John Carpenter fans have had a long wait between films from their favorite genre man. The director of cult favorites like Halloween, Escape From LA and The Thing has been on a hiatus of sorts but finally returns to multiplexes after a 10-year absence with this week’s The Ward.
This psychological thriller takes place in a special ward in a mental hospital and revolves around new arrival Kristen (Amber Heard), who has no idea how she ended up institutionalized. As she slowly gets to know the other patients, played by Mamie Gummer, Danielle Panabaker, Lyndsy Fonseca and Laura-Leigh, she realizes they are all hiding a terrible and deadly secret.
When MTV News caught up with Carpenter and Heard to talk about their thriller, we asked how much of a creepy factor was added into the film simply by the practical effect of their filming location — an actual abandoned mental hospital.
“It was in an abandoned building on a campus with crazy people in a mental institution, the criminally insane,” Carpenter explained of their set.
“We were cozily sandwiched between the prison for the criminally insane and the hospital for the mentally insane,” Heard added. “We had this prime little location right between the two. We were fenced in.”
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