It’s 1937 and a young man begins his job as a prison guard (in the clerking capacity) at the most famous prison in the world on an overnight shift. Charlie Schmidt (Tom Hendryk who is somehow not Arthur Darvill) needs the work to keep up his end of a contract that will allow him access to his trust fund, so he’s willing to put up with any bullshit that comes his way… within reason. As the title cleverly hints at, dangerous prisoners and asshole superiors aren’t the only thing our boy Charlie is gonna have to put up with, nope, there’s some supernatural doings transpiring in the block he finds himself in. That would be D block, a place the old-timer guard lets him know is cursed to hell and full of lost souls who may just walk the halls at night. It’s also the prison’s solitary confinement, so some of the worst human inhabitants show up there. In his attempt to be efficient, he stumbles across some suspicious behavior by the institution and gets warned off by the old timer that it may be best to not dig around. Criminals are dropping dead in solitary and Charlie isn’t exactly satisfied with just assuming suicide and this ruffles some feathers, especially with the warden who already doesn’t care for the kid and wants everything to stay calm and quiet as he guns for a new position off the god-damned island. Bribery fails, there’s a supposedly haunted cell, morals get in the way of survival, a cute nurse catches our hero’s eye, daddy is too busy to talk to his son, Shakespeare is quoted, one-sided phone conversations explain plot and there’s a mystery to be unraveled that may just save Charlie’s life. Another period piece horror flick from Steve Lawson (The Mummy: Resurrection) isn’t as successful as juggling its budget restraints with its story but it’s still watchable and is anchored by some likable leads and solid(ish) performances… even if the film really pumps in the melodrama and really doesn’t believe in subtlety but not in the fun exploitive way that horror usually tosses away subtlety.
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