Amber Heard

John Carpenter's new film The Ward marks the director's return to horror after an eight year hiatus. His 2001 film, Ghosts of Mars, was met with mostly negative reviews and left many horror fans wondering what the heck happened to their esteemed leader. Though he had a stint with two Masters of Horror episodes in 2005, many are curious to see what's next for the big screen.

Shock reports that fans can now take a peek at Carpenter's latest project via his website. A pre-production video diary offers a look at The Ward's location (Spokane, WA), cast members at a table reading, a nifty production notebook and Carpenter himself. Judging from the video, Eastern State Hospital looks to be the perfect location to amp up the creep factor. It's also nice to see Carpenter in action--challenging and guiding his cast.

The Ward stars Amber Heard (Pineapple Express), Danielle Panabaker (Friday the 13th 2009), Jared Harris (Resident Evil: Apocalypse), Mika Boorem (Along Came a Spider), Mamie Gummer (Taking Woodstock), Lyndsy Fonseca (Heroes, CSI), Laura-Leigh (Law & Order) and features Dan Anderson, Susanna Burney and Sali Sayler. The story revolves around Kristen, a young woman who has been institutionalized and suffers the torment of a mysterious entity.

Though the video is short, here's hoping there will be more to see soon. However, there is a video floating around that is reportedly The Ward's first footage. Check it out after the jump. You can catch up on some of Carpenter's other projects here.

Indifference is, perhaps, one of the most frustrating attitudes one can have towards a film. If you love a film, singing its praises is a natural by-product. Hating a film can often times be an even more cathartic experience than loving a film, as vitriol is always easily on tap. But not particularly caring one way or the other? That's oddly frustrating for me.

The Stepfather, the most recent collaboration between producer J.S. Cardone and director Nelson McCormick (the last being their remake of Prom Night, a project I feel safe calling the most annoying horror film of 2008, and even that's being diplomatic), is another entry to a new Hollywood tradition of finding vaguely recognizable films from the 1980s and remaking them on the cheap. Now, I'm not one to bemoan this business model; it's fine if the end result has enough originality to it that there is at least the illusion that the film is something more than a commodity to draw in a big opening weekend.

Fortunately The Stepfather does have enough airiness to it and enough interesting performers in it to convince even a hardened cynic that money wasn't the only motivation for all involved, that creatively the team behind it did want to deliver to new audiences a story of the reverse-black widow, of a man who lulls vulnerable single-mothers into thinking he wants to join their family, only to bite their heads off (figuratively, there's no actual cannibalism involved) when their back is turned.