling in and out of prison whenever they felt like it. Gothica seems to take place in a universe where stupidity is the rule, not the exception.

So if you want to see a movie that will make your nerves tingle and keep you on edge watching Gothica is a good way to spend an evening. You'll have fun watching this movie. Just don't think too much afterward. You'll like it a lot more.

The plot is nonsense. The movie is nether scary nor suspenseful.

It's a waste of time and money.

The purchase was smooth. However this is the second HD movie of the same title that has had playback problems. The movie pauses at certain sections of the movie. Amazon sent me a new one to replace the first one and the NEW one did the exact same thing. I even called Toshiba and they said that there is nothing wrong with my player...it has to be a software problem with that particular movie. So if anyone has this movie on HD beware!

This movie is so good!!! I don't see how this one bombed at the box office. This movie was so different from your average scary movie movie. It is something we have not seen. It is like a horror/thriller. The acting was great, the movie could have been presented a little bit differently. Other than that it was $10.00 well spent.