My wife and I were fairly early adopters of Netflix. Our local video store - the awesome Matt & Dave's Video Venture - was bought out by a chain store and stopped being much fun to go to. (I still have a stack of the wooden coins you accumulated when you rented videos - you could trade them in for free rentals.) I tried sticking with the new place, but I think the biggest draw for Netflix back in the early days was the lack of late fees - you could have a movie for months and not have to worry about it. Once we'd tried it we basically never looked back.
The reason for bringing this up is that I think I rented Session 9 from Netflix back in 2001 (maybe 2002). I no longer have a DVD membership, so I can't check. I DO remember being impressed with the film and - along with a few other releases in 2001 and 2002, including The Others, 28 Days Later, Dog Soldiers and The Ring - it contributing to the feeling that horror movies were making a comeback. Sure, we'd had The Blair Witch Project and a few other standouts, but there was also a lot of I know What You Did Last Summer and Scream sequels. Session 9 made me think that maybe some interesting horror movies might be getting made again.
The Medium
This was the last of the films I've watched on Starz this year. Unfortunately, according to JustWatch.com (thanks for the link, Bhu!) it's ONLY streaming on Starz. You can find copies of the DVD for less than $3 bucks, though. (Oh! And it looks like there's Scream Factory Blu-ray release I may have to track down...)
The Movie
Gordon and his crew of Asbestos abatement professionals (including a post-Jade, pre-CSI Miami David Caruso) are bidding on a job to clean parts of the Danvers mental asylum. Gordon - tired and desperate - tells the official that he can get the job done in one week - over the objections of Phil (Caruso), his right-hand man. Over the course of the week the stress of the job, home-life, interpersonal conflicts on the crew and - just maybe - something in the asylum itself all take a toll on Gordon and the rest of the men.
If you're thinking "this sounds more like a psychological horror movie than a gore fest" you'd be right. Session 9 is a slow burner and even the final moments don't provide much in the way of explicit violence. That doesn't mean this isn't an effective movie, though. It's partly in the creep factor of the setting - the movie was filmed on location at Danvers State Hospital - and partly due to the way the director (The Machinist's Brad Anderson) frames and paces the film. We see a lot of slightly disturbing things - a wheelchair in sunlight at the end of a dark hallway, a patient's room wallpapered with random photographs - that are allowed to linger for longer than is strictly comfortable.
Over the unsettling imagery we're often treated to the audio from a series of patient sessions (numbered 1-9). The patient, Mary, suffers from dissociative identity disorder, and the tapes revolve around her doctor interviewing Mary and her different personalities, trying to ascertain the events of Christmas night, 22 years ago. We get to hear them because one of the workers - Mike - listens to them over the course of the week.
The voice of the doctor on the tape seemed familiar, but I had to go looking. It's Lonnie Farmer, who's been in a ton of stuff.
Weird things happen, Gordon begins to disintegrate on a personal level, a conflict between Phil and another worker, Hank (Josh Lucas) threatens to spill over into violence, and Mike's fascination with the tapes slowly becomes an obsession. Everything is on simmer long enough that you wonder if it will ever come to a boil, but it does. (Just in time for poor Larry Fessenden to show up.) I'm not sure if it quite holds together in the end - there are some moments with Phil and Gordon that I find a tad confusing - but it's enough of a mood piece that I gloss over some of the details.
The Bottom Line
I haven't seen Session 9 since that Netflix rental way back when, but I'm happy to say it holds up to my initial impressions. Good performances, a great location and a creepy mood (and final line) that stays with you after the credits roll.
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