Reawakened

Despite my thousands of movies under my belt and my enthusiasm for horror in particular, my brief stint of offering critiques was short lived and I have offered no public reviews for years... until this horror of a movie crossed my path.

My header says it all. I was tempted to give this movie a one star but to be honest, there are actually even worse movies out there. The shocking thing is that while this movie would fit in as a direct to video release in the 80's, it is actually a new release. It has the sound quality, lighting, effects, scripting, and acting of those 80's films we watch to be appalled at and laugh at how bad they were, but this one doesn't even try to make itself satirical. It seems to be a sincere attempt to make a horror movie... a sincere attempt that failed oh so miserably. Everything is wrong with it... and rather than break all that wrongness down (and I would love to do so but it would take longer to write every terrible thing down than the crew actually spent on filming it) I will keep things short, and just say that you have a million better things to do with your time... even getting a lobotomy or a serious case of jaundice would be a more unique and interesting way to spend some time.

I will only say one good thing about it. You and several friends might enjoy getting very drunk and ripping it apart... it certainly invites it, but it might even get dull doing that.

I must admit that the movie's cover is what lured me to sit down to watch the 2020 horror movie "Reawakened". Yeah, I hadn't even heard about the movie, but the movie's cover with a bloodied woman laying on a slab reaching out towards the viewer, definitely had me interested.

And then I watched the movie. Well, at least tried to. I didn't even make it halfway through before I gave up on this rubbish. Indeed, the movie just utterly failed to capture my interest, and it provided me with no entertainment or any enjoyment whatsoever.

The storyline was a massive swing and a miss from writers Jose Altonaga and Remy MacKenzie, and the pacing of the movie just added fuel to the fire of being incredibly boring and pointless. Even the characters in the movie were beyond the threshold of being even remotely interesting.

As for the acting in "Reawakened", well let's just say that people tried with the limitations imposed upon them by director Jose Altonaga and the fact that they had virtually nothing to work with.

Visually, well from what I managed to see, then the movie was semi-adequate. It wasn't top of the line props, special effects or costumes. But for a movie of this magnitude, I suppose it was sufficient enough.

If you enjoy horror movies, you might want to give "Reawakened" a wide berth. I should have had checked out the IMDb page prior to sitting down for watching this, as the low rating is a clear indication of the level of movie you will be in for. There is just a sense of homemade amateur film project permeating this entire thing.

My rating of "Reawakened" lands on a mere two out of ten stars. This movie was bad, really bad.

I really liked the set up, of it is dealing with the aftermath of a horror, and using flashbacks to let us know how the mess started as the soul survivour is being interviewed. It's a different take on things, and I found that refreshing.

It is not a good film, but it's trying it's best. Which makes it a pretty okay watch. The special effects are truly awful, but I think some of that can be forgiven, because it is not boring, it's got good ideas. It's a low budget film and, they're clearly trying their best with what they had.

I've honestly seen much worse. It is worth baring in mind it's not going to compete with the better films of the genre, but if you don't mind a low budget film it could be a fun watch.

I have seen better acting in kindergarten plays ...

After surviving a disastrous trip, a woman recounts the events to a police officer how she and her friends discovered a supposedly abandoned house in the woods on a hiking trip which contains the trapped spirit of a witch executed hundreds of years earlier and has now possessed one of the group for revenge.

This one was a pretty decent effort. One of the best parts of this one is the early setup involved here with the way this one puts the kids in the house and how it all unleashes. With the flashback recounting the narrative of everything that happened to the group, how they arrive at the house, and handle their issues together while having the possession slowly unfurl in the background of all the drama has a nice suspenseful air to it. That this one features a nice unrecognized build-up with the manner of her possession in the eye-gags, her disappearances in the middle of the night or the sequence of the possessed individual maniacally digging in the ground to remove a strange box which all triggers thoughts of something going on that they're not prepared for. The film also manages to be quite enjoyable once it gets to focus on the rampaging figure taking out the group. With the build-up in place about the possessed figure amongst them, the scenes of the loner encountering the possessed in the woods or the confrontation that ends with a conjured rope-noose to kill the unwary victim offer up plenty to like of their encounters in the woods. The group encounters inside the house which results in fun slasher-style stalking sequences throughout has some enjoyable elements to it with the gruesome deaths involved, and the final half featuring the witch rampaging through society taking out the various interlopers with the case has some chilling elements with how they're taken out. The finale in the police station is fine if slightly anticlimactic in what occurs here, but it's enough to hold this one up overall. The film does have a few issues throughout it. Among it's more troubling areas is the generally unappealing cast that doesn't make the first half all that exciting. From the useless amount of snarky comments on everyone that generates nothing of interest due to everyone not feeling like genuine friends to this strange inability to tell any of the women apart since they all have similar features while not having their names mentioned at all, there's little about this which is interesting. As well, the film struggles mightily due to a weird plotline that turns away from the retelling of the woodland encounter to a police procedural with the investigations done starting at the hour mark which isn't as interesting. With some of the low-budget setups here are quite obvious and distracting, these are what hold this one back.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence and Language.