The Awakening

GENERAL INFORMATION
Release Info: USA- 17 Aug 2012
Running Time: 107 Minutes
Staring:  Rebecca Hall, Dominic West, Imelda Staunton..
Rating? R
SPOILERS? YES

REVIEWS
IMDB: 6.5 of 10
MY RATING: 7 of 10

STORYLINE
In 1921, England is overwhelmed bu the loss and grief of World War I. Hoax exposer Florence Cathcart visits a boarding school to explain sightings of a child ghost. Everything she believes unravels as the 'missing' begin to show themselves.

MY REVIEW:
A horror story this is not. Thriller, yes. Creepy and flawed ghost story, yes.

It's fairly original for an old ghost story. I like the settings and the traditional feel. It's effective in its use of creaking doors and mysterious sounds as well as the use of light and darkness to set the scene in this gloomy English countryside mansion. Most of the plot twists were a little obvious to me, the fanatic horror movie watcher.

What sold me on this movie was the use of traditional scares and very little reliance on special effects. This is a good old English film with a good old English cast that gives insight to the frailty of fear and makes up for the few flaws with character development and understated tension.

What I did not find effective was the underdevelopment of  the finale. Could have used some good old-fashioned thriller magic.
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