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Session 9 trailer6/11/2023 So, the opportunity to remove the asbestos from the Danvers State Hospital is too good to pass up even if it means seriously underbidding the competition and agreeing to do the job in one week when it should take three at a minimum. He’s just had a child and his business is on the verge of going under. Struggling haz-mat removal contractor Gordon Fleming ( War Horse‘s Peter Mullan) is desperate for work. Shot almost entirely on location in the hospital, Session 9 is a creepy and atmospheric modern spin on the classic “haunted house” horror trope. Though the film has actual quality performances and tension, the abandoned and supremely terrifying Danvers State Hospital is the star of the show. And if the Overlook was the secret star of The Shining, then the real-life Danvers State Hospital (which an asylum for the criminally insane that was the inspiration for Arkham Asylum in the Batman universe) steals every second of Session 9. In fact, it would be more accurate to say that they’re less “cut from the same cloth” and more, “ The Session is a wide-eyed homage that occasionally borders on stylistic plagiarism” (but, thankfully, it’s borders on that line. Session 9 is cut very much from The Shining‘s same “haunted house” cloth. That The Shining-centric introduction is not without reason. And while 2001’s Session 9 may have a somewhat muddled central story, no one can deny the suffocating atmosphere and unease at its core. Genuine atmosphere and tension are becoming a lost art (though 2009’s The House of the Devil is a brilliant exception). Kubrick’s camera lavished fetishistic attention on every nook and cranny of the secluded hotel, and with a decided Mid-West Native American meets 1920s art style, it’s impossible to forget the time spent within its haunts (pun most definitely intended). In Stanley Kubrick’s film version of The Shining (though I suppose it’s equally true in Stephen King’s book), the Overlook Hotel was as much a character as Jack, Wendy, and Danny Torrance. But I figured I should be up front about it since as a horror movie, I kept regularly escaping the tension and atmosphere of the film). If I thought the pauses would have overly affected my review, I just wouldn’t have written one. Beyond the usual interruptions that come with watching this film at the bar like having to pause it any time a customer wanted a beer or something, I also had to stop it for hours at a time not once but twice when old ladies came into the store and I felt it was probably wise to turn off the R-Rated movie. I watched this film last night at work at the bar. (A quick aside before I begin this review.
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