Gothika
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Gothika | |
|---|---|
 movie poster for Gothika |
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| Directed by | Mathieu Kassovitz |
| Produced by | Dark Castle Entertainment |
| Written by | Sebastian Gutierrez |
| Starring | Halle Berry |
| Music by | John Ottman Lior Rosner |
| Cinematography | Matthew Libatique |
| Editing by | Yannick Kergoat |
| Distributed by | - USA - Warner Bros. - non-USA- Columbia Pictures |
| Release date(s) | November 21, 2003,(USA) |
| Running time | 98 min |
| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
| Budget | US$40 million (estimated) |
| Official website | |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Gothika, a 2003 horror/supernatural thriller movie directed by Mathieu Kassovitz and written by Sebastian Gutierrez, is the story of a psychiatrist (played by Halle Berry) in a women's prison who wakes up one day to find herself on the other side of the bars, accused of having murdered her husband.
The film was first released on 13 November 2003 in the USA and later in 2004 outside of the USA.
Taglines:
- Just because someone is dead doesn't mean they're gone.
- You are not alone.
- Dr. Miranda Grey is an expert at knowing what is rational, what is logical, what is sane... until the day she woke up on the other side.
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[edit] Brief synopsis
Dr. Miranda Grey (Halle Berry) is a prominent psychiatrist working at a mental hospital. On her way home from work one day, she narrowly misses hitting a girl in the middle of the road. The next thing Miranda knows, several days have passed, she is a patient in the very hospital she once worked for, and she stands accused of murdering her husband. Miranda fights to convince her former co-workers of her sanity and her innocence while she struggles to regain her lost memories.
[edit] Detailed synopsis
Gothika is the story of a psychiatrist, Dr. Miranda Grey, who works at a mental hospital and has a car accident after trying to avoid a girl on a road during a stormy night, while driving back home. She rushes to try to help the girl, who turns out to be a ghost. The girl, in turn, gets possession of Miranda's body by burning her after she extended her hand to the girl.
Miranda next wakes up in the very hospital she works for, but as a patient treated by her co-worker, Dr. Pete Graham. Drugged and confused, she remembers nothing of what happened after the car accident. To her horror, she learns that her husband Douglas was brutally murdered and that she is the primary suspect.
While Miranda copes with her new life in the hospital, the ghost uses her body to carry out messages (most noticeably, she carves the words "not alone" into Miranda's arm) which leads the other doctors to believe Miranda is suicidal and is inflicting the wounds on herself.
Meanwhile, Miranda bonds with one of her former patients (who is now her fellow inmate), Chloe Sava (Penélope Cruz). Several times in sessions, Chloe had claimed that she'd been raped while in the hospital, but Miranda had always attributed these stories to mental illness. One night the door to Miranda's room in the hospital is opened by the ghost that has been haunting her. When she passes Chloe's room in the hospital, she can hear the rape occurring and momentarily sees a man's chest pressed against the window. The man's chest bears a tattoo of an anima sola. Miranda realizes that Chloe was not making up these stories, and when she sees Chloe the next day, she apologizes, and the two embrace. Chloe warns Miranda that her attacker was going to target Miranda next.
Miranda begins regaining some of her memories bit by bit, and slowly comes to remember herself killing her husband. She realizes that the ghost had used her body to murder Doug. This is why all of the physical evidence points to Miranda.
Miranda escapes the hospital, having recognized the girl as a ghost. Seeking clues to the mystery of why she killed her husband, she goes to a farmhouse in Willow Creek, Rhode Island. In the cellar of the barn she discovers a room containing a blood-stained bed, what appears to be a box containing injectable drugs, restraints, and video equipment. She watches the tape that is still in the camera and the viewer hears a woman screaming as if tortured or raped. In the final seconds of the video, which the viewer sees, Doug is seen covering a woman's lifeless body on the bed with a sheet. At this point, police arrive, and one officer comes closer to Miranda and draws a gun to her while she is holding a knife to him. Miranda backs up to a stair case, and all of a sudden a pair of hands are seen coming from between the stairs, and they wrap around Miranda. The hands belong to an injured, franticly screaming girl trapped in the crawlspace behind the stair case. She is one of the girls kidnapped and raped by Doug. The police release the girl, and Miranda is arrested and taken to jail.
While waiting in jail, the sheriff (John Carroll Lynch), listens sympathetically to Miranda's idea that the rapist with the anima sola tattoo was also Doug's accomplice. Insulted by Miranda's unflattering psychological profile, and realizing that she suspects him, the sheriff reveals that he is the accomplice with the tattoo and attacks Miranda. Miranda kills the sheriff in an act of self defense, with the help of the ghost.
After proving their innocence and sanity, Miranda and her patient are released from the asylum a few months later. Miranda claims to be free of the ghost's influence, but finds that she has become a medium and still sees ghosts, one as a young boy standing in the middle of the road. As she runs away, a poster is seen with the words "Have you seen him?", and a picture of the same boy.
[edit] Cast
- Halle Berry - Dr. Miranda Grey
- Robert Downey Jr. - Dr. Pete Graham
- Charles S. Dutton - Dr. Douglas Grey
- John Carroll Lynch - Sheriff Ryan
- Bernard Hill - Phil Parsons
- Penélope Cruz - Chloe Sava
- Dorian Harewood - Teddy Howard
- Bronwen Mantel - Irene
- Kathleen Mackey - Rachel Parsons
- Matthew G. Taylor - Turlington
- Michel Perron - Joe
- Andrea Sheldon - Tracey Seavers
- Anana Rydvald - Glass Cell Nurse
- Laura Mitchell - Inmate
- Amy Sloan - Inmate
- Noël Burton - Prison Doctor
- Benz Antoine - Guard
- Andy Bradshaw - Guard
- Jason Cavalier - Guard
- Jasson Finney - Guard
- Terry Simpson - Guard
- Kwasi Songui - Guard
- Caroline Van Vlaardingen - Reporter
- David banks - secert lover
- Al Vandecruys - Reporter
- Sonia Israel - Street girl
- Noah Bernett - Tim
[edit] Budget
According to the IMDB, the film's budget was approximately US$ 40 million.
[edit] Awards
[edit] Won
- Choice Movie Actress - Drama/Action Adventure - Halle Berry
[edit] Nominated
- Best Actress - Halle Berry
2004 Golden Trailer Award
- Best Horror/Thriller
- Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture - Halle Berry
- Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture - Charles S. Dutton
2004 Kids' Choice Awards, USA
- Favorite Movie Actress - Halle Berry
- Best Female Performance - Halle Berry
- Choice Movie – Thriller
[edit] Trivia
Halle Berry broke her arm and leg filming a scene with Robert Downey Jr. Downey was supposed to grab her arm and twist it, but he twisted too hard and the arm snapped, later after coming back she broke for leg while doing the escape scene. Berry also reported to have been haunted by weird things on set as well off set. "Something would grab my legs at night and would follow me wherever I went. I don't know what it was but it scared me!" She later claimed to seek the help of a shaman that cleansed her spirit. It is unknown whether or not she is still haunted. Production was halted for eight weeks.[1][2]
