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Session 9


Session 9 stars Peter Mullan, David Caruso and Josh Lucas, who, let's be honest, is the whole reason I stumbled upon and watched the movie. It's too bad Lucas plays an insensitive jerk, but I guess it's good for his career not to be cast as the romantic lead/hero in every movie he's in. At the end of this movie, I thought "Whoa. Wait a minute. What just happened?" And apparently the catalyst behind what happens in this film is up to much debate and interpretation in the cyberuniverse where the ultimate consensus is that it is in the eye of the viewer as to which interpretation one believes. I will say that while I expected this movie to go in one direction --that is, the supernatural/horror path--it really went in an altogether different direction for me. One bit of advice for viewing this movie: watch closely because there little details that will clue the viewer into what is happening.

Jeff, Mike, Hank, Phil and Gordon make up the hazardous materials clean up crew hired by the city to clean up the Danvers State Mental Hospital building so that the structure can then be converted into city government office space. The crew has just a week to finish the job if they want to collect the $10,000 bonus that's been offered to them. The guys undertake the job in the creepy hospital, and it quickly becomes apparant that stress and tension threaten to endanger both the team and the job. Are the cracks that threaten the team's cohesiveness the result of something more sinister at work that's preying upon the men's psyches and fears? Or are the cracks the result of various outside stressors occurring in the men's outside lives to create a perfect storm of infighting and tensions on the job site? Gordon has tension at home, Hank is a jerk, Phil starts having doubts about Gordon's leadership, Jeff fears the dark, and Mike becomes obsessed with a box of old session tapes that may or may not reveal the dark secret the hospital harbors. There are nine session tapes in all and it is from the ninth tape that the movie takes its title. How does the story related in the session tapes parallel what's happening in the movie's present?

Wicked scary, creepily freaky more than adequately describe this film, a psychological thriller in every sense of the word; you'll be viewing it from the edge of your seat by the end of the movie. After the movie's over, you'll wander if it was something supernatural that lingered in the hospital or was it the residual effects of treating so many mental illnesses for so many years in one building that haunted the team.

I highly recommend you check out this movie the next time you visit the library. It is coming soon to the Matthews Public Library's DVD section.

--Reviewed by Ms. Angie

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