RENOWNED criminal psychologist Dr Miranda Grey (Halle Berry) works in a high security prison alongside her husband, chief administrator Dr Doug Grey (Charles S Dutton).

The facility is full to bursting with the mentally unstable and the insane, including Miranda's favourite patient Chloe (Penelope Cruz), a deeply disturbed woman prone to violent outbursts.

On her way home in the middle of a torrential downpour, Miranda almost runs over a badly injured girl standing in the middle of the road.

She rushes to check that the girl is unhurt - the ashen figure bursts into flames and Miranda collapses in shock.

The psychologist wakes from a deep sleep to find herself incarcerated in the same mental institution where she works, accused of a murder she cannot recollect.

Miranda soon learns that her husband has been brutally slain and all of the evidence points to her as the killer.

All of Miranda's friends and colleagues, including confidant Dr Pete Graham (Robert Downey Jr), put her erratic behaviour down to a descent into madness.

Desperate to regain her memory and clear her name, Miranda searches for clues to her tortured past.

Aided by Chloe, she discovers evidence that she is being manipulated by an evil and vengeful spirit.

Written by Sebastian Gutierrez, Gothika is an efficient psychological thriller that manages to sustain tension despite ludicrous plotting and lapses in logic.

Berry brings a vulnerability to her character that compels us to sympathise with Miranda's nightmarish plight and to root for her every step of the way.

When Chloe tells her coolly that the doctors will never believe she is sane, we genuinely fear Miranda may be trapped in the prison facility for the rest of her life.

Downey Jr plays his fellow medic with enough ambiguity to make us question his motives and Dutton, Bernard Hill and John Carroll Lynch lend solid support as the men in Miranda's life, who may harbour dark secrets against her.

The supernatural elements of the screenplay are hard to swallow and the convoluted epilogue certainly doesn't help matters, leaving the door ajar for a possible sequel.

Neither as clever nor as trashy as it first appears, Gothika is the cinematic equivalent of a ghost train - spooky and exciting at first, but rather tedious the longer the ride goes on.

Rating: 5/10