Session 9

Session 9
Promotional poster
Directed by	Brad Anderson
Produced by	John Sloss Dorothy Aufiero David Collins Michael Williams
Written by	Brad Anderson Stephen Gevedon
Starring	David Caruso Peter Mullan Stephen Gevedon Paul Guilfoyle Josh Lucas Brendan Sexton III
Music by	Climax Golden Twins
Cinematography	Uta Briesewitz
Editing by	Brad Anderson
Distributed by	USA Films
Release date(s)	August 10, 2001 (U.S.)
Running time	102 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$1,500,000

Session 9 is a 2001 American psychological horror film directed by Brad Anderson. It stars David Caruso, Peter Mullan, Stephen Gevedon, Paul Guilfoyle, Josh Lucas, and Brendan Sexton III. The plot focuses on the growing tension within an asbestos removal crew working at an abandoned mental asylum, which is paralleled by the gradual revelation of a former patient's disturbed past through recorded audio tape of the patient's hypnotherapy sessions. The film takes place in and around the Danvers State Mental Hospital in Danvers, Massachusetts. The massive building in Danvers, which was part of the National Register of Historic Places, was partially demolished in 2006.

Plot

The Danvers State Hospital has been closed since 1985. Gordon Fleming (Peter Mullan) is the owner of The Hazmat Elimination Company, a small asbestos removal company. When he hears that the hospital needs asbestos removal, he makes a bid to remove it, as he is in desperate need of money. He is also a new father, and the stress of work and parenthood have been causing problems between Gordon and his wife, Wendy.

Gordon's team is small, but eclectic. Mike (Stephen Gevedon, also the film's screenwriter) is a law school dropout, who knows the most about the asylum in the group. Phil (David Caruso) is filled with bitterness after losing his long-time girlfriend to Hank (Josh Lucas), another team member. Because of this, Phil has taken up smoking marijuana. Jeff, Gordon's nephew (Brendan Sexton III), is the youngest member, and suffers from severe nyctophobia.

Mike discovers a box marked Evidence in a tunnel. Inside, he finds a collection of nine taped sessions with former patient number 444, a 37-year-old named Mary Hobbes from 1974. He listens and becomes increasingly engrossed in the interviews, which detail her dissociative identity disorder (multiple personalities). Two of Hobbes' personalities are harmless and child-like. They all refer to another personality named Simon, someone they don't want to talk about. Throughout the sessions, it is revealed that something terrible happened involving a knife and a china doll when she was fourteen during Christmas 1951 in Lowell, Massachusetts.

Gordon opens up to Phil and admits that he hit Wendy after she accidentally spilled a pot of boiling water on him. He is extremely depressed, frequently talking to his wife on his cell phone, asking her forgiveness. Meanwhile, Hank finds a stash of old coins and other valuable items that have been left in a tunnel since the asylum closed. He returns one night to steal the artifacts, among which he finds an orbitoclast. He follows sounds and finds an empty peanut butter jar, the same as the kind Gordon brought home the first night. Terrified, Hank tries to run out of the tunnels, when he is attacked by an unseen assailant and disappears. Gordon begins to suspect that Phil may have murdered him. Hank, however, is soon found by Jeff. Gordon goes with Jeff to investigate but Hank is gone when they arrive. The coworkers split up to find Hank. One by one, they become lost in the huge asylum and are slowly ambushed by an unseen attacker.

Meanwhile, the recording of the final session with patient 444, Session 9, is heard. Simon, the evil personality, finally speaks. He reveals that when she was a child, Mary, encouraged by Simon, murdered her brother after he scared her. He had previously caused her to severely injure herself by falling over onto her china doll. She then proceeded to kill the rest of her family. A flashback reveals that, after his initial inspection of the hospital, Gordon went home, and when his wife spilled the boiling water on him, he did not slap her as he told Phil, but in fact murdered her and his daughter, at Simon's encouragement. He then proceeded to murder all of his colleagues in succession (committing the murders in a dissociative state). Gordon, talking into his broken cell phone, starts crying and apologizing to his wife. In the final scene, the doctor asks: "And where do you live, Simon?" Simon replies, "I live in the weak and the wounded, Doc."

Reception

Session 9 garnered mixed reviews from critics. Based on 65 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, Session 9 currently has a 62% 'fresh' approval rating from critics, with a weighted mean score of 6.2/10. By comparison, Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film has received an average score of 58, based on 16 reviews which it characterized as "mixed or average" reviews.

Some critics praised the film's dark and creepy atmosphere and lack of gore. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone called the film "a spine-tingler" and praised Brad Anderson's direction. Bloody Disgusting ranked the film fifth in their list of the 'Top 20 Horror Films of the Decade', with the article saying "Session 9 isn’t just a cheap, hack ‘n’ slash, instantly-forgettable type horror film, but a psychologically probing, deeply unsettling journey off the edge and into the abyss of the human mind."

However, the San Francisco Chronicle film critic Edward Guthmann said "The story doesn't quite pay off, characters are underwritten and the surprise ending is contrived and unconvincing." Dave Kehr of The New York Times said the "film, too artfully conceived to deliver many overt shocks, often feels long and aimless." The film critic David Edelstein wrote in Slate that the ending was "a poor return on nearly two hours of ear-buckling, eye-stabbing incoherence."

Interpretations

In reviewing the film for the 2003 edition of The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, Ellen Datlow contends that Simon is not necessarily an alternate personality of the former patient Mary, but rather a malignant genius loci. She also points out that the deleted scenes included on the DVD help fill out the narrative.

Cast

• Peter Mullan – Gordon "Gordy" Fleming
• David Caruso – Phil
• Stephen Gevedon – Mike
• Josh Lucas – Hank
• Brendan Sexton III – Jeff, Gordon's nephew
• Paul Guilfoyle – Bill Griggs
• Larry Fessenden – Craig McManus
• Jurian Hughes – Mary Hobbes (voice)
• Lonnie Farmer – doctor (voice)
• Sheila Stasack – Wendy, Gordon's wife (voice)
• Charley Broderick – security guard

See also

• Genius (mythology) – referring to spirits such as a Genius loci

External links

• Session 9 at the Internet Movie Database
• Session 9 at AllRovi
• Session 9 at Rotten Tomatoes
• Danvers State Hospital website