10 Horror Movies Critics Were Way Too Harsh On

As it stands, 2010's The Ward is the last movie to be directed by the legendary John Carpenter. And before that, it had been nine years since the Horror Master's previous directorial effort, Ghosts of Mars.

The Ward is a movie that was largely slammed upon its release, with many proclaiming how the picture wasn't anywhere near the quality of some of Carpenter's previous offerings. When you're talking about the likes of Halloween, The Fog, The Thing, Escape from New York, Big Trouble in Little China and They Live, that's quite the high bar you're setting.

Admittedly, The Ward isn't of the quality of those other films, but that doesn't necessarily make it a bad movie.

In The Ward, Amber Heard plays a young woman institutionalised after setting fire to her house. Her stay at Coos Bay Psychiatric Hospital is an eerie one, mind, for Heard's Kristen finds herself haunted by the spirit of a former patient.

By the time the film rolls to a close, the twist here is that Kristen isn't real - instead she's one of many personalities created by Alice, the person Heard's character has spent the picture searching for.

As a taut, enjoyable thriller, The Ward is absolutely fine. Is it peak John Carpenter? Absolutely not. But that's okay.