Review of The Awakening (2011) by Vincent D — 21 Aug 2012

To me, this film reminded me of a combination of Scooby Doo and the Woman in Black. Rebecca Hall is a woman who specializes in proving that ghosts aren't real back in the 1920's in England. However, her next project seems to actually have an actual ghost in a spooky boarding school. Is this film scary? Kinda. Is this film good? Kinda.

I will start by saying that the setting is extremely creepy! Even if there weren't any ghosts, I would never want to stay at a boarding school that looked the way it did. Squeaky doors, old furniture, and scary photos, this boarding school is top of the line creepy. I enjoyed that aspect of the film. It tried to use the atmosphere to spook you rather than gore or surprise scares, even if there are plenty of jumps. I won't give anything away, but once scene involving a doll house, that made me shiver, even though I knew what was going to happen immediately. That's proof that a film has done well, if you know what's going to happen and you still get scared.

Also, Rebecca Hall is stunning as ever, and her performance is lovely in this film. And the lady who plays Ms. Umbridge is in this movie and she is pretty good as well. In fact the majority of the cast does a great job, but the trouble, like most horror movies lies in the ending.

Up until the ending I wasn't amazed at the movie, but I was having a decent time. However, all these things start to happen and it all happens so fast that you have to think back. There is a twist ending, but it's not that it's confusing, in fact I liked it. It just fell into random scenes that didn't feel needed. It seemed that the crew didn't really have enough footage so they threw in a couple of scenes to make the film longer and for me it felt forced. Love scenes, creepy caretakers, and a twist ending all bunched up into 15 minutes and the audience begins to feel lost.

With it's creepy atmosphere, this film should've delivered a truly scary tale, but instead only deliver a lackluster horror film with a less than desirable ending.