The episode of Best Horror Movie You Never Saw covering Gothika was Written and Edited by Paul Bookstaber, Narrated by Kier Gomes, Produced by John Fallon and Tyler Nichols, and Executive Produced by Berge Garabedian.
Back in the late 90’s, early 2000s the horror genre was in that weird phase of encapsulating what it truly wanted to be. Hot off the heels of Scream, horror movies focused much more on the teenage angst, and lifestyle. But there comes a time when some hidden gems make their way to the silver screen that branch off the beaten path with a more adult-themed tale, drenched in psychological/mental horror. What if one day you’re living your average life, working your 9-5, and suddenly black, out only to wake up, institutionalized and accused of committing a crime you can’t seem to remember doing? In 2003, director Mathieu Kassovitz gave us a True Detective style horror story way before Nic Pizzolatto’s HBO series True Detective was even a thing. You also have A-lister and Oscar Winner Halle Berry headlining, as a psychologist turned psych-patient, institutionalized, trying to put the puzzle pieces together before she spends the rest of her existence in the looney bin. Today we’re going over the 2003 psychological banger, Gothika (watch it HERE), and it might be one of the best horror movies you never saw.
Gothika is the fourth-produced movie in the Dark Castle Entertainment chamber. Dark Castle Entertainment had a string of pretty good to great films during the early 2000s most notably starting in 1999 with William Malone’s House on Haunted Hill. That movie had a blockbuster cast such as Bridgette Wilson Sampras, Geoffrey Rush, Famke Janssen, and Ali Larter. Then they followed Haunted Hill with Matthew Lillard and Tony Shalhoub’s Thirteen Ghosts, which had effective scares and superb practical makeup effects. And lastly their third outing which was 2002’s Ghost Ship, which had that amazing gore-gag wire scene that still is revered till this day. Dark Castle’s name is based off 1950s horror director William Castle. The company wanted to recreate his old films theatrically. That plan soured and they started creating original IPs to distinguish themselves for variety in the Hollywood circuit. When you have some time to yourselves, do watch some of Dark Castle’s films as they are great spooky movies that have great entertainment value, even if some of them are downright cheese, and are willing to cast Paris Hilton as one of their stars, yikes. This flick however, deviated towards a more serious and darker tone from Haunted Hill, 13 Ghosts, and Ghost Ship and that’s a great thing.
French director, Mathieu Kassovitz is also a Hollywood actor appearing in some amazing films like Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Amelie, Luc Besson’s The Fifth Element, and Steven Spielberg’s Munich. Prior to directing Gothika, Mathieu has only directed French cinema films, making Gothika his American directorial debut. He got his acclaim when he took home the top prize of Best Director at Cannes Film Festival for his French film, La Haine in 1995. Unfortunately, after directing Gothika, he directed only one more American film, Vin Diesel’s Babylon AD and decided he wanted to go back into French cinema. If you are looking to investigate a little deeper, it seems there was a ton of controversy surrounding Mathieu’s time as a Hollywood director. He discussed the endless turmoil on both productions of Gothika and Babylon AD which may have given him a different thought process into American filmmaking and the politics involved when it came to being on set. You can also look up his documentary on Youtube called. “Fuck Kassovitz,” which is about his time as director on the set of Babylon AD.
The movie starts off with psychiatrist, Dr. Miranda Grey who works as a psychologist at a Woodward Penitentiary in Connecticut. She’s happily married, seems to live life on the up and up, committed and dedicated to her job helping patients. Life seems grand for Miranda. That is until one night driving home in the rain, she crashes her car by swerving away from a girl on a cold and wet desolate road. When Miranda tries to help the girl in the middle of the road, the girl attacks her and we are transitioned to Miranda waking up in a psychiatric cell where her colleague Pete, played by Iron Man himself, Robert Downey Jr, acknowledges that she’s been restrained for three days and she murdered her husband, Doug, played by Charles S Dutton. This starts our little journey where Miranda must pick up the pieces of this twisted puzzle to clear her name while staying clear of potential suspects who might have framed her in the process. However, is she telling the truth? Or did she commit this atrocity and had a catatonic breaking point? Because in truth, everyone has a breaking point, it’s only a matter of when.
Gothika has an impressive cast lineup that gives it a massive edge over Dark Castle’s previous films. Star power is usually what’s missing from the horror genre, but the movie landed its most prominent star in Halle Berry. Halle Berry two years earlier won the Best Actress Oscar for her role as Leticia Musgrove in Monster’s Ball already giving this some much needed appeal. Halle Berry took the role after becoming interested once she found out that her portrayal would be about a psychiatrist. Halle’s own mother was a nurse in a psychiatric ward of a hospital which gained her attention from the start. Even if the film was critically panned this was a great showing by Halle Berry’s acting abilities, especially in a horror film, she displays multiple personalities when you’re trying to decide if she’s three sheets to the wind, or perfectly stable and sound. It’s great range, a far cry from her role in The Flintstones, and helps elevate the film’s scenes.
You also have Robert Downey Jr as Halle Berry’s colleague and side-fling, Dr. Pete Graham. Robert Downey Jr displays the flipside to Halle’s coin. Does he have sinister intentions underneath that calm and collected demeanor? Downey Jr has a great range to his arsenal and rightfully so. During his time battling his personal demons of sex drugs and rock and roll, or just drugs, he was still one of those actors making his way up the ranks in the Hollywood circuit and demonstrated superb acting ability with movies like Natural Born Killers, US Marshals, and In Dreams. The film also includes some great supporting actors like Charles S. Dutton who already has some horror roots to his name. You might remember him from Guillermo Del Toro’s Mimic. You also have Oscar-winning actress Penelope Cruz as psych inmate Chloe. And plays an integral part of the story. And lastly, John Carrol Lynch who plays local town sheriff, Officer Ryan. John Carrol Lynch is no stranger to horror as well. He was Twisty the Clown in American Horror Story: Freakshow. He also acted alongside Robert Downey Jr in David Fincher’s Zodiac and lent his acting services in Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island as a deputy.
What makes this film so unique Is its ability to twist the themes of trust. While Halle Berry’s character Miranda is a person who dedicates her life into the rehabilitating and evaluation of psyche patients, it tends to flip when she is the one behind those glass doors and all her colleagues treat her as the crazy one. Miranda’s colleague, Pete, respects her, and has a flirtatious history with her at the start of the movie, only to treat her as nuts and delusional once she’s admitted into the ward. The patient Chloe played by Penelope Cruz befriends Miranda even when Miranda evaluated her as crazy but in truth, Chloe is in sound mind and judgement at times, especially when Miranda confronts her about being raped one night in her cell by an unknown man with satanic tattoos. This eventually leads Miranda to the real enemy. You also learn by the end of the movie that looks can be deceiving. The real people that you turn to trust and confide in, may very well be the evil show itself in plain sight, right under your nose.
Gothika has some great atmosphere for a horror, psychological thriller. Hell, maybe some of the best I’ve seen in a horror movie since Carpenter’s Halloween, or The Thing. Effectiveness is the best medicine when it comes to watching a horror movie at night. You need to have those skin-crawling moments right when you least expect it and that’s done wonderfully through the lens of cinematographer, Matthew Libatique. It’s use of framing, and pale-grey and blue palette is like a cold and desolate lucid nightmare shown through the mind of an imprisoned and isolated murderer. Matthew Libatique has a great visual palette and it’s no surprise that he delivered other beautiful looking films like Pi, Everything is Illuminated, Black Swan, and Maestro. Mix that with film editor, Yannick Kergoat and you got yourself a vivid, bad acid trip; which keeps you on the edge of your seat trying to decipher the fragmented images and sequences that show up on screen as clues, uncovering it all, once the climax reaches full tilt.
Gothika went into production in Montreal, on a budget of 40 million dollars. Crazy trivia regarding the production. It had to halt shooting due to Robert Downey Jr breaking Halle Berry’s arm accidentally when it came to throwing her around a little bit in a certain scene. Even with the bad reception, we will get to that shortly, and behind the scenes drama between co-stars, The movie went on to make a whopping 141 million dollars at the box-office mostly due to Halle Berry’s name attached to it. Not bad for a horror film. The reception was bleak for Dark Castle’s newest film. Reviews stated that it was “A promising movie that falls apart,” “An enigma that isn’t nearly as clever as the screenwriter thinks it is”, and even, “Grisly, disturbing, and extremely violent,” (That last reviewer probably never seen Evil Dead Rises, just to be honest). On Rotten Tomatoes it has a critical reception of 14%, eye-opening, although, in my humblest of opinions, slightly exaggerated. This is nowhere near as bad as it’s claimed to be, and stands as an intriguing ghost story with an entwined murder-mystery caper.
If you’re looking for a good psychological horror flick with some pretty good frights and thrills, Gothika is one of those flicks. Although the plot may be a little far-fetched, it brings you along this dark and twisted rollercoaster ride which never has any lull or drag. Its top tier cast soak it all in every scene, and although there are very big similarities between this and a little movie called What Lies Beneath, starring Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfieffer, it doesn’t take you away from the experience that Gothika has to offer. In honesty, we need more star-studded horrors. Every now and then we get them like Jamie Lee Curtis’ reprisal in Halloween 2018, or Joaquin Phoenix taking a jump into the deep end of Ari Aster’s Beau is Afraid, or Toni Collette’s lead role in Hereditary. It shows some much-needed depth within the genre and the projects these A-Listers choose. It only creates more hype and anticipation that horror fans like me can root and rejoice for. But I assure you if you want to kill some time either alone, with a family member, friend, or loved one, check out this gem. It will be sure to leave you with some lasting impressions, take that as you will.
A couple previous episodes of the Best Horror Movie You Never Saw series can be seen below. To see more, and to check out some of our other shows, head over to the JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel – and subscribe while you’re there!