La maldición

As grand productions go (which was a box-office flop), "The Awakening" is professionally catered for but remains a very tepid, old hat supernatural drama enterprise that consisted of excellently dedicated performances ( a serviceable Charlton Heston and an impressive Susannah York) and some stunningly projected Egyptian locations and decors. Outside of that, the story (adapted off Bram Stoker's "The Jewel of Seven Stars") while moodily haunting just felt like it was going through the motions and laboured along. The usual Egyptian tombs, curses unleashed, possessions of loved ones and an archaeologist's obsession to his work. No surprises and little interest, but I did like it's rather gloomily, downbeat conclusion that waited. It's suggestively slow-burn and crisp, dealing with a complex psychological edge filled with melancholy, detachment and righteous ideas. It's the beautiful imagery and majestic score that lingers, as everything is suggestively subtle with a slightly surreal, but more so grounded atmosphere. Stephanie Zimbalist is decent as Heston's possessed daughter and Jill Townsend as her mother.

In Egypt, the archaeologist Matthew Corbeck (Charlton Heston) is obsessed to find the tomb of the ancient Queen Kara with his assistant Jane Turner (Susannah York) and his expedition. When he finds and opens Kara's tomb, his pregnant wife Anne Corbeck (Jill Townsend) simultaneously delivers their daughter Margaret. Eighteen years later, Margaret (Stephanie Zimbalist) has a strange behavior and Matthew believes the evil spirit of Kara is trying to possess his daughter. Now Matthew intends to perform an ancient ritual to save Margaret. Will he succeed?

"The Awakening" is not a totally bad film, having a great cast and good cinematography. Unfortunately the predictable story and the screenplay are ripoff of many films and the viewer has the sensation that has already seen before. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Reencarnação" ("Reincarnation")

The Awakening is directed by Mike Newell and collectively adapted to screenplay by Clive Exton, Chris Bryant and Allan Scott from the Bram Stoker novel The Jewel of Seven Stars. It stars Charlton Heston, Susannah York, Jill Townsend and Stephanie Zimbalist. Music is by Claude Bolling and cinematography by Jack Cardiff.

Heston plays archaeologist Matthew Corbeck, who after discovering the tomb of disgraced Egyptian Queen Kara discovers his daughter is possessed by Kara's spirit and to save mankind he may have to destroy her.

It's honourably serious, a willing attempt to make an intelligent end of the world type picture with flecks of troubling family dynamics. The production value is top draw, every effort has been made to make it look great, with lavish photography (nice to see a film of this type actually be filmed in Egypt), skillfully crafted set designs and an evocative score that drifts across the sands with distinction. Hell, even the casting of Heston at a time when his star had considerably faded, still gave the production some weight. If only it wasn't so immeasurably dull and distant!

The makers, obviously tugging on the coat tails of The Omen and Mummy movies previously, never develop the edgy themes bubbling away just below the narrative's surface. It's often feels like a big compromise was put forward by an executive, a request that they must ensure deaths are the draw card and to hell with the possibility of making a substantial brain tickler. Or it could just be that there were too many writers in the mix?! So what we essentially get is a laboriously paced movie going through the motions until the next death scene arrives, and then it's back to some slow brooding again.

The cast are solid, the ending suitably downbeat, and if you like Omen type deaths then there are a couple here worth your time, but you may need plenty of energizer drinks to keep you awake first. 4/10

The Awakening is a film about an archaeologist that finds the tomb of a nameless Egyptian queen named Kara. Charlton Heston plays Dr. Corbeck, a man consumed with finding evidence to support this legendary status of Kara. A man who puts work ahead of family, even during the birth of his own daughter. Heston finds the tomb in the very long introductory flashback of 18 years ago beginning the film. He finds it under somewhat strange circumstances. A man is killed attempting to stop his dig mysteriously. Whilst all this is going on, Heston's estranged wife is bearing his daughter after waking from a coma. Now, I am not really sure what the significance of all these events are, but I found the first part of this film in particular very engrossing. The next three fourths is what really lost me and some logical credibility as Heston meets his sultry 18 year-old daughter, they discuss how Queen Kara had killed her father and everyone that touched his hand because he killed her lover and made her partake of his own bed, and then takes her(Heston's daughter) to Egypt. While in Egypt, Stephanie Zimbalist goes under some strange transformation as if she is becoming Kara and we go from there. This film has some beautiful location shots in Egypt, and I found the information, whether real or imaginary, about the queen, mummification, canopic jars(jars used for organs), etc... quite fascinating. The acting is pretty good. I thought Heston did a fine job. Zimbalist is good as well. The biggest problem is the writing. After you watch the film, you really are not sure what happened. I still don't know. The film is also a bit slow in the first half, but there are(for those who really enjoy it) some very gruesome deaths too. I cannot wholeheartedly recommend the film, but if you enjoy the mysteries of Egypt or mummy movies in particular...I would give it a look see. What could it hurt?

While it certainly has some flaws, I very much enjoyed watching The Awakening. Nice shots of museum pieces, Egyptian deserts, etc always make me happy, and the acting was not bad either. It was certainly less silly than The Mummy movies, so a 7/10 for The Awakening would be well deserved. Is it a great piece of groundbreaking cinema? No. But it's certainly much better than a lot of more highly rated movies. If you like ancient Egypt, horror, and/or a light Lovecraftian atmosphere, I'm sure you'll enjoy this. If not, you should probably skip this one (but then why are you reading the IMDb reviews of a mummy horror? What did you expect?).