John Carpenter’s The Ward Lands US Distribution at EFM

Steve Barton |

Feb 12, 2011

2011 EFM As promised, there’s more news coming in from Berlin and the 2011 European Film Market, and this is some of the best we’ve heard in a while. John Carpenter’s The Ward finally has Stateside distro!

Per Deadline London on this Day 3 of the EFM ARC Entertainment and XLrator Media Partnership have taken U.S. rights to John Carpenter’s The Ward, the cult director’s first feature since the late 90s. Amber Heard (Drive Angry 3D), Mamie Gummer (“Off the Map”), and Danielle Panabaker (Friday the 13th) star in this shocker set in a 60s mental institution terrorised by malevolent forces. Doug Mankoff, Andrew Spaulding of Echo Lake Entertainment (Tsotsi) produce along with Peter Block of A Bigger Boat.

Synopsis
The Ward is an intense psychological thriller set in a mental institution where a young woman, Kristen, is haunted by a mysterious and deadly ghost. As danger creeps closer, she comes to realize that this ghost might be darker than she could have imagined.

Kristen, who is in her early 20’s, wakes to find herself bruised, cut, drugged, and held against her will in a remote ward of Chamberlain Psychiatric Hospital. She is completely disoriented with no idea why she was brought to this place and no memory of her life.

The other patients in the ward, four equally troubled girls, offer no answers, and Kristen quickly realizes things are not as they seem. The air is heavy with secrets, and at night, when the hospital is dark and foreboding, she hears strange and disturbing sounds. It appears they are not alone.

One by one the girls disappear, and Kristen must find a way out of this hellish place before the ghost comes for her, too. As she struggles to escape, she will uncover a truth far more dangerous and horrifying than anyone could have imagined.