The tagline for Gothika, a glossy Hollywood horror thriller directed by French filmmaker Mathieu Kassovitz, is provocative enough: "Just because someone's dead doesn't mean they're gone."

So you know instantly this is a creepy ghost story that will oblige viewers to suspend their disbelief.

Then, because it is set in a Connecticut prison for criminally insane women (and photographed in the dank confines of St. Vincent-de-Paul penitentiary in Laval, Que.), you know this is not the recurring saga of Casper the Friendly Ghost.

Serial rape is part of the plot, and because the film dares to turn the rape, torture and mutilation of imprisoned teenaged girls into part of the "entertainment," the disgust factor grows like a malignant tumour.

Gothika, a vile piece of work, does masquerade as a big Hollywood thriller, but that is only because Kassovitz puts such a gloss on the piece and cast major stars in leading roles.

Front and centre is Oscar-winner Halle Berry as a criminal psychiatrist who is married to the prison's director (Charles S. Dutton), pursued by a randy colleague (Robert Downey Jr.), respected by the prison's lead medical officer (Bernard Hill from the Lord Of The Rings) and in charge of treatment for the Satanic-possessed "star" patient (Penelope Cruz).

What is extraordinary is how uniformly dreadful their performances are, leading us to lay the blame at Kassovitz's feet. He clearly wanted the women to look like dirtbags and sound like zombies. He exploited them in the disturbing mass shower scene (which is no reason to see this movie). Meanwhile, Downey mumbles like Brando and the rest of the major males strut about like idiots and/or psychos.

The so-called plot by Sebastian Gutierrez (director of The Big Bounce) sounds clever -- for 10 seconds. The cold, clinical Berry is accused of a brutal murder, instantly transforming her from doctor to patient. The chase for the truth is on, not that the illogical turns in the film will result in any truths. There are cliched, but genuinely frightening moments, such as when a dead-girl ghost suddenly bursts out from behind Berry, complete with screechy sound effects and music.

The worst excesses in Gothika concern the rape-murder-teenager subplot. Serious films should tackle this harrowing issue and explore the pathology of men and women who get their sexual kicks that way. But no film, especially one as degrading as Gothika, should be invoking these images as a secondary plot point just to deliver "thrills" in a thriller.

Kassovitz's finest French work is La Haine, or Hate, a 1995 social drama about racism. It is a grim, violent film but, because the subject was treated with serious intent and intelligence, it works. In Gothika, Kassovitz is just slumming -- and taking us down with him.

(This film is rated 14A)

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