Session 9 (2001)

Being a kid and looking up and seeing this gothic structure and knowing it's overall purpose was chilling. My family would pass it on drives to/from Boston and it was just so damn creepy (especially on overcast or stormy nights) that my spine would tingle. I think that people who actually saw it as children have more appreciation for the way that this film uses the uniqueness of this location as a character that builds and heightens atmospheric tension and chilling terror. People that I grew up with seem to really appreciate Brad Anderson's chilling tale of the horror that emanates from this gothic structure and the ghastly remnants of the horror of lost minds and documented patient abuses occurring within its walls. I do not understand how people choose to live in the residential apartments that this former State mental hospital has become. I would not live there if someone paid my entire rent plus $200k or even more per year. Just would not go near it.

Session 9 is about a bunch of stressed out asbestos cleaning dudes that can't keep it together while working on a abandoned asylum. Meanwhile, one of them is listening to a bunch of creepy, but interesting, old tapes he found on the same asylum.At first, you might think this is some sort of ghost story, but it's actually way better than that. Session 9 has a slow pace that might bore some of you, and indeed in the first few moments of the movie, I myself struggled to keep watching. Though, as the movie goes on, you get hooked up in the facts.The ending is well done and might give you chills. Overall, this movie is fine and well made. At the time, a nice entry for the horror genre. It won't be a 10/10 for its slow pace at the beginning that might be overwhelming and lack of likeable characters, except for Jeff, he's aight.Final word? I'd say watch it if you're an horror movies guys. You won't regret it.

Supremely creepy low budget get-under-your-skin type of ghost story about an asbestos abatement crew cleaning up a decaying insane asylum with a lurid history. Unlike most ghost stories, this one does not feature apparitions, conjuring, or poltergeists hurtling objects around. Instead, this film focuses on the psychological breakdown of the workers, framing their breakdown around a set of old patient recordings of session interviews of a patient with multiple personalities who did something quite awful that the interviewer and workers are trying to uncover, which builds to the titular ninth session. The cast is very strong, featuring David Caruso, Josh Lucas in a before-he-was-famous role, Paul Guilfoyle, and a number of other recognizable faces. "Session 9" was directed and co-written by underrated filmmaker Brad Anderson ("The Machinist" and "Vanishing on 7th Street"), and he's created what I'm sure is among the best-horror-movies-you've-never-seen.

Every time I completely lose faith in the horror genre I go and look up an old classic that I've missed along the way and watch it to revitalise my love of the genre. I had heard a lot of good things about 'Session 9' for a while now, and also being a fan of David Caruso, thought I'd better check it out. I'm certainly glad I did. It was a little different to what I expected. I had expected supernatural and a lot of it filmed at nighttime. I was surprised to find no supernatural element and 95% of the film taking place during the day - albeit often in dark underground tunnels.I loved the mystery element of it all. The film is obviously called 'Session 9' and quite early on we are introduced to a tape titled 'Session 1' and shown that there are tapes right up to 9. Straight away this has us in a state of needing to know what's on that final tape that was worth naming the film after. Secondly, everything's clearly not as it seems with these characters. Things are happening off screen that could very easily have been used for gory horror on screen, heavily implying that we aren't supposed to know exactly what is going on yet. All this leads to a fun experience for the viewer.The film is undoubtedly very tense throughout, and especially in the final 30 minutes as we draw towards the conclusion. The building they used to film it in was an exceptional choice. It was eerie, creepy and really sold the product perfectly. The acting was pretty good by horror movie standards. Caruso was his usual brilliant self, and the others held their own well enough. Altogether it's a very fine horror movie that I'm disappointed it took me so long to get around to seeing.