weakness or cowardice. Production Development Session 9 was director Brad Anderson's first horror film, after directing two romantic comedy films, Next Stop Wonderland (1998) and Happy Accidents (2000). Anderson describes Session 9 as an "American tragedy", and states that he and screenwriter Stephen Gevedon aimed "to subvert the conventions of the so-called horror genre that exists now", which he describes as "less horror than it is teen thriller." The film's plot was inspired by the Richard Rosenthal case, a murder that took place in Boston, where Anderson grew up, in the mid-1990s, in which a man supposedly killed his wife after she accidentally burnt his dinner, then cut out her heart and lungs and put them in his backyard on a stake. Anderson states that it was also "as you imagine, very much inspired by the location", Danvers State Asylum. Don't Look Now, directed by Nicolas Roeg, was one inspiration for the film, for its sense of place and because the lead character realizes in the climax that he is at the heart of the mystery. Anderson has stated that he aimed to use sound to convey the plot as well as to generate "a creepy tone"; the sound design incorporated the subliminal use of animal and mechanical noises. Filming Most of the film was shot in a small section of the Danvers Asylum; according to actor David Caruso, the rest of the building was "unsafe" for shooting. Caruso also claims the sets did not need to be dressed as all the props featured in the film were already there inside the building. Elaborating Caruso said: It was one of the first motion pictures to be shot in 24p HD digital video, which shoots at 24 frames-per-second like film, as opposed to regular digital video which shoots at 30 frames-per-second. Release Session 9 premiered at the Fantasia Festival in July 2001. It was released to theaters on August 10, playing on 30 screens. It ended its American theatrical run on October 18, grossing a total of $378,176. The film was a greater financial success abroad, earning $1.2 million internationally. Critical response On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 64% based on 70 reviews, with an average rating 6.30/10. The site's consensus states, "Relying more on atmosphere than gore, Session 9 is effectively creepy". On Metacritic it has a score of 58% based on reviews from 16 critics,