cinephile-27690 That's something Roger Ebert wrote in his 3/4 star review. And I agree. Few horror movies induce fear in me. Many horror films are predictable to me and earn a 10 "liked" or fewer stars. Gothika is not in this category. There are many instances of decent horror and suspense. As Ebert said in his TV review(which can be found with reviews of movies like Looney Tunes Back In Action and 8 Mile), this is a movie that will polarize people, since there are plot holes. I personally would not have noticed them without the review. But that was not my concern with this, I wanted to be scared, and what scared me more was that the movie would fail me. Like I said, it did not. Horror fans who have not seen this are missing out. This is a movie that they want.

smoke0 ...even as you wonder why nothing really makes any sense, which is as much as I can ask for from any movie, really.I would not say you have to suspend disbelief, because that's a given in any horror movie, but there are an awful lot of little things that just seem "off" - an obviously well-liked doctor is suddenly treated like crap by the staff? The doctor is forced into general population with the rest of the patients? The patients are forced to take community showers but have state of the art cells? The doctor knows every inch of the hospital but nobody else does? One security guard is the only person in the entire hospital who unquestioningly helps the doctor escape? And let's not forget the biggest question of all: a ghost suddenly decides to appear four years after its death to attack, stab, threaten, possess and scare the crap out of the doctor, because that's exactly how ghosts get people to help them? among other riveting questions, but that's just me, I notice little things like that.Still, it's a nice time-waster, and although the end seems like a set-up for a sequel, thankfully there never was one.

mike48128 The wife of eminent psychologist Dr. Grey has apparently murdered him in a twisted tale of horror, suspense, and ghostly possession. It's an escape movie, wherein Miranda Grey (Halle Berry) is accused of a crime she committed "by proxy" as the unwilling victim of ghostly possession. She must run for her life. Is it badly written? As a horror story, it succeeds. As a who (or what) done-it, it's quite elementary, as I guessed the accomplice half-way through the film, based on awkward clues. Both men, the Chief of Police and Dr. Grey have their own little Satanic Cult going-on, involving S&M, torture, and the death of innocent women, while videotaping them. (sick) Miranda is an inmate in the "Psycho Ward" of her own ghastly prison. It's a monstrous, evil place. She is carved-up and attacked by a ghost and inmates in a nightmarish shower sequence, and accused of being both "a cutter" and suicidal. She is guided by the ghost of the Head Administrator's daughter, as she was also murdered by Dr. Grey and mistakenly thought to have died by suicide as a bridge jumper. In the end, Miranda is exonerated of all crimes, which is very hard-to-believe, as her hands, if not her body, did kill her evil husband. However, she still sees ghosts. I enjoyed Halle's good performance in spite of the somewhat predictable storyline. "Gothika", as explained by "Chloe", is the realm of Satan. Graphic, confusing, unsettling, and certainly not for the squeamish.

billcr12 Okay, Halle Berry is a psychiatrist; yeah, and I am the pope. The former Miss Ohio is Dr. Miranda Grey, a shrink at a mental hospital. On her way home one night, she has a car accident while swerving to avoid a little girl. The kid turns out to be a ghost and she takes over Halle's body. The doc awakens at the very hospital she works at. She is treated by Dr. Peter Graham(Robert Downey), a former coworker. Her husband was murdered on the night of the accident, and she is suspect number one. The ghost carves "not alone" on her arm, and she befriends Chloe(Penelope Cruz), who warns her about a rapist prowling the hospital. Dr. Grey figures out that the ghost used her body to kill her husband. The story progresses from silly to the ridiculous, and although I have a soft spot for Berry's beauty, I was less than impressed by Gothika. A good cast, including Charles Dutton and the above mentioned cannot save this turkey.