Because someone is dead doesn’t mean they’re gone.
A brilliant and respected criminal psychologist, Dr. Miranda Grey (Halle Berry) is an expert at knowing what is rational. What is logical. What is sane. Under the direction of her husband (Charles S. Dutton), the chief administrator of the psychiatric ward at the Woodward Penitentiary for Women, Miranda treats dangerously disturbed patients like Chloe (Penelope Cruz), an intensely charismatic murderess whose confessions of satanic torture are dismissed by the judicious doctor as the psychotic meanderings of a paranoid mind. But Miranda’s comfortable marriage and stable life are thrust into terrifying jeopardy after a cryptic encounter with a mysterious young girl leads to a nightmare beyond her wildest imagination.
When Miranda awakens from the horrific incident, she is shocked to discover that her husband has been murdered – and the bloody evidence points directly at her. Unable to fathom having committed an unmotivated act of such sheer brutality against a man she loved and admired, Miranda suddenly finds herself confined to Woodward alongside the highly unstable patients she used to treat with methodical detachment.
With no memory of the night in question except for fractured visions of the hauntingly enigmatic girl, the doctor’s behavior becomes increasingly erratic. Her claims of innocence are seen as the beginnings of a deep descent into madness by her former colleagues like Dr. Pete Graham (Robert Downey Jr.), Miranda’s sympathetic but skeptical coworker who is wrestling with issues of his own.
Forced to rely on her instincts rather than facts, Miranda begins to believe that she has been possessed by a supernatural force determined to exact revenge at the expense of her sanity. As Chloe draws her deeper into her own personal hell, Miranda must determine if she is being driven to madness…or closer to the truth.
Gothika is a 2003 American psychological horror thriller film directed by Mathieu Kassovitz and written by Sebastian Gutierrez. Halle Berry plays a psychiatrist in a women’s mental hospital who wakes up one day to find herself on the other side of the bars, accused of having murdered her husband. The film was first released on November 21, 2003 in the United States. At the time of its release, and despite poor critical reception, Gothika was the most financially successful film from Dark Castle Entertainment, with a worldwide gross of $141.6 million.
The score’s original music was composed by John Ottman. “Behind Blue Eyes” by Limp Bizkit (originally by The Who) was featured in the film but was not available on the soundtrack. The record was released on November 18, 2003 via Varèse Sarabande.
Gothika (2003)
Directed by: Mathieu Kassovitz
Starring: Halle Berry, Robert Downey, Penélope Cruz, Charles S. Dutton, John Carroll Lynch, Bernard Hill, Kathleen Mackey, Amy Sloan, Anana Rydvald, Laura Mitchell
Screenplay by: Sebastian Gutierrez
Production Design by: Graham ‘Grace’ Walker
Cinematography by: Matthew Libatique
Film Editing by: Yannick Kergoat
Costume Design by: Kym Barrett
Set Decoration by: Marie-Claude Gosselin
Music by: John Ottman
MPAA Rating: R for violence, brief language, nudity.
Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures
Release Date: November 21, 2003
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