Session 9

Dir: Brad Anderson

2001

*****

I’m a big fan of director Brad Anderson but while not all his films are of a high standard, I do feel that his 2001 psychological horror Session 9 is still one of the best contemporary horror films in the last few decades. It is certainly overlooked and isn’t regarded highly enough. It was a strange change of direction for Anderson who until then had directed two romantic comedy films, Next Stop Wonderland (1998) and Happy Accidents (2000). The film was inspired by a murder that took place in Boston in the mid-90s, where Anderson grew up, 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. Most of the film was shot in a small section of the Danvers State Asylum; according to actor David Caruso, the rest of the building was "unsafe" for shooting. Caruso also claims the sets didn't need to be dressed as all the props featured in the film were already there inside the building. The eerie setting was perfect and authentic. The cast is very strong too, with stars David Caruso, Peter Mullan, Stephen Gevedon, Paul Guilfoyle, Josh Lucas, and Brendan Sexton III all being good solid actors. Actors like Caruso, Mullan and Guilfoyle strike me as the sort of people who wouldn’t ordinarily go for horror film parts and their unflinching demeanor makes their actions all the more striking and convincing. Caruso reported in the official Production Notes that he saw "something pass my window" when shooting inside the Bonner Medical Building of Danvers State Hospital. "I didn't want to tell anybody, because people would start looking at me strangely..." Peter Mullan also reported strange happenings on the set. He claims that while filming on the roof, a voice in his head told him to jump off to see what would happen. He said the building brought out a morbid kind of "overactive curiosity." This could all be clever film promotion but neither Caruso nor Mullan strike me as guys with integrity who wouldn’t lower themselves to such promotional nonsense. It is fare to say that the Danvers State Mental Hospital is the ‘other’ star of the show. I love the set up too. This film doesn’t feature kids larking about in the woods but instead concerns a bunch of blue collar workers. Gordon Fleming (Peter Mullan) is the owner of a small asbestos removal company. The stresses of work and being a new father are causing problems between him and his wife, Wendy. He is in a desperate financial bind and makes a bid to remove asbestos from the Danvers State Hospital, closed fifteen years ago, within one week. His team consists of Mike (Stephen Gevedon), a law school dropout who is knowledgeable about the asylum's history; Phil (David Caruso), who is filled with bitterness after losing his girlfriend and finds solace in smoking weed; Hank (Josh Lucas), who also just lost his girlfriend; and Jeff (Brendan Sexton III), Gordon's nephew, who suffers from severe nyctophobia. During the survey of the job site, Gordon hears a disembodied voice in a hallway that greets him by name, and later states "You can hear me". As work begins inside the asylum, Mike finds a box containing nine taped sessions with a patient named Mary Hobbes, who suffered from dissociative identity disorder. The purpose of the sessions, which Mike becomes increasingly engrossed in, is to unveil what happened on Christmas night in Lowell, her hometown, twenty-two years before. One of her personalities, "the Princess", is childlike and innocent, knowing only the Christmas presents - a china doll for Mary and a knife for her brother, Peter - and that they played hide-and-seek after their parents went to bed. Another personality, "Billy", is both childlike and protective. He lives "in the eyes" and saw what happened, but refuses to let Mary find out. The doctor repeatedly asks about Simon, who he thinks is a third personality. "The Princess" knows nothing about Simon, while "Billy" fears him. In the tunnels beneath the property, Hank finds a cache of antique Morgan dollar coins and other silver items, scattered from the crematory nearby. He returns that night to steal the artifacts and finds an orbitoclast. He hears odd sounds in the tunnels and discovers an empty peanut butter jar. He hears someone behind him and tries to escape the tunnels, but he is attacked by an unseen assailant. The next morning, the other four learn that Hank abruptly broke up with his girlfriend and left town; the four speculate about the possibility that Hank finally won some money in a lottery. Gordon, who frequently calls his wife and saw Phil speaking to two unknown men during one telephone call, suspects that Phil had something to do with Hank's disappearance, causing tension between the group. At one point Gordon goes outside the building into the old garden, where several tombstones from patients who died during their stay at the asylum are located. As Gordon sits on a part of a tree trunk, he tries to call his wife again but is cut short by Jeff, who expresses gratitude for the job opportunity. Gordon later opens up to Phil and admits that he hit Wendy after she accidentally spilled a pot of boiling water on his leg; he has been trying to apologize over the phone ever since. His leg is badly blistering and hurting, but he continues the work. Phil calls in another worker, Craig McManus, to assist with the job that is now behind schedule after Hank's disappearance. Phil tells Mike that he thinks Gordon has become a liability and reveals to Mike that Gordon admitted to slapping his wife. Jeff finds Hank alive, but strangely unresponsive to Jeff's questions about where he has been. Jeff runs to tell the others, but Hank disappears again when the group returns. They split up to find Hank, but instead of looking, Mike quickly returns to the session tapes which he now feels compelled to finish listening to. In the taped recordings "Billy" refuses to awaken Simon, admitting to the doctor only that Simon was behind whatever happened that night. During the search, Phil finds Hank in one of the tunnels, half-naked, wearing sunglasses and muttering to himself. The power goes out at that point, trapping Jeff in a pitch-black tunnel and also stopping the ninth session tape short. Mike restores the power and the ninth session continues with Simon, the same voice Gordon has been hearing since the job began, taking over. Simon reveals that Peter scared Mary while they were playing and she fell on her doll, breaking it and badly cutting up her chest. Simon explains that at that moment he sensed Mary was weak and helpless so he "introduced" himself to her. Simon then told Mary to cut up Peter and her parents with the new knife, and she willingly complied with his instruction. The doctor asks Simon why, and Simon tells him "Because Mary let me, Doc." Simon then repeats "They always do," implying that he is not a mere personality, but rather an external entity that has influenced many people through time. As the recording continues, Phil finds Gordon in Mary's former hospital room, staring at photos of his new daughters baptism stuck to the wall. A shaken Jeff flees to the van, where he also is attacked by an unseen assailant. The next day, Craig arrives at the asylum. Gordon finds Hank, with the orbitoclast protruding from his eye, wrapped in plastic in one of the larger rooms. Phil also appears and tells Gordon to "wake up" when Gordon accuses Phil of being the one who attacked the others. As Craig finds them, it is shown that Phil's presence was in actually only Gordon's mind. Possessed by Simon's influence, Gordon enters a dissociative state and kills Craig with the orbitoclast after removing it from Hank's eye socket. It is revealed that Gordon, in the disassociated state, attacked Hank that night in the tunnels. Gordon is also shown killing Phil after being found in Mary's room before finding and killing Mike and Jeff. It is also revealed that Gordon did not just slap his wife, but killed her, the family dog, and their baby after the pot of boiling water was spilled on him. Gordon was encouraged by the laughing voice of Simon saying "Do it, Gordon," the same as the way he had done with Mary decades earlier. Gordon finally breaks down and realizes he has killed his family and all his friends. He uses his cell phone, which is broken, to apologize to an already dead Wendy. The film ends with a doctor asking, "And where do you live, Simon?" with Simon answering, "I live in the weak and the wounded, Doc," implying that those who are vulnerable can be compelled by his influence to commit acts of evil. The film didn’t do well at the box office but has since become a cult favorite between those who saw it. It is incredibly eerie and atmospheric, there are no pointless jump scenes and the film contains no gore. It isn’t the sort of horror I usually go for but this had me stiff with intensity and suspense. It wouldn’t have worked with a bunch of kids, it is all down to having good actors and a very ordinary setting, the psychological horror then seeps in at its own perfect pace. You get two creepy stories for the price of one and a brilliant twist ending that I doubt anyone saw coming. It is a brilliant horror film let down only by the fact that very few people know about it.