Session 9 Blog 3

Brad Anderson directed Session 9 in 2001 creating a horror film. A cleaning crew is hired at an abandoned mental hospital and things get weird when the past history of the hospital starts to appear in present day. Gordon Fleming played by Peter Mullen stars in this film as one of the cleaning guys for the mental asylum. He seems normal at first but then as the movie goes on his insane behavior erupts into confusion and murder. Throughout the film, a tape is playing of a person with multiple personality disorder and all the voices are different in their own way telling a story. The last person we hear form the tape is a voice named Simon. To tie it all together, Simon and all the other voices are really Gordon from being in the asylum before.

Anderson uses camera techniques including an abundant of long shots. He will pan using a long shot then the next cut is another long shot that will include characters in the middle ground. The long shots are good to use because it shows spatial relationships and what is in the room. When the next scene appears using the same room but it is a close up, the audience will know what is behind everything and has a feeling of that heir actually in the room with them. He also uses the camera where its straight forward on a character and the character is walking towards it. That lets the audience see the facial expression but can only imagine what is in front of them. Because the audience can’t see, it makes the film that much more suspenseful. Located in a mental asylum already, the mood is eerie and uncanny.

Gordon's facial expressions are defined in a way where the audience truly doesn't think it is him who is crazy and we start blaming other characters. I consider this film to be a little too long with a running time of 97min due to what actually happens in the film. The story moves very slow up until the end where everything evolves and starts to make sense. Anderson has been part of numerous film festivals and has won a lot of awards for his work.