TotalTelly.co.uk
Devoted to Popular, Cult and Retro TV
Gothika [2004]
![Gothika [2004]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/514P8YWD9JL._SL160_.jpg)
RRP: £19.99
Our Price: £1.99 (subject to change)
Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review
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 The 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
Review date: 2008-09-06 Rating: 10 out of 10
I thought this film was tremendous. Halle Berry's performance was outstanding. She played her role so well, I doubt it could not be bettered by any other actress. The rest of the cast were without fault and I thought that this film was very well directed and produced.
Similar Products
Reviews
I am not a Halle Berry Fan
Review date: 2008-08-13 Rating: 10 out of 10
I am not a Halle Berry Fan in fact I was not even going to watch it as I had bought the triple Identity / Gothika / House Of Nine ASIN: B000AYQJ6U but thought - why not .
I am man enough to admit that I made a mistake as Gothika was the best out of the Triple and Berry is not just a Bimbo and to be fair she was not all that Bad in Catwoman either.
I am not a huge fan of Horror/Thriller but this was one of the best.
minus points are - not enough of Bernard Hill
A Thriller
Review date: 2007-10-05 Rating: 8 out of 10
Miss Halle plays a prison psychiatrist called Miranda. She is happily married. Charles S. Dutton plays her husband and he is the warden of the prison that she works in. Halle's character is treating the patient Chloe, played by Penelope Cruz that sees strange things and believes it is the work of the devil. One stormy night when she is on her way home from work, she looks up form putting her cell phone down and suddenly sees a girl standing in the middle of the road. In order to avoid driving into her, she veers her car and drives into a tree. She tries to help the girl, but then the screen fades to black. She wakes up being a patient in her own prison and being accused for murdering her husband.
Miranda must try to remember what happened to her and how she ended up as a patient in the very prison she use to work at. Accused of killing her husband. While incarcerated she will see the girl that she avoided hitting with her car many times again.
Seeing everything from Miranda's point of view. We start the movie seeing the Doctors point of view. And of course we shift to the view from the patient's. Is she sane and being framed...or did she murder her husband and is truly insane.
In this movie we see that Halle Berry does know how to act. Though a good thriller, it is not the horror picture
A VERY GOOD HORROR/SUSPENCE FILM
Review date: 2007-08-30 Rating: 8 out of 10
Miranda Grey (Halle Berry) is a doctor at a psychiatric prison. On the way home one evening, she has to take a detour, and has a supernatural experience that winds up with her being an inmate in the same psychiatric prison, now a patient of her former colleague, Pete Graham (Robert Downey, Jr.). Gothika is an exploration of what happened to Miranda, as she gradually uncovers a mystery.
This was a very effective combination of a horror film and a suspense/thriller for me. I rated it a 9 out of 10, only subtracting one point for a somewhat awkward beginning. While it's not anything particularly groundbreaking, films do not need to be unprecedented for me to enjoy them a lot and give them high ratings.
Visually, Gothika follows the late 90s/early 00s trend of desaturated films that have a predominant color--blue in this case. It creates an atmosphere that works very well for a horror/suspense film of this type, and that is heightened by the Gothic sets and production design (the one shot we get of the exterior of the psychiatric prison makes it look like an old castle). Although the overall structure is more along the lines of a pedestrian thriller, the film adeptly weaves horror and unusual stylistic elements throughout its length, creating a whole greater than the sum of its parts. The performances are good, and the script and direction will keep you guessing most of the time. My only other slight negative criticism is that the ending is somewhat abrupt and could be seen as leaving some loose threads. However, it wasn't enough of a misstep that I subtracted another point--my score remains 9 out of 10.
This is a Dark Castle film, so it's perhaps not surprising that some of the horror-related effects have a similarity to Thirteen Ghosts (2001), House on Haunted Hill (1999) and Ghost Ship (2002). It's also a safe bet that if you liked those films (I loved all three), and the idea of melding them with a thriller, you'll like Gothika as well.
A good thriller
Review date: 2007-05-19 Rating: 8 out of 10
I have to say, i was impressed with the acting in this film. The storyline
was weak in places but it was still quite an enjoyable experience.
Product Details/Specifications
Actor(s):
Charles S. Dutton
Robert Downey Jr.
Halle Berry
Penélope Cruz
John Carroll Lynch
Creators:
Halle Berry (Primary Contributor)
Penélope Cruz (Primary Contributor)
Adam Kuhn (Producer)
Don Carmody (Producer)
Gary Ungar (Producer)
Jefferson Richard (Producer)
Joel Silver (Producer)
L. Levin (Producer)
Sebastian Gutierrez (Writer)
Director(s):
Recording label: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
EAN: 5035822608337
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: Dubbed, PAL, Widescreen,
Release date: 2004-08-09
Number of discs: 1
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Audience rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
Region code: 2
Running time: 98 minutes
Theatrical release date: 2003-11-21
Language: English (Subtitled)
Language: Polish (Subtitled)
Language: Turkish (Subtitled)
Language: English (Original Language)
Language: Polish (Dubbed)