Session 9 (2001)
Directed by Brad Anderson
Tensions rise within an asbestos cleaning crew as they work in an abandoned mental hospital with a horrific past that seems to be coming back.
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What critics compared Session 9 to
Based on the 2003 novel by Dennis Lehane (who has previously seen two other adaptations of his work, 2003's " Mystic River " and 2007's " Gone Baby Gone "), this asylum-set police-procedural-cum-psychological-thriller could just as well be a highly inferior remake of Brad Anderson's masterful 2001 chiller " Session 9 ," an airtight, thought-provoking minor classic that is far more authentically effective with only a miniscule fraction of the budget.
As it stands, Shutter Island is no more than a big budget version of Session 9, where random images and sounds were thrown at us whether they stuck or were laughable.
Too often the shots of the men wandering dark halls with flashlights feel stolen directly from "The Blair Witch Project" or Mtv's "Fear", the latter of which has episodes which share the premise of "Session".
For those of us that remember Brad Anderson’s thriller “Session 9” (which is historically notable, at least, because it is one of the first films shot on the 24-p camera), the eerie look and feel is similar in “Identity.”
Inspired by Edgar Allen Poe’s short story, “The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether,” it’s melodramatically scripted as a psychological thriller by Joseph Gangemi and heavy-handedly directed by Brad Anderson (“The Machinist,” “Session 9”), enlivened only by the illustrious cast and Tom Yatsko’s gloomy, evocatively atmospheric cinematography.
Mostly involved in quality cable skeins of late, helmer Brad Anderson has previously adapted to a range of feature genres, doing particularly well with Hitchcockian intrigue (“Transsiberian”) and ambiguous, atmosphere-heavy thrillers (“Session 9,” “The Machinist”).
Brad Anderson is one of our most underrated filmmakers, bringing his precise directorial eye to works like “Session 9” and “ Transsiberian ,” while also taking time to elevate shows such as “Fringe,” “The Wire” and “Boardwalk Empire.”
And one wonders whether director Brad Anderson, who frightened us with “Session 9” and fascinated us with “The Machinist” was just cashing a paycheck here.
The guy who did Session 9, The Machinist, Transsiberian, and Vanishing on 7th Street?
I like Session 9 well enough, The Machinist is fine, Transsiberian's fine; they're all fine.
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This is disappointing because Anderson is a wholly capable director with quantifiable successes ( Session 9 and The Machinist ) under his belt.
Anderson burst onto the scene in 2001 with his spooky indie Session 9 , about a potentially haunted abandoned mental hospital.
Instead, he made some of the defining thrillers of the decade (Session 9 and The Machinist), worked on iconic television shows like The Wire and Boardwalk Empire, and has seemingly found his niche as a commercial director-for-hire on unmemorable works like Beirut.
Director Brad Anderson, who most recently helmed 2018's John Hamm spy drama Beirut , is a proven genre specialist who knows his way around a medical facility, having first gained attention in horror circles for 2001's Session 9 , a thriller about an abandoned psychiatric hospital.
The workmanlike career has led to several stand-outs, including “Session 9,” “ The Machinist ,” and “ Transsiberian .”
In the early aughts, director Brad Anderson delivered a one-two punch of mind-bending thrillers that captured the unraveling of fragile minds with Session 9 and The Machinist .
Anderson definitely has a flair for creating a diffuse sense of fear, paranoia, and mental illness onscreen; his previous film Session 9 also dealt with such themes.
One of the reasons the film is so thick with art-directed dread is that director Brad Anderson (''Next Stop Wonderland," ''Session 9") has little to work with in the way of story.
Director Brad Anderson, who seems to make only romantic comedies ( Next Stop Wonderland , Happy Accidents ) and psychological horror ( Session 9 ), has something to do with the film's success as well.
Mr. Bale's appearance is the crowning touch that makes "The Machinist," directed by Brad Anderson ("Session 9") from a screenplay by Scott Kosar, one of the few movies to scale the barrier between chilly fantasy and authentic cinematic nightmare.
Director Brad Anderson ("Next Stop Wonderland"/"Session 9") bases his grim psychological thriller The Machinist on the derivative script of Scott Kosar (tries to emulate literary giants Kafka and Dostoyevsky, but the inane script has more in common with his B-material Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake).
Director Brad Anderson has previously given us the amusing romantic comedy “Next Stop Wonderland,” some episodes of “The Shield” and “The Wire,” and a horror flick called “Session 9” that I have not seen but that takes place in an abandoned mental hospital, so I am intrigued.
Director Brad Anderson, a former indie upstart (his Next Stop Wonderland was a famous Sundance overbuy) turned capable genre filmmaker (his moody horror film Session 9 is particularly strong), emphasizes the violence with a distracting stutter effect, but otherwise handles the back-and-forth between Berry and Breslin with swiftness and brio.
But genre specialist Brad Anderson ( Session 9 , The Machinist , Transsiberian ) gives it a taut, low-budget energy that keeps it pulsing throughout its entire running time.
After a few routine calls one comes in about a prowler, and skilled director Brad Anderson (Session 9, The Machinist) gets to work, deftly preying on people’s innate fear of home invasion.
Brad Anderson ("Session 9," "The Machinist," "Transsiberian") is a capable genre craftsman with a good eye for shadowy atmosphere.
The Call, directed by erstwhile indie wunderkind Brad Anderson (The Machinist, Session 9, Vanishing on 7th Street), looks and feels almost exactly like the long string of post-The Silence of the Lambs serial killer thrillers I was used to seeing as a teenager.
This movie just didn't look very good from the outset, but you had to be slightly intrigued that Brad Anderson, a master at suspense (check out Transsiberian or Session 9) was directing.
Very few films have been able to use this new technology to their benefit - The Blair Witch Project and Session 9 are rare exceptions - with the rest unable to overcome the extremely obvious limitations of the format.