Dir. Nick Murphy, UK, 107mins, 2011
Cast: Rebecca Hall, Dominic West, Imelda Staunton, Isaac Hempstead Wright
Review by Matthew Rodgers
Horror, being the cyclical beast that it is, can sometimes get stagnant when a winning formula is rinsed of all its once-fresh potential. There will always be schlocky straight-to-DVDsequels and low-rent efforts, but think Paranormal Activity and the subsequent slew of derivative knock-offs, including its own sequel, plus The Exorcism of Emily Rose, and The Fourth Kind. It’s a tactic that usually prevails until a new gimmick is discovered or recycled. Lest we forget, the “found footage” approach stretches back to The Blair Witch Project in 1999.
Enough of the genre history lesson. This context is provided because The Awakening is hopefully the last of the Del Toro influenced, Spanish haunted house horror knock-offs. It isn’t a bad film, but it is so heavily influenced by El Orfanato and The Devil’s Backbone that the audience are always one step ahead of the narrative, thus neutralising any of the scares. And surely to be frightened is the point?
The setting is Englandin 1921, dominated by the many personal tragedies of the First World War. The film begins promisingly, as ghost buster Florence Cathcart (Rebecca Hall) debunks a fake séance and its medium, who was pretending to summon the spirit of a recently deceased girl. The first clues are dropped here that Florencemay have an ulterior motive in disproving the existence of the afterlife. Clutching a faded photo of a soldier; she clearly has underlying issues that are key to events to come (reference The Others).
Something of a literary celebrity after penning a spectre related book,Florenceis reluctantly persuaded into investigating the appearance of an apparition at a countryside boarding school by war-veteran teacher Robert Mallory (Dominic West). Amongst the residents are a loony groundskeeper, an overbearing teacher, and the school’s matron Maud (Imelda Staunton), all adding to the mystery.
The film is sumptuous looking with production values are at the high end, making use of the desolate locales and cavernous rooms; an environment perfect for this kind of fare. As are the performances from the ensemble cast.
Rebecca Hall, although oddly modern in mannerisms and dress sense for 1920’sEngland, perfectly manages to conveyFlorence’s sanity paranoia. It’s her behaviour more than the clichéd plot that demands interest in the slowly unfolding narrative.
West is fine in a Rochester-like role, andStauntonimbues her character with enough odd behaviour to keep you second guessing but much like the majority of the characters a lot is left unexplained. Red herrings are welcome plot devices in a mystery but they should be cleared up to enforce their effect and not entirely forgotten about, which is something which happens too often with Steven Volk’s script.
Why does Mallory have a shaking fit on his bed? Why is the groundskeeper kept on despite his obvious and briefly explained anger management issues? Too much is left dangling by the time the multiple twist ending comes about – a conclusion in which any of the trio of supposed “shocks” would have sated the audience.
Little kids with masks or distorted faces, people chasing half glimpsed figures around stately homes, we’ve seen it all before. Only once, during an inspired dollhouse window peeping sequence, does The Awakening genuinely chill. Aside from that it’s a well made yarn, which struggles to find its own identity and suffers at the hands of its obvious inspiration.
xx - posted on 23/05/2012 13:13:28
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[...] The Awakening (15) | Close-Up Film Review Dir. Nick Murphy, UK, 107mins, 2011 Cast: Rebecca Hall, Dominic West, Imelda Staunton, Isaac Hempstead Wright Review by Matthew Rodgers Horror, being the cyclical beast that it is, can sometimes get stagnant when a winning formula is rinsed of all… Source: http://www.close-upfilm.com [...]