Media Scanners: "Gothika"

When new horror movies are released, Horror.com scours the media for reviews. This update will give you a brief snapshot of what some of the top film critics in America are saying about "Gothika".

"Gothika contains some tremendous frights, assisted by John Ottman's occasionally overbearing but mostly effective score, and Kassovitz maintains a feeling of dread throughout the entire movie." - Brian Webster, The Apollo Guide

"'Gothika' may try to revive the eerie spirit of the Gothic novel, but, unless you're suffering from amnesia yourself, it probably won't surprise or thrill you." - Michael Wilmington, The Chicago Tribune

"Berry runs, screams, writhes, moans, anguishes, psychoanalyzes her own desperate situation and models a mean wet T-shirt, exerting far more energy than this feeble fable would ever be worth in all the 50- minute hours in the world." - John Anderson, Newsday

"'Not Alone' is the message Dr. Grey keeps receiving from the ghost world. If you're smart, alone is just where you'll leave Gothika." - Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

"[T]his overripe grade-C reconstitution of a grade-B scary thriller hauls out thunderstorms, blood, the ghosts of butchered girls, nightmares, and the usual head trips, all played on poor Miranda." - Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly

"In pitch-speak, the slick supernatural thriller can be succinctly boiled down to 'Girl, Interrupted' meets 'The Ring,' and, for a while there, Mathieu Kassovitz's atmospherically charged direction sucks the viewer into the story's hellish vortex. " - Michael Rechtshaffen, Hollywood Reporter

"In the end, though, as the ghost-story clichés collide with the serial-killer clichés, and the women-behind-bars clichés give way to the wronged-women-seeking revenge clichés, the movie proves to be both too much and not enough: yet another slick, empty package of ersatz entertainment." - A. O. Scott, The New York Times