The Awakening

This film is set in a post-World War One society, devastated by loss and alienated from traditional Christian answers about the afterlife. The settings, context and costumes are done perfectly. The tensions between the situation and characters develop quickly, with the help of some genteel and understated movie tropes. But it is in the these tropes that it loses its way somewhat, and towards the last quarter IMO it loses its way royally. Take a pick n mix from haunted doll house, weird kid, who's a ghost, repressed memories and crazy ladies and you can have the awakening of your choice.....

Wow! I just finished watching The Awakening, and I have to say I've not seen such a complete and entertaining Gothic tale since The Orphanage.

While The Awakening does not have quite the depth of angst of El Orfanato, it nonetheless maintains a constant tension and audience puzzlement up until the last few minutes, when more questions than answers are evident.

Rebecca Hall's Florence Cathcart, and the method used for her professional 'Ghost Busting' procedures reminded me of the scenes set in Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes mythology. I can't quite put my finger on it, but it is definitely there.

7/10 - Highly recommended.

The Awakening is pretty much what you would expect it to be. It's well made with gorgeous cinematography and strong performances from its cast. And the story if unsurprising is solidly made and well told. The film is directed well and builds a nice amount of suspense throughout. At times its confusing because of the sheer amount of convoluted ideals being thrown around. The story concerns an educated young woman who debunks ghost theories. She is approached by the headmaster of a school to help out with a problem concerning the boys being frightened there. After some convincing she arrives at the location and begins her investigation. Many secrets are discovered and it builds to a somewhat expected finale. For those of you who've seen the brilliant films The Others, The Orphanage and The Devil's Backbone there's not much new here. Still it's competently made and there is a nice slow burn of suspense even culminating in some surprising scares and plot twists. Overall it's a old fashioned classic spook fest with a bit of wit and borrowed imagination from slightly better films. A bonus scene features sexy Dominic West in a solid performance shedding his clothes which is much appreciated but unnecessary like the other "bathtub" scene. And there seems to be niche with that running through the proceedings it's almost as if the people involved with making the film knew they had something that wasn't the most original concept so they threw in unnecessary things to kind of lead you astray it's a little manipulative on their part but keeps you engaged as a viewer and you don't feel too cheated at the films conclusion. Overall it's an elegant, solid but expected ghost story.

The movie does not sound original, in terms of plot and style, it is a very old-style ghost story, built according to the most traditional but still effective means in pictures like these, where the supernatural has to find its ways. Creaking doors, mysterious sounds, light and dark play, set in a solitary gloomy mansion in the English countryside, are part of the oldest tradition of scary movies, the plot twists are also not new, but the impression I got is that of a simple, well crafted ghost story, with an interesting psychological insight, that without needing exaggerated sci-fi effects gets to appeal and entertain the viewer till the end. A good English cast helps give insight to the the frailty and fears of its characters, and to make up for some flaws in the picture, above all a rather hasty and underdeveloped finale, as opposed to some slowness in the previous parts.

The Awakening is the best old-fashioned ghost story made in modern time since The Others. The film to me was so emotionally powerful, with an engrossing tale of loss, loneliness, grief and fear. Don't go in with expectations of being scared out of your mind even though there is some well executed scares in this film. It's not the type of horror film that really focuses on that element because it doesn't need to rely on it so heavily like most horror movies do these days. The film's strengths are its atmosphere, effective suspense, impeccable performances, a story worth telling and a twist that through me for a loop. The most under appreciated horror film of 2012.

Rebecca Hall plays Florence Cathcart, a Hoax exposer who is called to a boarding house to investigate strange paranormal activity. Rebecca is one of the most under used actresses of today! She was so mesmerizing in this role and it's a shame that this didn't get a wide theatrical release so people can see what a great actress she is; this was Oscar worthy to me. The rest of the cast was great too, that include Dominic West who plays Robert Mallory and Imelda Staunton who gives a heartbreaking performance as the caretaker Maud Hill. These characters were so moving and heartfelt and give the story an emotional punch.

Director and writer, Nick Murphy shows true talent in his first full length feature film, and has strength as a writer. His ability to capture emotion along with shocks and spooks is breathtaking to me; his film grabs and doesn't let go. He is a director to look out for. Stephen Volk who is no stranger to the horror genre, he also wrote screenplays for Gothic, The Kiss, The Guardian, Superstition and Octane. He shows true growth here as a solid writer for this genre. They should collaborate again! Overall, The Awakening treads a lot on familiar grounds, but there is true talent in front and behind the camera that you can really appreciate the presentation. It could of used a couple more scares but the ones thrown at us were effectively spooky. The acting, characters, suspense and surprising twist though, truly drive this film. Recommended! 7.9 out of 10