The Awakening

I, like several others, decided to watch this movie because on Netflix it has a 4 star (or almost 4 star) rating. I must have gotten this movie confused with another movie for which I saw commercials a few years back that looked interesting. This movie has a weak plot, sub-standard acting and chintzy special effects. It's not that bad if it's a student film, but if this film is considered to be "professional" then these guys should be out of work right about now. It's very difficult to actually get connected to or care about the fate of the characters because there is no character development. There are no explanations and it appears that the "God" or "Demon" antagonist of the film only wants to kill and kill and kill for no reason. This film ALMOST has a zombie-like flavor to it in that the malevolent entity is passed from one person to another and then it turns around and kills as many people as possible.

What can be said about this movie that hasn't already been stated? It really is badly done. The main villain in the film is laughably oafish. I wouldn't fear him in the scariest of situations!

There just isn't much going for this film. Bad dialogue, horrible editing, and worse acting; this film contained all the necessities of a qualifying to be a feature presentation on Mystery Science Theater 3000. I wanted to make a little cut-out version of Joel, Crow, and Tom Servo to attach to the bottom of my screen to feel like I justified sitting through 34 whole minutes of this wreckage!

I get that it's quite possibly a student film, so I couldn't give it the 1 star that it truly deserves. I give them a 3 star for their effort.

I feel bad slagging this film. It's like badmouthing a grammar school play. This is not a real movie. It's cheap digital video with poor production values and sub-sub-par acting. Somehow this is appearing as a recommended film on netflix. And it has a 4+ star review rating there. It is artificially inflated. I warn you not to bother. Not because it's terrible, but because it's not a movie. It's someone's goofy little project.

As I said, I feel bad slagging it. But I chose to do so because I felt cheated by Netflix for recommending this to me. One might come to the conclusion that there is "fishy business" going on in the over-inflated review scores on netflix.

It's not a bad movie, in fact, it's not a movie at all. Don't bother.

And one more time - don't bother

Do not waste your time on this film for one good special effect (and even that is milked for all it is worth). Who would put their name on this film or even want to be remotely connected with it? It really is that bad. Pish poor in all departments, especially scripting and acting. It looks like one of those films where friends fill in for extras. The problem is the friends stick out like sore thumbs as soon as they realize the camera is running. I also gave this one a look based upon the 4 star rating on Netfilx. It took about 3 minutes to realize I had been misled. I stayed with the film for the duration but it only got worse and worse. And how about that "shock" ending?? Hee hee, who didn't see that one coming? Jeesh!

Like others, I found this film through Netflix, with an exceptional rating for a horror movie. Honestly, I suppose it could be worse, but right from the get-go it has that "student film" quality about it. The actors appeared untrained, the special effects were terrible, and the entire movie looked like it could have been made on a budget of $500 or less.

As someone who has acted in a number of student films, I found it entertaining, but it doesn't deserve credit as a professional movie, and it definitely doesn't deserve four stars on Netflix. As an amateur film, it's not bad. It might even be worth watching for a couple chuckles, but if you're looking for a good movie that actually scares you, this is not the movie for you.

As an amateur film, I give it 7.5/10, but as a professional film I give it 1/10.