Whatever you do, don't stop for the roadside ghost

And I certainly will not spell out for you what you will, before too long, figure out for yourself, at which point all suspense and intrigue will evaporate. About two-thirds of the way through the screening I attended, the startled gasps were replaced by laughter, as Gothika began its headlong descent into incoherence. If I had left after an hour, I might have taken the film for a clever, if somewhat glib, exercise in terror, with Berry showing the appropriate mixture of helplessness and grit, and Downey adding a gleam of raffish intelligence. But of course I would have been deluded.