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StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Catangro After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

cinephile-27690 That's something Roger Ebert wrote in his 3/4 star review. And I agree. Few horror movies induce fear in me. Many horror films are predictable to me and earn a 10 "liked" or fewer stars. Gothika is not in this category. There are many instances of decent horror and suspense. As Ebert said in his TV review(which can be found with reviews of movies like Looney Tunes Back In Action and 8 Mile), this is a movie that will polarize people, since there are plot holes. I personally would not have noticed them without the review. But that was not my concern with this, I wanted to be scared, and what scared me more was that the movie would fail me. Like I said, it did not. Horror fans who have not seen this are missing out. This is a movie that they want.

gavin6942 A repressed female psychiatrist (Halle Berry) wakes up as a patient in the asylum where she worked, with no memory of why she is there or what she has done.How do you put John Carroll Lynch and Robert Downey in a movie and have it be bad? That is a real challenge. Of course, adding Halle Berry probably is the top reason this movie is garbage, but she is not the only one to blame. The plot is messed up and the editing is pretty ridiculous.Others have compared this to "Sixth Sense" and other films like that. Certainly "Shutter Island" seems appropriate. Both of those are worlds ahead of this one. I was just so not interested in this, at all, and few people love horror and thrillers more than I do.

imdb-45 Saw this on cable. Might be the worst script I've ever read in contrast to the level of talent in this movie. When you can make Robert Downey Jr., Halle Berry and Penelope Cruz look this bad and take name actresses and create an awkward dialogue throughout the movie, you know it has to be putrid.The problem - the story is a random bunch of nonsense that is supposed to come together. Well, it does when it's convenient to the story, which is nothing but "how many red herrings can we create until we get into the big reveal?" The bigger problem: there is no payoff. I won't give away the ending but it's enough for me to say that whatever redeeming aspects about the movie that exist, perhaps some of the atmosphere, is undermined by the colossally stupid payoff.Every time Downey Jr is on the screen, he seems to want to run off and wash the dialogue away. He's clearly trying to get into his character and make the dumb, illogical dialog work, but it doesn't. Cruz doesn't really have much to do and Halle Berry is in just one muddled scene after another with stilted dialogue that is nonsensical. Nobody acts this way, even in dumb horror films. The only thing that kept me watching was that I was working and had it on in the background. The payoff was so bad that I had to roll my eyes and ask whether the writer could have been any lazier. And the answer was "no, he could not be lazier." This is a serious waste of time and you'll regret listening to any of the reviews here that even try to rationalize why you should watch this tripe. Read a synopsis of the film to understand what you're getting into. This is a loser that never should have been made.

vchimpanzee This isn't the type of movie I would want to watch. But I have to say it's worth seeing just for Halle Berry's performance. Plus she looks good no matter what, and in those scenes where she is locked up for the first time, she's wearing this gown with slits up the side. And there's the scene where she is swimming.Here are three specifics of Berry's performance: She's really good when Miranda is frightened. She's positively chilling, with no conscience, as she kills Doug (note that she didn't necessarily do it; Miranda is hallucinating). And when she almost hits a truck, her unexpected reaction is neat.Charles S. Dutton also does a good job. It's kind of unnerving to see a tough man like him be so vulnerable; once again I'm referring to the scene where Miranda supposedly kills him.I'm not familiar with Penelope Cruz, but nothing about Chloe made me think of her. She certainly wasn't that pretty. But the performance is very good if she can really become someone else.I'm not a fan of creepy, but this movie does creepy very well. Particularly since the prison has serious electrical problems. And of course there are the truly frightening scenes. And one in particular that is so violent I wish I hadn't seen it. Did the victim have it coming? You decide.The mystery is interesting, especially once the search for answers shifts to this run-down house in the country.I am curious about one thing; when she's locked up, where is Miranda's toilet? If you like a scary mystery, this is probably a good one. It's just scarier than I like.