31 Nights of Halloween Horror - Night 14 - Fragile

Fragile

101 mins.

Dir. Jaume Balaguero

2005/Spain

A haunted children’s hospital.  Not a good sign.  Directed by Jaume Balaguero who brought us [REC] 1, 2 & 4, you know there is going to be some creepy shit going down.  As if children aren’t creepy enough when they are healthy, throw them in a hospital with some kind of evil entity roaming around.  Sorry guys, but I’ll be out in the car.

Calista Flockheart, yes that is right Ally McBeal herself was in a horror movie, and a damn good one at that.  She plays Amy, a new night nurse at Mercy hospital on the Isle of Wight.  The hospital is being closed down, but until they can relocate all the patients, some of them must remain there, including the children’s ward containing 10 sick kids.  Amy is new to the job, she is replacing Susan, the previous night nurse who after one of the children was discovered to receive a broken femur unexplainably in his bed one night, just ups and quits.

Amy also has some secrets in her past, it is a little sketchy exactly what happened, but possibly a child at her previous nursing job died on her watch and she carries around a tremendous amount of responsibility and guilt.  She quickly takes a liking to one terminally ill patient named Maggie.  Maggie fills her in about the mechanical girl named Charlotte, who lives on the 2^nd floor of the hospital.  Here’s the thing, the second floor is shut down and abandoned.  Has been for years.  Maggie is the only one who can see Charlotte, she has a hard time convincing people she is real.  But Amy soon starts to believe, and as with Maggie, no one will believe her that something exits in this hospital that does not belong.

A traditional ghost story, with a good solid story and definitely some tense scenes that will make the hairs on your neck stand up.  A little slow in the beginning with the build up, and not in a slow burn way with the crazy ass ending, but the story itself just kind of plods along.  It is worth sticking with though, as once all the pieces fall into place it becomes a pretty solid fright fest.  I think this one slipped under the radar with most people, so if you are looking for something new this Halloween season that will give you the creeps, check out Fragile.

This was made two years before [REC] was released which is what really made people take notice of Jaume Balaguero.  Had this one gotten more recognition at the time, I think we would all have been looking forward to [REC] even more.  Definitely a guy to keep an eye on.  Sleep Tight was another one of his films that is worth a watch and I certainly look forward to eventually sitting down to Muse which came out a couple years back from him.

In the meantime, as far as good old fashioned scary movies go, Fragile is on top of our list this month.  Children = creepy, hospitals = creepy, ghosts = creepy, children’s hospital with a ghost, fun for all.  Well except the sick kids in the hospital.  Eat your Flinstones vitamins kids.