Session 9

Last updated
Session 9
Session nine.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Brad Anderson
Written by
  • Brad Anderson
  • Stephen Gevedon
Produced by
Starring
Cinematography Uta Briesewitz
Edited byBrad Anderson
Music by Climax Golden Twins
Production
companies
Distributed byUSA Films [1]
Release date
  • August 10, 2001 (2001-08-10)
Running time
100 minutes [1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$1.6 million [2]

Session 9 is a 2001 American psychological horror film directed by Brad Anderson and written by Anderson and Stephen Gevedon. It stars David Caruso, Peter Mullan, Brendan Sexton III, Josh Lucas, and Gevedon as an asbestos abatement crew who take a clean-up job at an abandoned mental asylum amid an intense work schedule, growing tensions, and mysterious events occurring around them. Its title refers to a series of audio-taped sessions with an asylum patient that run parallel to the crew's experiences.

Contents

The film marked a tonal departure for Anderson, who previously directed only romantic comedies. Production took place on location at the Danvers State Mental Hospital in Danvers, Massachusetts. While not a financial success, Session 9 developed a reputation as a cult film. [3]

Plot

Gordon Fleming, the owner of an asbestos abatement company in Massachusetts, makes a bid to remove asbestos from Danvers State Hospital. Desperate for money, he promises to complete the job in only one week, despite requiring two to three weeks. His crew includes Mike, a law school dropout who is knowledgeable about the asylum's history; Phil, who is dealing with his grief over a recent breakup; Hank, a gambling addict; and Gordon's nephew Jeff, who has a pathological fear of the dark.

While surveying the job site, Gordon hears a disembodied voice that greets him by name. The men begin their job, and Mike discovers a box containing nine audio-taped therapy sessions that were recorded with Mary Hobbes, a patient who suffered from dissociative identity disorder. Mike begins listening to the tapes in the ensuing days. In the sessions, Mary's psychologist attempts to unveil details surrounding a crime she committed at her home two decades prior. Mary exhibits numerous personalities who have unique voices and demeanors.

Meanwhile, Hank discovers a cache of antique silver dollar coins and other valuables from the crematory. Late that night, he returns to the hospital to retrieve the items and discovers a lobotomy pick among them. He becomes frightened by noises and a shadowy figure, and is confronted by an unknown assailant.

Hank fails to show up to work the next day. An additional worker, Craig McManus, is hired to take his place. Gordon confides in Phil that he slapped his wife Wendy after she inadvertently splashed him with boiling water, and that she refuses to answer his calls or let him see their infant daughter. In a stairwell in the hospital, Jeff witnesses Hank staring out a window wearing sunglasses, talking to himself.

Hank goes missing and the men split up to search for him, but Mike is compelled to continue listening to the tapes. Jeff and Phil descend into the tunnels beneath the hospital where Phil finds Hank, half-nude, muttering to himself. The generator runs out of fuel, leaving a terrified Jeff trapped in darkness. Mike restores the electricity and continues listening to the ninth and final tape, which reveals that one of Mary's malignant personalities, "Simon," was responsible for Mary murdering her family. Phil finds Gordon in Mary's former hospital room, staring at photos from his daughter's baptism which he has pasted to the wall. Jeff emerges from the tunnels and is attacked by an unseen assailant at the company van.

The following day, Gordon arrives at the hospital and finds Hank wrapped in plastic sheeting in one of the rooms, the lobotomy pick protruding from his eye. He is then confronted by Phil, who repeatedly tells him to "wake up" before vanishing in front of him. Craig witnesses Gordon standing over Hank, who is barely alive. Gordon attacks Craig before pulling the lobotomy pick from Hank's eye and stabbing it into Craig's. Gordon, in a dissociated state, finds the bodies of each of his men in various rooms in the hospital, and recounts his murdering each of them. He also recalls killing Wendy, his daughter and the dog after Wendy spilled the boiling water on him.

Distraught, Gordon confusedly attempts to call his home to apologize to Wendy. An excerpt from the ninth tape plays: Mary's doctor asks her, "And where do you live, Simon?" to which "Simon" responds: "I live in the weak and the wounded, Doc."

Cast

Interpretations

In reviewing the film for the 2003 edition of The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror , Edward Bryant contends that Simon is not necessarily an alternate personality of the former patient Mary, but rather a malevolent genius loci. [4] He also points out that the deleted scenes included on the DVD help fill out the narrative. [4] Critics have also pointed out similarities and references to Stanley Kubrick's The Shining (1980). [5] [3] [6]

Scholar Heike Schwarz states that Session 9 "refers to DID [ Dissociative identity disorder ] and a possible possession with a demonic personality." [7] M. Scott Peck also saw evil originating from weakness or cowardice. [8]

Production

Development

Session 9 was director Brad Anderson's first horror film, after directing two romantic comedy films, Next Stop Wonderland (1998) and Happy Accidents (2000). Anderson describes Session 9 as an "American tragedy", and states that he and screenwriter Stephen Gevedon aimed "to subvert the conventions of the so-called horror genre that exists now", which he describes as "less horror than it is teen thriller." [9]

The film's plot was inspired by the Richard Rosenthal case, a murder that took place in Boston, where Anderson grew up, in the mid-1990s, in which a man supposedly killed his wife after she accidentally burnt his dinner, then cut out her heart and lungs and put them in his backyard on a stake. [9] Anderson states that it was also "as you imagine, very much inspired by the location", [10] Danvers State Asylum.

Don't Look Now , directed by Nicolas Roeg, was one inspiration for the film, for its sense of place and because the lead character realizes in the climax that he is at the heart of the mystery. [11] Anderson has stated that he aimed to use sound to convey the plot as well as to generate "a creepy tone"; the sound design incorporated the subliminal use of animal and mechanical noises. [9]

Filming

Most of the film was shot in a small section of the Danvers Asylum; [12] according to actor David Caruso, the rest of the building was "unsafe" for shooting. [9] Caruso also claims the sets did not need to be dressed as all the props featured in the film were already there inside the building. [9] Elaborating Caruso said:

It was a place you never got comfortable in. It wasn't like day three and we were throwing water balloons because it was so much fun to be there. It was always scary. You can really feel the pain of the people that went through Danvers. It's a rough environment. It's not fun. It's on the film. They didn't have to dress any sets, or anything. All of that stuff was sitting there. The federal government walked away from it about thirty years ago. It was a terrifying location. [12]

It was one of the first motion pictures to be shot in 24p HD digital video, [13] which shoots at 24 frames-per-second like film, as opposed to regular digital video which shoots at 30 frames-per-second.

Release

Session 9 premiered at the Fantasia Festival in July 2001. [14] [15] It was released to theaters on August 10, playing on 30 screens. [2] It ended its American theatrical run on October 18, grossing a total of $378,176. [2] The film was a greater financial success abroad, earning $1.2 million internationally. [2]

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 67% based on 76 reviews, with an average rating of 6.30/10. The site's consensus states, "Relying more on atmosphere than gore, Session 9 is effectively creepy". [16] On Metacritic, it has a score of 58% based on reviews from 16 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". [17]

Some critics praised the film's dark, eerie atmosphere and lack of gore. Entertainment Weekly called the film "a marvel of vérité nightmare atmosphere". [18] Rolling Stone called it "a spine-tingler", and praised Brad Anderson's direction. [19] Los Angeles Times said of the film: "Session 9 is so effective that its sense of uncertainty lingers long after the theater lights have gone up." [20] Bloody Disgusting ranked the film fifth in its list of the twenty best horror films of the 2000s, writing, "Session 9 isn't just a cheap, hack 'n' slash, instantly-forgettable type horror film, but a psychologically probing, deeply unsettling journey off the edge and into the abyss of the human mind." [21] Slant Magazine favorably compared it to the 1973 film Don't Look Now , writing, "Anderson's creeper is nowhere near as profound, but the film's old-fashioned pacing and revelatory camerawork bring to mind [Nicolas] Roeg's uniquely terrifying dreamworlds." [22]

Some reviewers criticized the film's ending. A negative review came from Variety , which wrote, "while pic works up a nervously eerie paranoia, it finally doesn't know what to do with what it sets up." [23] San Francisco Chronicle said, "the story doesn't quite pay off, characters are underwritten and the surprise ending is contrived and unconvincing." [24] The Village Voice wrote, "the script for Session 9 is so underwritten that even such lively character actors as David Caruso, Peter Mullan and Brendan Sexton III are left stranded." [25] Dave Kehr, in a mixed review for The New York Times , praises the "impeccable" performances and the dialogue's "authentic working-class snap", but criticizes the pacing which "often feels long and aimless", and concludes that the film "loses any sense of urgency or structure" because of Anderson's choice to leave the connections between events unstated. [26]

Home media

USA Films and Universal Home Entertainment released a DVD of Session 9 on February 26, 2002. [27] A Blu-ray edition was released in August 2016 by Scream Factory. [28]

Soundtrack

Session 9
Soundtrack album by
ReleasedAugust 21, 2001
Genre Ambient, dark ambient
Length50:50
Label Milan
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [29]

The score to Session 9 was composed by Seattle, Washington-based experimental band Climax Golden Twins. The score is in an ambient and dark ambient vein. The soundtrack was released on August 21, 2001, through Milan Records. "Choke Chain" by Sentridoh is played over the closing credits of the film, but is not featured on the album.

Track listing

All tracks are written by Climax Golden Twins (Scott Colburn, Robert Millis, Jeffrey Taylor), except "Piece for Tape Recorder", written and recorded by Vladimir Ussachevsky

No.TitleLength
1."A Few Simple Up and Down Jerks"4:35
2."Hobbes Theme"2:10
3."Noon, About Noon"5:06
4."I Live in the Gut"6:11
5."Mortified Pride"1:41
6."Exit Plan"2:14
7."I Want to Talk to Amy"1:13
8."I Saw You"2:01
9."Ward A"5:56
10."Seclusion"3:26
11."Disappointed Expectations"10:39
12."Piece for Tape Recorder" (Vladimir Ussachevsky)5:38

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lobotomy</span> Neurosurgical operation

A lobotomy or leucotomy is a discredited form of neurosurgical treatment for psychiatric disorder or neurological disorder that involves severing connections in the brain's prefrontal cortex. The surgery causes most of the connections to and from the prefrontal cortex, the anterior part of the frontal lobes of the brain, to be severed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arkham</span> Fictional city in H.P. Lovecrafts works

Arkham is a fictional city situated in Massachusetts, United States. An integral part of the Lovecraft Country setting created by H. P. Lovecraft, Arkham is featured in many of his stories and those of other Cthulhu Mythos writers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Caruso</span> American retired actor and producer (born 1956)

David Stephen Caruso is an American retired actor and producer, best known for his roles as Detective John Kelly on the ABC crime drama NYPD Blue (1993–1994) and Lieutenant Horatio Caine on the CBS series CSI: Miami (2002–2012). He appears in the feature films An Officer and a Gentleman, First Blood, Twins (1988), King of New York (1990), Kiss of Death (1995) and Proof of Life (2000).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Luke Wilson</span> American actor (born 1971)

Luke Cunningham Wilson is an American actor. He is known for his roles in films such as Bottle Rocket (1996), Blue Streak (1999), My Dog Skip (2000), Legally Blonde (2001), The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), Old School (2003), My Super Ex-Girlfriend (2006), Idiocracy (2006), You Kill Me (2007), The Skeleton Twins (2014), Meadowland (2015) and Brad's Status (2017). On television, he played Casey Kelso on That '70s Show (2002–2005), Levi Callow on Enlightened (2011–2013) and Pat Dugan / S.T.R.I.P.E. on Stargirl (2020–2022). He is the younger brother of actors Andrew Wilson and Owen Wilson.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brad Anderson (director)</span> American film director (born 1964)

Brad Anderson is an American film director, producer and writer. A director of thriller and horror films and television projects, he is best known for directing The Machinist (2004), starring Christian Bale, psychological horror film Session 9 (2001) and The Call (2013), starring Halle Berry. He also produced and directed several episodes of the Fox science fiction series Fringe. Earlier in his career he directed the romantic comedies Next Stop Wonderland (1998) and Happy Accidents (2000).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kirkbride Plan</span> Mental asylum design created by Thomas Kirkbride

The Kirkbride Plan was a system of mental asylum design advocated by American psychiatrist Thomas Story Kirkbride (1809–1883) in the mid-19th century. The asylums built in the Kirkbride design, often referred to as Kirkbride Buildings, were constructed during the mid-to-late-19th century in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Danvers State Hospital</span> Former psychiatric hospital in Massachusetts, USA

The Danvers State Hospital, also known as the State Lunatic Hospital at Danvers, The Danvers Lunatic Asylum, and The Danvers State Insane Asylum, was a psychiatric hospital located in Danvers, Massachusetts. It was built in 1874, and opened in 1878, under the supervision of prominent Boston architect Nathaniel Jeremiah Bradlee, on an isolated site in rural Massachusetts. It was a multi-acre, self-contained psychiatric hospital designed and built according to the Kirkbride Plan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Larry Fessenden</span> American actor and filmmaker

Laurence T. Fessenden is an American actor, producer, writer, director, film editor, and cinematographer. He is the founder of the New York based independent production outfit Glass Eye Pix. His writer/director credits include No Telling, Habit (1997), Wendigo (2001), and The Last Winter, which is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art. He has also directed the television feature Beneath (2013), an episode of the NBC TV series Fear Itself (2008) entitled "Skin and Bones", and a segment of the anthology horror-comedy film The ABCs of Death 2 (2014). He is the writer, with Graham Reznick, of the BAFTA Award-winning Sony PlayStation video game Until Dawn. He has acted in numerous films including Bringing Out the Dead (1999), Broken Flowers (2005), I Sell the Dead (2009), Jug Face (2012), We Are Still Here (2015), In a Valley of Violence (2016), Like Me (2017), and The Dead Don't Die (2019), Brooklyn 45 (2023), and Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)

<i>The Poughkeepsie Tapes</i> 2007 American pseudo-documentary horror film

The Poughkeepsie Tapes is a 2007 American pseudo-documentary horror film written, directed, edited, and co-developed by John Erick Dowdle. It is about the murders of a serial killer in Poughkeepsie, New York, told through interviews and footage from a cache of the killer's snuff films.

<i>Insanitarium</i> 2008 American film

Insanitarium is a 2008 American direct-to-video horror-thriller film starring Jesse Metcalfe, Kiele Sanchez, Kevin Sussman, Olivia Munn, Carla Gallo and Peter Stormare. The film is directed by Jeff Buhler.

<i>Horror Hospital</i> 1973 British film by Antony Balch

Horror Hospital is a 1973 British science-fiction comedy-horror film directed by Antony Balch and starring Robin Askwith, Michael Gough, Dennis Price and Skip Martin.

<i>Beyond the Gates</i> (2016 film) 2016 American film

Beyond the Gates is a 2016 American horror film directed by Jackson Stewart and starring Barbara Crampton. It premiered on June 2, 2016 at the Los Angeles Film Festival where it won the audience award in the festival's midnight section.

<i>The Ward</i> (film) 2010 American film

The Ward is a 2010 American supernatural psychological horror film directed by John Carpenter and starring Amber Heard, Mamie Gummer, Danielle Panabaker, Laura-Leigh, Lyndsy Fonseca and Jared Harris. Set in 1966, the film chronicles a young woman who is institutionalized after setting fire to a house, and who finds herself haunted by the ghost of a former inmate at the psychiatric ward. As of 2024, this is Carpenter's most recent film as a director.

<i>American Horror Story</i> American horror anthology television series

American Horror Story (AHS) is an American horror anthology television series created by Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk for the cable network FX. The first installment in the American Story media franchise, seasons of AHS are mostly conceived as self-contained miniseries, following a different set of characters in a new setting within the same fictional universe, and a storyline with its own "beginning, middle, and end." Some plot elements of each season are loosely inspired by true events. Many actors appear in more than one season, usually playing a new character though sometimes as a returning character, and often playing multiple characters in a season. Evan Peters, Sarah Paulson, and Lily Rabe have returned most frequently, with each having appeared in nine seasons, followed by Frances Conroy and Denis O'Hare who both appear in eight; Emma Roberts, Billie Lourd, and Leslie Grossman appear in six, while other notable actors including Jessica Lange, Kathy Bates, Angela Bassett, Adina Porter, Finn Wittrock, and Jamie Brewer appear in five of the seasons.

<i>V/H/S</i> 2012 horror anthology film

V/H/S is a 2012 American found footage horror anthology film and the first installment in the V/H/S franchise created by Brad Miska and Bloody Disgusting, and produced by Miska and Roxanne Benjamin. It features a series of found footage shorts written and directed by Adam Wingard, David Bruckner, Ti West, Glenn McQuaid, Joe Swanberg, and the filmmaking collective Radio Silence.

<i>American Horror Story: Asylum</i> Second season of American Horror Story

The second season of the American horror anthology television series American Horror Story, subtitled Asylum, takes place in 1964 and follows the stories of the staff and inmates who occupy the fictional mental institution Briarcliff Manor, and intercuts with events in the past and present. The ensemble cast includes Zachary Quinto, Joseph Fiennes, Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters, Lily Rabe, Lizzie Brocheré, Dylan McDermott, James Cromwell and Jessica Lange, with all returning from the first season, except newcomers Fiennes, Brocheré, and Cromwell. The season marks the first to not feature cast mainstays Connie Britton, Taissa Farmiga and Denis O'Hare.

"I Am Anne Frank" is a two-part episode, consisting of the fourth and fifth episodes of the second season of the FX anthology television series American Horror Story. The first part aired on November 7, 2012, and the second aired on November 14, 2012. The first part is written by Jessica Sharzer and directed by Michael Uppendahl, and the second part is written by Brad Falchuk and directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon. Both episodes are rated TV-MA (LSV).

<i>Stonehearst Asylum</i> 2014 film

Stonehearst Asylum, previously known as Eliza Graves, is an American psychological horror film directed by Brad Anderson and written by Joseph Gangemi. It is loosely based on the 1845 short story "The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether" by Edgar Allan Poe. The film, starring Kate Beckinsale, Jim Sturgess, Michael Caine, Ben Kingsley, and David Thewlis, was released on October 24, 2014.

References

  1. 1 2 "Session 9". AFI Catalog of Feature Films . Los Angeles, California: American Film Institute. Archived from the original on April 8, 2019.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Session 9 (2001)". Box Office Mojo . Retrieved December 27, 2018.
  3. 1 2 Tobias, Scott (November 24, 2010). "Session 9". The A.V. Club . Archived from the original on June 13, 2024. Retrieved August 18, 2024.
  4. 1 2 Datlow & Windling 2003, p. LXXXVIII.
  5. Muir, John Kenneth (June 7, 2010). "CULT MOVIE REVIEW: Session 9 (2001)". John Kenneth Muir's Reflections on Cult Movies and Classic TV. Archived from the original on February 4, 2018. Retrieved February 4, 2018.
  6. Collins, Brian (August 17, 2016). "Collins' Crypt: SESSION 9 Scares Me Even More Now". Birth.Movies.Death. Archived from the original on February 4, 2018.
  7. Schwarz 2014, p. 296.
  8. Peck, M. Scott. (1983, 1988). People of the Lie: The hope for healing human evil. Century Hutchinson.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 Cavagna, Carlo (August 2001). "David Caruso and Brad Anderson on Session 9 (2001)". AboutFilm. Archived from the original on December 19, 2019.
  10. Beckerman, Jim (August 9, 2001). "Imagining the Worst". The Record. Hackensack, New Jersey. p. F-8 via Newspapers.com.
  11. Prophete, Bettina (2001). "The Brad Anderson Sessions: On "Session 9" and "Happy Accidents"". AMC. Archived from the original on July 16, 2017. Retrieved January 2, 2010.
  12. 1 2 Orange, B. Alan (July 23, 2001). "Agent Orange: Session 9 with Director Brad Anderson & David Caruso". MovieWeb . Archived from the original on January 16, 2020.
  13. Murray, Noel (February 27, 2013). "Session 9 turns an abandoned asylum and digital video's limits into assets". The A.V. Club. Archived from the original on November 6, 2023. Retrieved October 31, 2022.
  14. "History – Cinemabox & Unisoft Present Fantasia 2012". fantasiafestival.com . Archived from the original on June 28, 2018. Retrieved September 15, 2012.
  15. "Imperial Cinéma". The Gazette . Montreal, Quebec. July 31, 2001. p. D8 via Newspapers.com.
  16. "Session 9". Rotten Tomatoes . Fandango Media. Retrieved August 11, 2021.
  17. "Session 9". Metacritic . Archived from the original on July 2, 2024. Retrieved September 15, 2021.
  18. Gleiberman, Owen (August 8, 2001). "Session 9". Entertainment Weekly . Archived from the original on October 19, 2023. Retrieved October 31, 2022.
  19. Travers, Peter (August 17, 2001). "Session 9". Rolling Stone . Archived from the original on November 28, 2012. Retrieved August 9, 2012.
  20. Thomas, Kevin (August 10, 2001). "Scary 'Session 9' Takes a Minimalist Approach". Los Angeles Times . Archived from the original on July 27, 2023. Retrieved August 9, 2012.
  21. Bloody Disgusting Staff (December 18, 2009). "00's Retrospect: Bloody Disgusting's Top 20 Films of the Decade...Part 4". Bloody Disgusting . Archived from the original on July 22, 2012.
  22. Gonzalez, Ed (July 30, 2001). "Review: Session 9". Slant Magazine . Archived from the original on October 9, 2020. Retrieved August 9, 2012.
  23. Koehler, Robert (August 6, 2001). "Session 9". Variety . Archived from the original on November 11, 2010.
  24. Guthmann, Edward (September 14, 2001). "Film Clips / Also Opening Today". San Francisco Chronicle . San Francisco, California. Archived from the original on December 13, 2014.
  25. Taubin, Amy (August 7, 2001). "The Shinings". The Village Voice . Archived from the original on October 13, 2010. Retrieved August 9, 2012.
  26. Kehr, David (August 10, 2001). "Film Review; Getting More Than They Bargained For When They Submitted the Low Bid" . The New York Times . Archived from the original on January 2, 2020. Retrieved January 2, 2020.
  27. Beierle, Chris (February 27, 2002). "Session 9: DVD Talk Review". DVD Talk . Archived from the original on January 16, 2020.
  28. "Session 9". Shout! Factory . Archived from the original on August 16, 2024. Retrieved August 18, 2024.
  29. Carruthers, Sean. "Session 9 – Original Soundtrack". AllMusic. Archived from the original on September 29, 2020. Retrieved September 14, 2012.

Sources