The Awakening Review

The Awakening, directed by Nick Murphy, was a surprise to say the least. In a genre dominated by slashers or movies that take too little risks to truly be frightening (*cough* Woman in Black cough) this film plays well with its suspense and although the pacing begins slowly, quickly rises in a satisfactory way.

The film opens with Florence (Rebecca Hall ) sitting in on a seance. The seance quickly turns eerie, with a maggot-infested bird taking centre stage as a woman begins seeing her lost daughter in a reflection.

Florence quickly reveals herself and exposes the seance for the hoax that it is. The 'psychics' are apparently aware of her scepticism, and, as they grumble away with their tail between their legs, they curse her for it. She is even further rewarded for her scepticism by a slap in the face from the very woman who was being duped.

The message, it seems, is that scepticism is a lonely existence in a sea of superstition.

Shortly after, Florence is visited by Robert Mallory (played expertly and with compassion by Dominic West) who invites her on another ghost-hunt. She is reluctant, with the only motivation for her reluctance stated to be exhaustion-- this is the first moment of a flaw I will return to later-- but when Robert manages to leave it up to her, with a note that he is aware of her background and it has influenced his decision to hire her, it is clear that she will take the case even though she does not say 'yes'.

Cut to an obligatory shot of a train with “now we've begun” music building to a crescendo, and the heart of the movie begins.

The orphanage itself is quaint and only mildly creepy, at least from the outside. Perhaps the creepiest aspect of the exterior is the children running like wild animals all around it, giving off the feeling that this isn't so much an orphanage inasmuch as a home infested with children. I am not sure if this feeling was due to my own biases with children, but it honestly felt that way at the outset, and shots of dinner halls overflowing with children do not help to shake the feeling that this place is downright infested.

We start to see segregation amongst the children, and kudos must go to the director for having performances from children that are, while understated, believable. Children are notoriously difficult to direct, and with a movie this 'infested' with them, it would have been a crippling blow to have bad performances from them, but they move about with glee, and the few tortured souls that are segregated truly feel like the poor souls we all knew (or were) growing up.

Shortly after, strange occurrences begin to sneak around the environment, until all the children but one go home. This one child, Tom (Isaac Hempstead Wright ), is creepy enough, but mixed with the caregiver Maud (played by the Harry Potter veteran vImelda Staunton) who stares down at both Tom and Florence with a creepy look of affection, the affect is uncomfortable in a subtle, evocative way.

The film builds on this discomfort expertly, moving from disturbing event to further, more abruptly supernatural occurrences. Florence, the sceptic, can no longer doubt what is going on in the orphanage. The film, at this point, follows a fairly predictable formula for the most part, although does so expertly and with care. The chemistry between Florence and Robert's characters is strong and believable, though at times a tad cheesy-- why is it that women always seem to get horny when they are at their most scared shitless? From my experience in real life, if a woman is scared, I am usually about to be punched in the shoulder more than kissed.

But I probably have no one to blame but myself for that.

At any rate, the movie follows a few plot twists that I will not spoil, suffice to say that they caused me to scratch my head a bit. Although the story is careful to avoid any huge plot-holes, the twists did open up a few cracks in the otherwise solid scripting. There was just an overall sense that some of the twists were thrown in simply... well... to twist and turn a bit from the otherwise standard fare, and the instinct, while handled somewhat carefully, seems a bit like a deus ex machina.

That being said, though, the holes are small enough not to ruin the entire experience, and one could potentially argue that the holes are filled in eventually by the script. However, for the strong sense of foreboding, the expert acting, and the general feeling of unease and discomfort, the film accomplishes seemingly everything it sets out.

Even the end scene, which again I will not spoil, leaves you on a haunting note that holds for a moment in a rather poetic/musical hold, before the credits slowly roll in like fog. All in all, an effective if not standard film that harkens back to simpler ghost stories, something somewhat abandoned by a market oversaturated with knives and otherwise humdrum ghost stories. I give the film a strong recommendation, and would rate it at a 90%.

Stay tuned for more reviews to come!