Because someone is dead doesn’t mean they’re gone.|Nov. 21, 2003|USA|98 Min.|R
Genre: Horror;Thriller
Description: Dr. Miranda Grey, a psychiatrist at Woodward Penitentiary in rural western Connecticut, crashes her car one night on a country road to avoid hitting a young woman. When she wakes up, she finds herself as an inmate in the women’s ward where she previously worked, now under the care of her colleague, Dr. Pete Graham. Miranda is shocked to learn that her husband, Douglas, has been brutally murdered with an axe and that she is the primary suspect. As she struggles to adapt to life in the prison, Miranda is plagued by visions of the young woman she encountered the night of the accident. She is attacked by the woman’s apparition in the showers, and the phrase “Not Alone” is carved into her arm. The staff assumes Miranda is harming herself.
Later, Miranda discovers that the same phrase was written in Douglas’s blood at the crime scene. She begins preparing for her defense with her lawyer and meets with Sheriff Bob Ryan, Douglas’s best friend, who accuses her of the murder. Miranda forms a bond with Chloe Sava, a fellow inmate she had treated before her incarceration. Chloe had previously claimed to have been raped in the hospital. One night, Miranda’s cell door mysteriously opens, and she witnesses Chloe being raped, noticing a tattoo of an Anima Sola on the attacker’s chest. When Miranda reports the incident, the guards dismiss her story.
Over time, Miranda starts to recall details of the night of the accident and identifies the mysterious woman as Rachel, the daughter of her superior, Dr. Phil Parsons. Rachel had allegedly committed suicide years earlier. Miranda is later attacked by Rachel’s ghost in her cell and manages to escape from the hospital. She returns to her home to investigate the blood-stained crime scene.
Cast director: Mathieu Kassovitz
Cast actor: Halle Berry, Robert Downey Jr., Charles S. Dutton, John Carroll Lynch, Bernard Hill, Penélope Cruz, Dorian Harewood, Bronwen Mantel, Kathleen Mackey, Matthew G. Taylor
Original name: Gothika