10 Most Twisted Asylum Horror Movies

2. The Ward

The Ward Amber Heard
ARC Entertainment/XLrator Media

As it stands, The Ward is the final film to be directed by the legendary John Carpenter.

Sure, this 2010 picture may not be of the quality as, say, Halloween, The Fog or The Thing, but The Ward is a movie that's deserving of way more praise than it often gets.

Set in 1966, the film finds Amber Heard's troubled Kristen locked up in Coos Bay Psychiatric Hospital after setting fire to a farmhouse. At Coos, Kristen meets the childlike Zoey (Laura-Leigh), intense Emily (Mamie Gummer), artsy Iris (Lyndsy Fonseca), sultry Sarah (Danielle Panabaker), and hears all about a previous patient named Tammy.

With no memory of her past and having been attacked by a deformed creature, poor Kristen is drugged and given a hearty dose of electroshock treatment by Jared Harris' Dr. Stringer.

Once Iris is killed by former patient Alice Hudson, Kristen starts to dig deep on the mystery behind Alice and discovers that this ex-patient was a bully who the other girls grouped together to kill. Now, the spirit of Alice is stalking those at Coos Bay to exact revenge.

Sarah, Emily and Zoey soon end up dead, and The Ward comes down to Alice vs. Kristen. The kicker here, of course, is that it's revealed Kristen is Alice Hudson.

Having been kidnapped at 11 years of age, Alice spent two months chained up in the basement of the farmhouse burnt down in the opening scene. In order to survive this trauma, she developed a personality disorder that manifested itself in the shape of Kristen, Zoey, Emily, Iris and Sarah.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks/Saints, Jamie Hayter, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.