My Wife’s DVDs - Gothika

It occurred to me a few days ago that going with 8 Seconds from my wife’s DVD collection for October doesn’t fit very well thematically with the usual horror stuff I like to do around this time. So I’m double-dipping this month. Horror movies are few in her collection, but there were some options. It was between Gothika (obviously), The Exorcism of Emily Rose, Taking Lives, and The Grudge. My wife doesn’t even know why she has Exorcism and Grudge, and I’ve joked about her owning Gothika before, so that’s why it made the cut. 

It wasn’t entirely clear to me whether or not Gothika was even a horror movie. The cover and title certainly make it seem that way. After watching it, I would classify it more as a supernatural thriller, but there are certainly horror elements to it.

Gothika is about a psychiatrist (Halle Berry) who encounters a mysterious woman, blacks out, and wakes up as a prisoner in her own asylum for killing her own husband. She doesn’t remember any of it, and the film is essentially a mystery. Why did she kill her husband? Is the mysterious woman real? Is she a ghost? Is Halle Berry actually crazy? Etc. 

While there isn’t anything overly special about Gothika aside from the cast (Berry, Robert Downey, Jr., Charles S. Dutton, Penélope Cruz, John Carroll Lynch), it works as a mystery. It leaves enough clues to keep you guessing throughout, and you’re not sure who is on Berry’s side until the end.

As long as you don’t scrutinize things too much, Gothika is fine. But there was one major plot element that bothered me: why would a psychiatrist who committed a crime be placed in the asylum she worked at? There’s no way that’s the right move since she will know the inner workings of the facility and be forced to be around former patients. I get that the movie doesn’t exist if she isn’t at this particular facility, but it still bugged me. 

Beyond that, this movie refreshingly avoided a few tropes I was worried about going in. First off, I typically hate mental asylum movies and shows. Too often every character is presented as drugged out, and you have to constantly wonder if anything is really happening or is it all in the character’s head. Gothika makes it pretty clear early on that something strange is happening, and it limits the amount of time spent in the asylum.

Aside from a shower scene and a short conversation with Cruz, Berry spends all her time either in solitary confinement or out of the asylum entirely. She is constantly escaping from the place, and the movie is better for it. I was worried I was about to sit through at least an hour of group therapy scenes with Berry claiming she doesn’t belong there and so on and so on. Instead, since these morons put her in her own asylum, she easily escapes the place which adds some much needed action and suspense.

As for this being a good “scary” movie to watch, it certainly is dark, and there are plenty of jump scares, but I wouldn’t consider this a horror movie. It’s definitely marketed as a scary film because that’s just easier to sell than “supernatural thriller.” My wife bought it because she thought it was “suspenseful,” and I completely agree with that. I expected to be able to make fun of this (because it’s at 14% on Rotten Tomatoes and is generally considered a misstep, along with Catwoman, after her Oscar win). I can see why this movie isn’t a classic, but 14% on RT seems too low. Maybe my low expectations made it seem better, but I don’t know what anyone would want from this movie aside from a decent mystery, a couple twists, and a few jump scares.

Maybe that’s the problem, though. As it is, I’ll probably forget the plot of this movie within a week (in fact, I’m still not sure if this was actually the second time I’ve seen Gothika). If it was an absolute trainwreck, it might have left more of an impression on me. Instead, when it was over, I just thought, “That was decent.” And sometimes that’s the worst thing a movie can be. But I’m glad my wife bought it at the used DVD sale at Movie Gallery over a decade ago, because it gives me the chance to check out movies I never would have watched (or forgot that I already watched). But I do hope it was part of a "Buy two, get one free" promotion or something.

Random Thoughts 

"You're dead!" Wait. Is this one of those Sixth Sense knockoffs from back then, and she really is dead? I hope not.

Married to Halle Berry? Good for you, Charles S. Dutton!

…and she killed him. Bad for you, I guess, Charles S. Dutton.

She does therapy in the darkest prison in America.

Nice to see Robert Downey, Jr. post-drugs but pre-Marvel comeback.

They wouldn't send a psychiatrist to the prison she worked at, would they? Seems like a bad idea for a former doctor to now be a fellow patient.

Charles S. Dutton in So I Married an Axe Murderer.

Was not expecting the end credits song to be the “Behind Blue Eyes” by Limp Bizkit. 

And the video for it is on the DVD!

But seriously, who at the studio looked at this supernatural Halle Berry thriller and thought, “This needs a cover of a classic Who song by Fred Durst to play over the credits”?