All Movie Guide

Writer/director Brad Anderson, known for whimsical romantic comedies like Next Stop, Wonderland, was inspired by the astonishing, creepy visage of an abandoned mental hospital in Danvers, MA, to make the intense psychological horror film Session 9. The film stars the redoubtable Scottish actor Peter Mullan (from Ken Loach's My Name Is Joe) as Gordon Fleming, a new father struggling to keep his asbestos removal company afloat. Desperate to bring in some money, the normally deliberate and careful Gordon gets the contract by promising that his company can clear out the creepy deserted building in a week's time. Assisted by his right-hand man, Phil (David Caruso), Gordon hires a crew and, pressed by the nearly impossible deadline, gets the hazardous work underway. But each man on the crew harbors a dangerous secret, and it's only a short time before the haunted atmosphere of the asylum -- where cruel and primitive means were used to control unstable patients -- begins to work its dark spell on them. Session 9 was one of the first feature films shot using Sony's 24P HD video, which shoots at 24 frames per second, like film, as opposed to the 30 frames per second of conventional video. The filmmakers used the same camera that George Lucas would later use to film Star Wars: Episode II. Using this technology, Anderson and director of photography Uta Briesewitz were able to produce the uniquely effective, deep-focus images in Session 9 using mostly natural light. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide

Rolling Stone

1/2
Session 9, a spine-tingler directed with fierce finesse by Brad Anderson, puts an asbestos-removal crew (Peter Mullan, David Caruso, Stephen Gevedon, Josh Lucas, Brendan Sexton III) into an abandoned asylum and lets the scares rip without mercy. Peter Travers

Los Angeles Times

Session 9 is so effective that its sense of uncertainty lingers long after the theater lights have gone up. Kevin Thomas

Fangoria

Session 9is a genre work in the classic, composed style, working mostly with shadows and suggestion (until the end, anyway) instead of tricking things up with too much fancy cutting and shaky handheld work. Anderson has never done a horror project before (his previous features were romantic comedies), and this one is good enough to make one hope he doesn't take too much time before tackling another. Michael Gingold

Product Details

• UPC: 025192240928
• Source: UNIVERSAL STUDIOS
• Region Code: 1
• Aspect Ratio: Cinemascope (2.35:1)
• Presentation: Wide Screen
• Sound: Dolby Digital Stereo
• Language: English
• Time: 1:41:00
• Sales Rank: 15,357

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