For those few who had the chance to watch the terrifying recent ghost story drama The Night House with Rebecca Hall, you may be wanting a bit more of that energy in your life as we sink firmly into Halloween season. You only have to go back a decade to Nick Murphy’s 2011 British period chiller The Awakening to see where Hall honed her chops in the genre. Her character of Florence Cathcart is the type you love to see; Florence is a highly educated and successful author who has a penchant for sussing out bogus spiritualists and debunking their charlatan ways. Set in the period following The Great War, the nation is still reeling from all that it lost in the conflict and all of the metaphorical ghosts that now surround everyone – not to mention the ghostly appearance of those who survived the war but only as a shell of their former selves. Society is looking for meaning and connection, and with this comes the opportunity for exploitation. When Florence is approached to conduct a special paranormal investigation at a boarding school, her idea of what is possible will be tested.
Rebecca Hall has proven herself to be one of the most nimble performers working today, and she brings much nuance to Florence. What initially reads as unfettered confidence in her ability to disprove the existence of spirits is revealed to be a mask for the heartbreaking idea that she wants to be proven wrong. She has experienced much loss in the past, and to have a way of lessening that pain would be a great relief to her. Her past is somewhat exploited by Robert Mallory (Dominc West, The Wire), a history teacher at the Rockwood boys’ boarding school in the North of England. One of his young students has recently died from what is said to be fright from seeing a ghost, and the remaining students are living in a constant state of fear. By framing them as semi-orphans, he convinces the former-orphan Florence to investigate further. A rational explanation is soon found for the boy’s death, but this is only the beginning of her journey at the school.
The Awakening is a very methodically paced thriller that has many admirable aspects but does not quite come together perfectly in the end. The narrative uses the backdrop of the war to explore survivor’s guilt in many compelling ways. Mallory is a former war hero who has scars both physically and psychologically that weigh him down. He is far from the only character burdened by the past in this story, though. Florence begins to experience many things she cannot explain, and the carefully crafted walls that she has erected between her present and her past start to come crumbling down. When she finds herself staying at the deserted school with Mallory, along with the school’s matron (Imelda Staunton, Harry Potter franchise) and Tom (Isaac Hempstead-Wright, Game of Thrones), a boy whose parents are living in India, her sanity is tested. The frights that occur during the course of this story are mostly earned, but the jumps are too sporadic and the execution does not diverge from the standard horror playback in the way hardcore fans might want.
The film does a truly remarkable job setting up the pieces, but when it comes to execution it falters in many respects. When a movie truly draws you in, it is easy to find yourself overlooking a fair amount of convenient plot elements, but there are some glaring inconsistencies that the film cannot so easily gloss over. Thematically the movie aims to cover some unique ground, but once again the movie starts to fall into the expected beats that make it difficult to differentiate from other period horror films. At its best, The Awakening is trying to capture the dread that one feels while watching The Others or even The Innocents, but true terror never arises. Even with some of the more rote elements of the story, the pitch perfect performances do a lot of heavy lifting. The rest of the slack is carried by the awe-inspiring production design and steely cinematography that shows a sense of care slightly lacking in the script. The Awakening does not shake up the genre, but at its core it is a solid horror movie that does many things right. It may not be nightmare-fuel, but it is unsettling enough to make for a decent addition to your Halloween viewing season.
Video Quality
The Awakening comes to Blu-Ray with a 1080p presentation in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio that mostly captures the film well. The movie itself has a very muted color palette that was never going to make this a disc you show off, but there is a fine amount of detail and clarity. There is slight loss of detail in fast panning shots, but it is not pervasive throughout. It is always a good idea for your horror film to have deep black levels, and this thankfully does with no obvious signs of crush. Objects hold up pretty well in the shadows and retain their depth. There is no damage or digital noise detectable in this transfer. There is a healthy amount of natural film grain that does not swarm or bunch up. There are not really any moments that are going to jump off the screen, but this is a solid video presentation overall.
Audio Quality
The film comes to Blu-Ray with a commendable DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track. The movie is mostly on the quiet side with bursts of activity when supposed spirits pop up for a quick fright. The low end of the track is especially active during these moments with a bit of wall shaking happening. The dialogue and sound effects are appropriately balanced with the maudlin score where nothing gets lost in the track. Surround channels get some nice activity during the nature scenes and with the creaky house during any lead up to a “scary” reveal. There are no issues whatsoever with this track.
Special Features
- Deleted Scenes Introduced by Nick Murphy: Director Nick Murphy guides you through 28 minutes of unused material from the film. There are some interesting moments in here, but Murphy takes way too much time setting up the material so you may want to fast-forward through several minutes of that.
- Anatomy Of A Scene – Florence and the Lake: A 15-minute piece which details this turning point within the film with insights from the cast and crew about what it means thematically and how they pulled it off from a technical perspective.
- Extended Interview with Nick Murphy: A nearly 20-minute interview with Murphy in which he discusses how this film fits into his body of work, working with the performers, his thoughts on child actors, the challenges in directing this story and more.
- Anatomy Of A Scream: A 17-minute featurette in which the cast and crew discuss their personal feelings and experiences with the paranormal.
- A Time For Ghosts: A 25-minute piece which details the period of British history covered in the film which brought about so much suffering due to warfare.
- Behind The Scenes: A 36-minute featurette in which the cast and crew members offer insights into various aspects of the production along with some intriguing behind-the-scenes footage.
- Trailer: The two-and-a-half minute trailer is provided here.
Final Thoughts
The Awakening is a pretty engaging period ghost story that keeps you invested thanks to its extremely talented ensemble. The movie faces some narrative shortcomings, but the performances and technical aspects help alleviate these issues substantially. Rebecca Hall proves once again that she is one of the best working right now. Cohen Media Group and Kino Lorber have released a Blu-Ray featuring a strong A/V presentation and a surprisingly deep array of supplemental features. If you are a fan of Rebecca Hall or reserved ghost stories in general, you should enjoy this one well enough.
The Awakening will be available to purchase on Blu-Ray on October 5, 2021.
Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the Blu-Ray.
Disclaimer: Cohen Media Group and Kino Lorber have supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.
Dillon is most comfortable sitting around in a theatre all day watching both big budget and independent movies.
