Director: Brad Anderson
Year: 2001
Country: USA

Session 9 is one of those movies people rent because it’s Saturday night, they’re bored, and it has a cool box cover. They’re looking for a way to pass the time, and the fully expect to forget the film once its over. But Session 9 won’t let that happen, and the viewer is thus privy to one of the most genuinely frightening and original horror films to appear in the last decade.

The story is as follows: a group of five Hazmat workers are given one week to remove the asbestos from the crumbling Danvers State Mental Institution. With the deadline looming, the relationship between the men starts to strain, leading to distrust and an overall sense of dread, brought on by the building and its sinister presence. Note: Most of that was paraphrased from the Wikipedia entry. I don’t think I’m a bad writer, but I can write a film synopsis to save my life)

Many say the star of the film is the building, Danvers State Hospital, and although a major factor, I’d like to give the nod to the delightfully horrifying voice of Simon. Making an appearance early on in the film, his (its?) eerie growl sets the mood for the entire film. His role as the motivator and instigator behind the events on the session tapes parallels the events of the films, though this is revealed toward the ending, with Anderson relying on the characters and their tumultuous pasts and current woes to act as the primary tension builder. This in itself makes Session 9 a rare treat among modern American horror films, which tend to dispense of character development in favor of violence, though I can only assume this is so we don’t get too attached to them, as they all usually get dispatched in gruesome ways.

One often overlooked aspect of this film, and indeed in most horror films, is the soundtrack. Anderson took a different route than most American horror films, utilizing nothing more than a piano to help convey the dread the characters have no idea is upon them. Single notes, building up into a crescendo and repeating endlessly allows the tension to build upon itself, specifically during the final twenty minutes of the film. This lack of a typical horror movie score prevents the viewer from predicting what will happen next, adding to the originality of the film and enhancing the dread it conveys. We’re spared the music that warns us of impending doom, forcing the audience to sit on the edge of their seats and await the scare that might never come.

Session 9 doesn’t rely on cheap scares to frighten the viewer, and for that it deserves the highest accolades. Though this review is slightly biased – Session 9 has been my favorite movie for years now – I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention some of its faults. While the acting is solid, David Caruso has a tendency to overact, providing way too much emotion in a scene that, although emotional for the characters, makes me wonder if he’s going to start crying. His growing virulence toward his co-workers as the film progresses culminates with the following scene:

This is only slightly less cheesy than when he says “You shuck fiber in there with us!” Despite all this, David Caruso does a pretty decent job of being a complete dickhead, and the remaining actors give solid performances. Another complaint given about the film, and one I only half agree with, is the use of a red herring, though its use is incredibly subtle and thus I feel not a hindrance to the overall effectiveness of the film.

In short, Session 9 is a taut psychological thriller that relies on more than cheap scares to frighten the viewer. The many elements that go into making a genuinely scary horror movie all fall into place, resulting in a wholly original horror film that suffers from a severe lack of the recognition it truly deserves.

I have not seen the first three films by Alexandre Aja, though I suspect most have not. His magnum opus might be considered Haute Tension had the script not degraded into a cheap M. Night Shayamalan rip-off, rendering the first half of the movie completely implausible and utterly stupid. Though this made the film absolutely unbearable, it was not without its upsides. The soundtrack, cinematography, and methods of dispatch, if you will, were absolutely brilliant, so I don’t think I’d be completely off base in saying that this was just a fluke and hoped for good things to come from him in the future.

His next film was a remake of the Craven borefest The Hills Have Eyes, which was overtly graphic for the sake of being graphic while being just as boring as the original. This says nothing of its originality, of which there is almost none, falling into an inescapable vortex of cheap horror cliches. The final twenty minutes are ridiculously predictable, and I left the theater wondering what the fuck I just watched.

His next film as a writer was P2, which I never saw. This is a good thing, as it doesn’t seem to be anything more than your run-of-the-mill Hollywood suspense-thriller. After that comes this year’s South Korean remake, Mirrors, doomed to fail because it’s a remake of an Asian horror film. Just because The Ring was successful does not give every fucking big-name horror director carte blanche to adapt every Asian horror film into a shitty one-off American adaptation. The Grudge sucked, Dark Water sucked,and Pulse definitely sucked, so what makes you think this won’t suck? ‘Cause Jack Bauer is in it?

Alexandre Aja is lucky in that he made one successful horror film (albeit a shitty successful horror film). Instead, however, of making more successful horror films that are actually good, he’s selling out by making cheap remakes of classics that also suck, remakes of Asian horror films that are rarely good, and really, really, really, really, really, really shitty retarded suspense-thrillers. His next movie is Piranha 3-D. Here’s hoping it’s a comedy.

Mr. Aja, please stop making shitty horror films. The French are dominating the genre, and you’re sticking out like a black man at a Klan rally. Have some God damned dignity and make something truly inspiring to horror fans everywhere. You’ve exhibited a slow and steady decline, so…well, so I guess you’re like most horror directors. Heh. No one can ever top their first.

Fun note: Aja holds membership in the Splat Pack, “a collection of filmmakers who, since 2002, have brought about a renaissance of horror film.” Of those on the list, the only who is worth a damn is Neil Marshall, ’cause, well, Dog Soldiers and The Descent fucking ruled.