Psych 9 DVD Movie Review
Psych 9 DVD Movie Review
Directed by Andrew Shortell, starring Cary Elwes, Sara Foster, Michael Biehn and Gabriel Mann
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From Session 9 to The Ninth Gate, and even pre-DVD with Dante's nine circles of Hell, it's a formidable number. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9_(number) Why the allure? Perhaps we'll never know for sure, but Psych 9's title, cover art, and cast hide no secrets — and neither does the routine script — but you get what you expect and sometimes that's just fine.
Sara Foster plays Roslyn, a gaunt, haunted young woman who takes a menial, late-shift job filing paperwork at a just-closed hospital. Since the place is ready for the wrecking ball, that means there are no patients — but there is something of a skeleton crew.
The always-welcome Cary Elwes chews the drab, green-walled scenery with panache as Dr. Clement, a medical professional with a penchant for madness. He pops in for occasional one-liners and attempts to dissect Roslyn's seemingly sudden unstable state of mind.
Before long, it's not just the ghosts bothering her, it's flesh and blood in the forms of visits from her obsessed S.O. (Gabriel Mann) and a furtive police detective (Michael Biehn) who just happens to be investigating multiple murders… and which may just be continuing as the action unfolds. You see, the woman who had that filing job last was brutally beaten to death with a hammer by a serial slayer known as The Nighthawk. File it under N for no-brainer.
Still, the movie is not altogether bad. The mainstay of Psych 9 is the question of whether or not Roslyn herself is insane, and that kind of ambiguity in a horror movie is always fun. If the cheese has indeed slipped off her cracker, then is she really working at the hospital… or is this all a dream of delirium? There are lots of off-screen noises, jump-scares, jump-cuts, and editing effects in Psych 9, presumably in attempt to manufacture suspense. That doesn't happen, but the acting is decent and the story is just interesting enough to stick with to see "who dunnit" at the end.
Unless you're a family member or investor, you may not want to watch all the extras: Heaped upon this already slender reed is nearly an hour's worth of outtakes, b-roll, deleted scenes, and a director featurette.
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Reviewed by Staci Layne Wilson