New images from John Carpenter’s first movie project in ten years

Arc Entertainment has released new images and a poster for The Ward, John Carpenter’s first feature film project in more than ten years.

John Carpenter’s The Ward, a psychological thriller about a young woman locked in a mysterious mental institution in the 1960s, marks iconic horror master John Carpenter’s first feature film in over ten years.

Kristen (Amber Heard), a beautiful but troubled young woman, finds herself bruised, cut, drugged, and held against her will in a remote ward of a psychiatric hospital. She is completely disoriented, with no idea why she was brought to this place and no memory of her life before being admitted. All she knows is that she isn’t safe.

The other patients in the ward—four equally disturbed young women—offer no answers, and Kristen quickly realizes things are not as they seem. The air is heavy with secrets, and at night, when the hospital is dark and foreboding, she hears strange and frightening sounds. It appears they are not alone.

One-by-one, the other girls begin to disappear and Kristen must find a way out of this hellish place before she, too, becomes a victim. As she struggles to escape, she will uncover a truth far more dangerous and horrifying than anyone could have imagined.

John Carpenter’s The Ward is directed by John Carpenter (Halloween, Escape from LA, Starman, The Fog, The Thing) from a script by Michael Rasmussen and Shawn Rasmussen. The film stars Amber Heard (The Joneses, Zombieland, Pineapple Express) as Kristen; Mamie Gummer (Stop-Loss, The Hoax) as Emily; Danielle Panabaker (Friday the 13th, Mr. Brooks, The Crazies) as Sarah; Lyndsy Fonseca (Kick-Ass, Hot Tub Machine) as Iris; Jared Harris (Mad Men, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) as Dr. Stringer; Laura Leigh as Zoey, and Mika Boorem (The Patriot) as Alice.

The film was shot during late summer 2009 on and around the Eastern Washington State Mental Hospital grounds outside Spokane, Washington. The film’s cinematographer is Yaron Orbach (The Joneses, Please Give); the production designer is Paul Peters (Out of Time, High Crimes). Executive produced by Adam Betteridge and David Rogers, and Rich Cowan, John Carpenter’s The Ward was developed and produced by Doug Mankoff, Mike Marcus and Andy Spaulding for Echo Lake Entertainment, and Peter Block for A Bigger Boat.