First and foremost, horror movies should be scary. If they aren''t scary, then they should at least be creepy. If they can''t be creepy, then they should at least provide visceral, bloody shocks. If all else fails, they should be so dumb that they manage to entertain in spite of themselves. Gothika, the latest film from Dark Castle Entertainment (who gave us such brain-dead but great fun as The House on Haunted Hill and Ghost Ship) doesn''t fall into any of those categories. It''s a great looking and atmospheric movie, with a good performance by Halle Berry (me-ow!), but is ultimately undone by a predictable and uninvolving story. Still, fans of the film should enjoy the picture and sound quality of this disc, which also includes a few perfunctory extras.

Halle Berry is Miranda Grey, a prison psychologist who, after a bizarre encounter with a female inmate (Penelope Cruz, whose initial rambling turns out to be, of course, an ominous warning) and surviving an equally bizarre car wreck, awakens to find herself an inmate in the same prison, accused of savagely murdering her husband (Charles F. Dutton). While a fellow doctor (Robert Downey Jr.) tries to ascertain the reason her his former colleague''s sudden insanity, Miranda begins having visions of the horrific events which landed her in the looney bin, guided by a menacing apparition, in the form of a young blonde girl from beyond the grave. Miranda manages to escape her cell (here''s hoping not all psychiatric prisons are as easy to break out of), and his guided by this mysterious figure to the place where a few serial killers have been doing their dirty work (both of whom, shock of all shocks, are people she knows). As a horror film, Gothika is severely lacking. With a premise that''s been done a million times before, there are no real surprises, and cliches are trucked out in abundance: the inmate who seems crazy but is ominously prophetic, countless quick-edited hallucinatory episodes which reveal clues to guide our protagonist, lots of secondary characters placed in the film for us to suspect as the real culprit, etc. All that is fine, save for some glaring flaws which make no sense, such as the aforementioned apparition; if she needs Miranda''s help so badly, then why is she always beating the living shit out of her? If some ghost wanted my help righting a wrong, kicking my ass isn''t gonna give me much incentive. Another problem with Gothika is with its characters. Halle Berry is the whole show here, and while she''s very good in her role, everyone else is given very little to do (a shame, considering the caliber of the cast). Even so, Gothika is pretty well made, with some great set-pieces (such as Miranda''s ludicrous-but-well-executed escape), good direction from Mathiew Kassovitz, and outstanding cinematography by Matthew Libatiqiue. In fact, the tremendous effort they give to the look and feel of the film makes it sad they didn''t have a better story to work with.

My reservations of Gothika don''t apply to the picture and sound quality of this disc, which is terrific (as usual for a Warner release). Presented in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio, the picture is sharp and clean; the blue & black tones which dominate the look of the film are well-preserved and look great. The audio transfer, rendered in both English & French 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround, is suitably clear and distortion free, with good balance.

There aren''t really a lot of extras on this disc. The most notable is the full-length audio commentary by director Kassovitz and director of photography Libatiqiue. Their commentary is pretty good, mostly covering the technical aspects of the movie, which is appropriate since the production values of Gothika are its most valuable asset. Also included is a theatrical trailer and a music video by Limp Bizkit, whose hilariously bad cover of The Who''s ""Behind Blue Eyes"" plays over the end credits. Similar Films: Ghost Ship, The Sixth Sense, The Others, The Ring, Ghost, Jacob''s Ladder, What Lies Beneath

Gothika is by no means a bad film, at least not in the sense that its badly shot and poorly acted. In fact, it''s very well made and this DVD looks great, with another great performance by Berry. It''s just not a movie that has much to offer that hasn''t been done before and it''s not all that scary. For those who haven''t seen it, I''d recommend renting before you buy.