The Awakening

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

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 Awakening is directed by Nick Murphy and Murphy co-writes the screenplay with Stephen Volk. It stars Rebecca Hall, Dominic West, Imelda Staunton, Isaac Hempstead Wright, Shaun Dooley and Joseph Mawle. Music is by Daniel Pemberton and cinematography by Eduard Grau.

Britain, post World War 1, and Florence Cathcart (Hall) makes a living as an exposer of charlatan spiritualists, a debunker of ghost sightings. When she receives a request from school master Robert Mallory (West) to investigate the supernatural events at a remote boarding school for boys, she is suitably intrigued to take on the assignment...

It comes as no surprise to find that numerous reviews for The Awakening make reference to ghost story films that were made previously. The Woman in Black released a year later would suffer the same fate, charges of it not bringing nothing new to the table etc. A ghost story set in a big mansion or remote educational/correctional establishment is what it is, and will continue to be so, all fans of such spooky fare ask is that it does it well and maybe add some adult themes into the bargain. The Awakening does these in spades.

The concept of a disbeliever in ghosts having their belief system tested to the full is not new, but it's a great concept and one with longevity assured. Here, boosted by a terrific performance from Hall, the screenplay consistently keeps you guessing. The possibilities of real or faked are constant as the director pumps up the creep factor, whilst he simultaneously crafts a number of genuine shock sequences - including one of the best doll house scenes put to film! This really has all the requisite jolts and atmospheric creeps for a period spooker.

It's not until the final quarter when the screenplay begins to unravel its mystery, a finale that has proved both ambiguous and divisive. The ambiguity factor is a little baffling since everything is made clear in a nicely staged scene, and this is something which the director has gone on record to state as well. As for the divisive side of things? That's a blight for this sub-genre of horror. It's convoluted! Contrived! It has been done before they cry! These are true to be sure, and without doubt there's a leap of faith required to not get annoyed, but it garners a reaction and has done its ghost story essence very well indeed.

Beautifully photographed, scored and performed by the leads to boot, this is for sure one for fans of period spookers with brains. 7.5/10

It's 1921 after the horrors of WWI, England is full of charlatans trying to scam grieving people. Florence Cathcart (Rebecca Hall) is a professional skeptic driven to exposing hoaxes and getting the cons arrested. Robert Mallory (Dominic West) invites her to investigate a ghost at a boarding school. There was a murder long ago that could be the source, and recently a student had died. Florence is met by governess Maud Hill (Imelda Staunton) and the boy Thomas Hill. Teachers and staff soon goes on vacation leaving Florence alone with Robert, Maud and Tom in the school.

This setting has a good old fashion atmosphere. It's basically a big old isolated building with a handful of people and a ghost story. You can't really get any more classic than that. The story does have a convoluted twist that could be quite problematic. I was able to follow the twist, and I'm fine with it. Rebecca Hall is a nice capable actress. And she makes a good avenging heroine and a damsel in distress.

Despite its bland, unimaginative title, I found this a taut, well-wrought ghost film. At times, the plotting reminded me of earlier genre-classics like "The Shining", "The Others" and especially "The Innocents", the latter based on Henry James's definitive "The Turn Of The Screw", all being concerned with the precarious psychological condition of the main character and of course of unhappy spirits from the past returning to impact on the present.

The present here, though, is immediately post-war England, and the tragedy and tension of those times, with the themes of the loss of what Seigfreid Sassoon called doomed youth, the psychological (and physical) scars on those that survived the Great War while their friends perished (personified here in the character of Mallory) as well as the enmity between those that fought and those that didn't (the latter portrayed in the character of Judd, the school caretaker), loom large in the character studies presented here.

At its heart however is the complex character Florence, a vintage if very young, "ghost- buster" if you will, herself bearing guilt over her part in the loss of her own soldier sweetheart, eventually takes on, at Mallory's beseeching, a new case, involving the unexplained death of a young boy pupil at a remote boarding school, supposedly haunted by an earlier pupil from years before.

The story takes many twists and turns with some scares and jumps along the way, revealing its major twist effectively and by the end just about explains its complexities although I'm sure there are still some strands I'm not quite connecting in the summing up.

The period is evoked excellently, the cold, austere boarding school in particular and the acting too is very good by all especially Imelda Taunton as the the school matron whose importance to the story becomes clearer as it progresses and particularly Rebecca Hall as the central character of Florence, her haunted eyes and blank expression well conveying the fragility of her character beneath her initially super-confident Holmes-ian demeanour.

If I have a criticism, it is that the Florence character is probably too overloaded with her various neuroses plus a lot happens to her in the narrative, but as in the end, it turns out to be all about her anyway, maybe I should grant the director and writer a little more licence.

Anyway, more psychologically thrilling than downright scary, this was my type of ghost film, just right for a late night viewing.