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I'll give the film some credit, it looks spooky.
Eduard Grau, the cinematographer shoots the film beautifully in muted greens to give the film the perfect atmosphere. It looks and feels like the 1920's. It's a wonderful example of an old-fashioned supernatural thriller, but there lies the problem. It has no pulse. The film tries so hard to nail the atmosphere that it forgets to be scary.
Rebecca Hall is a published author who debunks ghosts stories. After just finishing one job she is contacted by a man who believes a boarding school for boys is really haunted. She takes the job...big mistake. Her beliefs are challenged as mysteries that she cannot explain emerge from the halls. Soon she will discover the tragic past and believe.
The end result of The Awakening feels like a wasted opportunity. The ending feels a little to contrived and muddled the plot. Everything about this film falls behind the atmosphere and Hall's performance, which is particularly good. I wanted more from this film and was left disappointed by how routine it ended up being. The film wants to be more than the sum of its parts. It wants to be more than a routine ghost story and it tries desperately to prove that it's smart. Bad news for The Awakening...it's not.
The Awakening
I'll give the film some credit, it looks spooky.
Eduard Grau, the cinematographer shoots the film beautifully in muted greens to give the film the perfect atmosphere. It looks and feels like the 1920's. It's a wonderful example of an old-fashioned supernatural thriller, but there lies the problem. It has no pulse. The film tries so hard to nail the atmosphere that it forgets to be scary.
Rebecca Hall is a published author who debunks ghosts stories. After just finishing one job she is contacted by a man who believes a boarding school for boys is really haunted. She takes the job...big mistake. Her beliefs are challenged as mysteries that she cannot explain emerge from the halls. Soon she will discover the tragic past and believe.
The end result of The Awakening feels like a wasted opportunity. The ending feels a little to contrived and muddled the plot. Everything about this film falls behind the atmosphere and Hall's performance, which is particularly good. I wanted more from this film and was left disappointed by how routine it ended up being. The film wants to be more than the sum of its parts. It wants to be more than a routine ghost story and it tries desperately to prove that it's smart. Bad news for The Awakening...it's not.