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The Awakening follows a long tradition of period ghost films, with its setting of a creepy boarding school evoking memories of all that has gone before, as well as being filled with hushed secrets, terrified boys and hiding the inevitable sinister event in its past, and a sceptical investigator who does not believe in the supernatural. Yet with an excellent cast and some obvious themes and ideas, it looks like a breath of fresh air.
Horror films rarely wear their ideas on their sleeve, but this one announces at the outset that in 1921 people are still reeling from the events of World War One and, unable to cope with the loss, turn to the supernatural for comfort. With our protagonist Florence Cathcart (Rebecca Hall), a specialist in disproving ghostly activity, needing to see spirits more than almost anyone. The trouble is that while it is nice to see a clear attempt at intelligence, the script is overly complex, meaning the story soon becomes muddled and fails to examine its ideas in a coherent and interesting way. What makes this worse is that the whole thing feels uncannily predictable, until it approaches the end when it spirals out of control and into territory which makes very little sense whatsoever. What results is a script that feels like a mess, and in real need of a good editor as the film feels decidedly baggy; but rather than doing this, it adds in distracting subplots that serve little function. This is a real shame as for the most part the characters work well and the acting is excellent across the board, but it never quite seems to gel and the ideas and emotional impact of its themes and ideas are soon lost within its confused screenplay.
Yet perhaps the biggest problem of the film is simply that it is not at all frightening. Which is surprising considering that they have gone to such lengths to create the dark, gothic school environment, but the sense of atmosphere is distorted by the overly complex and confused script, that refuses to allow it to develop. The individual scares themselves can be seen a mile off, and you know exactly when ghost boy will show up again. Many scenes feel like cheap rip offs of those found in the vastly superior Spanish horror The Orphanage, a film that actually deals with the same themes and concepts of grief and loss very well indeed.
The Awakening is a film that had such promise on paper but just fails to pan out on screen. Yes, the cast is excellent with fine performances from Rebecca Hall, Dominic West and Imelda Staunton, and the set design and cinematography are very nice. Yet the whole film feels confused, its ideas and plot muddled whilst being predictable until near the end where it suddenly tries to do something new and just ends up falling on its face. Resulting, I am afraid to say, in a rather disappointing film.
The Awakening is screening at York City Screen now. For more information visit http://www.picturehouses.co.uk/cinema/York_Picturehouse/
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