Session 9 (2001) Starring David Caruso, Josh Lucas & Stephen Gevedon Directed by Brad Anderson Written by Brad Anderson & Stephen Gevedon

This was no made up movie set, no cardboard cut-out but as real as it gets. David Caruso was quoted calling Danvers, ”the scariest building in North America.”

The plot is simple but crafty, the setting seethes with realistic bite and the streamlined scenes are powerful and evocative. Fancy way of saying, this film will scare the crap out of you and leave you edgy with fear. The last line still has the power to give me the cold sweats at night and I saw it almost five years ago. This story is character driven and cast in this dark and ominous setting, it creates a compelling tale of terror.

Gordon runs a struggling waste removal company, called prophectically enough Hazmat Elimination company, that makes an outrageous bid promise in order to win a proposal or the company will go under. He claims his crew can remove all the asbestos in a week. He is under pressure to keep his company alive as he supports a new baby and deals with the strain of being a new father. Clearly, a man already on edge.

His second in command, Phil (David Caruso) is as gritty and down to earth as he was in his glory days of NYPD Blue. He has an axe to grind with those on the crew who he feels don’t carry their weight. He particularly has it in for Hank (Josh Lucas) who has stolen Phil’s girlfriend and loves to rub Phil’s’ nose in it.

Hank has a casual attitude towards work and dreams of leaving this menial work behind to run a casino. A lazy dreamer who wants a get quick rich way out and will do anything to get it.

Jeff (Brendan Sexton III), Gordon’s inexperienced nephew at a surface glance is the weakest link, a dopey kid, with low intelligence and who Mike loves to tease and call “Mullethead” for his mullet haircut.

Mike (Steven Gevedon) a slumming law school drop-out is enjoying a break from the high pressure atmosphere of law school with basic manual labor.

When they arrive at the asylum they, as are you, are overwhelmed by the looming monstrosity that bleeds creepiness from every crumbling wall and shattered window. As each man attends to his task, there is dialogue that is tight and fraught with unease as if each character hides some great secret just below the surface of his words. We are given flashbacks of prior events that show the reasons for Phil’s hatred of Hank and teasing ones of Gordon outside his house which fail to reveal the true menace until much later. Mike wanders deep into the bowels of the asylum on breaks and locates the office of a former psychiatrist and the recorded sessions of a patient named Mary Dobbes. He finds it in a box eerily marked “EVIDENCE”.

Here is where the story takes a dark and disturbing turn and the director knows how to utilize it to the max. As Mike begins to play the tapes we hear the intensely disturbing confessions of a multiple personality patient whose voices overlap dialogue going on elsewhere in the film. The voices tell him about a long ago tragedy in Massachusetts involving a knife, and a china doll. Most of the voices are innocent sounding, even childlike but they all speak fearfully of another personality, one called Simon. They warn the doctor not to wake up Simon or else.

Meanwhile the first day there Hank uncovers a cache of watches, rings and jewelry that he fails to realize belongs to those patients who where cremated in the morgue. He returns that night to lift the loot and encounters the something that lives in the asylum.

The next day when the others return and find Hank, wounded and muttering only the cryptic phrase, ”What are you doing here?”, they are shocked and disturbed but try to finish the job while tending to Hank. When Hank then disappears the men split up to find him and rapidly, one by one, are picked off.

The discovery of who is doing the killing, as well as why will disturb, and unnerve you. What makes this movie stand out is it is one of many great independent films that rely more on solid plot, eerie real life location and good acting. The actors play the characters as the gritty, blue collar men they are representing which give a heightened sense of realism to the movie. The sounds of the movie are simple, water dripping, a hollow thump off in the distance.

This movie was largely ignored or missed by the slasher loving crowd which is a shame because it’s truly one of the most frightening independent movies to come along. In addition, it leaves one question unanswered, although those who have seen the directors cut additional scenes seem to think it is answered, what should we be frightened of more, the evil that exists inside us or evil itself.