Session 9 (2001)

Next up is what I expected to be a ride into hell but it just became a hell of a bad movie. A "horror" trip that was just horrible. I am talking about "Session 9", a 2001 film by Brad Anderson.

The plot of this flick is one big downer. Not only is the setting in an abandoned mental hospital not very original but they hardly make use of it anyway. I had rather seen a formulaic ghost story as long as it is creepy and effective. This is not one of those stories.
It's about a group of workers who are hired to restore the old building within one week.
Their boss - carrying around some background wounds involving his family life - needed this job so much because of his financial situation, or did he really?

As the countdown of the seven days begins, day for day we wait for the strange things to happen. Monday, Tuesday, ... nothing yet. Wednesday ... Time to get going...

Well, I have to tell you, there is not much to talk about in the first 85 minutes of this 95 minute flick.

There are some small flashes and hints and conflicts that eventually don't add up much to the whole. There is a weird, mysterious audio tape one of the workers is listening to when he finds the time, and soon the first guy is missing. If you want to know what this is all about decide yourself if you want to spend over one and a half hours of your life.

I was so optimistic sitting through this because I had been told before to wait for the final moments.
Sadly there is nothing here to wait for at all. The big "twist" is not a big surprise at all and after nearly two hours of irritation, patience and hope for something (spectacular) to happen the explanation feels so trivial and pointless. It's like they had no script for this at all. It's nothing but a drag.

The symobolism used has no purpose at all just like most of the plot and the subplots.
Most of it is just killing time until the final revelation. Even the actors do a fairly acceptable job.
The only mystery here is the search and need for any kind of dramaturgy or suspense.

In 2004 the same director would make a film called "The machinist" starring Christian Bale.
I had seen that before and that one was pretty good. "Session 9" didn't only disappoint, it was one of the worst-written horror films I've seen in a long time. It will not scare you. But it will probably shock you when you realize at the end what a waste this film was. I know it's not much, but this is all I can tell you about it.