Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie''s plot.  
One of these days I'm going to learn that ghost movies just don't scare me like they used to, and I should stop wasting my time on them in the theatres. I'm not sure if I just got over them, or if it's just because they are all the same. The Ring creeped me out, but lost me towards the end. Gothika was like a bad combination of several other movies, and I have yet to place what ones they were. Girl Interupted and The Ring, as well as Don't Say a Word are the first to pop into my mind, with slight residues of House on Haunted Hill and maybe even a little bit of The Sixth Sense  
 
Gothika is about Miranda Grey, a psychologist at a prison for women. The movie starts with a session with Chloe (Penelope Cruz), a woman who had been raped by her stepfather and who had killed him. She is obviously quite disturbed, she keeps referring to the devil as the one who rapes her. The session ends with her being dragged out of the room, kicking and screaming. Dr. Grey obviously doesn't believe her.  
 
On her way home from work that evening, Dr. Grey is presented with a detour due to a sinkhole created by a rainstorm. The darkness and the pounding rain set the stage for what is about to happen next. She is crossing a covered bridge, and when she emerges at the other end, there is a girl standing there, in her nightgown, right in the middle of the road. She swerves, barely misses her, and goes into the ditch. Dr. Grey gets out of her car, limping, and confronts the girl, who is shaken and scared looking. The girl has scratches on her chest, and Dr. Grey immediately starts consoling her, telling her she will help her - then the girl explodes into flame, which covers Dr. Grey as well...  
 
The next scene shows us a very disheveled Dr. Grey sitting bolt upright in bed, locked up in the prison where she works. She has no idea where she is or what has happened to her. She finds out that three days ago she had gone home and killed her husband (Charles Dutton), who was also the 'boss' at her place of work. Devastated, she sets out to find out how this could have happened. She has no memory of what happened, all she remembers is the girl.  
 
The bulk of the movie that follows involves a lot of "boo" scenes, as I call them - scenes that make you jump. This type of thing was really overdone. Well placed, these scenes can really add to a movie, but when there are too many you start to expect them and they lose their effect. I'd much rather have a movie that messes with your mind rather than tests your reflexes.  
 
There are a lot of creepy shots of the girl as a ghost, who seems to pop up randomly. At times it seems like the ghost is just playing with her, spooking her at the most inopportune of times (even though I am sure this was unintentional). After a while, that starts to get old, after all, we have all seen this sort of thing before in other ghost movies.  
 
I'm not sure where it started, but I want to know why almost all ghosts in recent films walk strange, in a disjointed weird way. The first time I saw that it was creepy, but now it is practically cliche, and almost annoying.  
 
I don't know if I am giving anything away by saying this, but the whole "help the ghost find justice so they can rest in peace and leave me alone" thing is just getting old as well. I almost groaned when this theme popped up in the movie (though I should have expected it). What I don't get is why ghosts in these situations completely terrorize the people they have chosen to help them. But of course, who am I to argue about the way a ghost reasons?  
 
The climax of this film was a bit anticlimatic. I don't know if I was just fed up with the blabbermouths behind me, or if I really didn't care how the movie ended. The pieces just didn't seem to fit right, like they were parts from a different movie or something.  
 
The suspense in this movie could have been done a bit better. Some parts worked, most didn't. A lot of stuff was immediately obvious, and the 'twists' weren't all that surprising.  
 
I didn't really notice the special effects: that means they were good enough that they didn't stand out - that's a good thing. I don't like it when the special effects are obvious - they should blend with the movie. There was one scene that could have been done a bit better, but overall the few times special effects needed to be used, they were done well.  
 
Despite the negativity about the movie, I do feel that Halle Berry did a really good job of playing the part of Dr. Grey. Penelope Cruz was also very good as the highly disturbed Chloe. Robert Downey Jr's character (Pete Graham) was a bit shallow, but I think that may have been intentional.  
 
Overall, this movie is probably worth seeing. I am left with an empty feeling where the creepiness should be after a good ghost story, so I'm a bit disappointed.  
 
This movie is rated R in the US, "for violence, brief language and nudity". I don't remember any nudity (well they were naked but it didn't show anything!). In Canada it is rated A, which means you only have to be 14 to get in (much to our dismay at the noise and rowdiness in the theatres).  
 
