Wake Up

An entertaing and gory low-budget film with large doses of scares, gory scenes and terrifying set pieces . Ordinary slasher flick from Canada including coproduction by France/Spain, containing a lot of grisly killings and unknown cast at a mall. In an attempt to draw attention to the environmental crisis, young activists (Benny O. Arthur, Jacqueline Moré, Tom Gould, Alessia Yoko Fontana, Kyle Scudder, Charlotte Stoibe) decide to invade and vandalize a furniture store called . Then things go wrong, the protest quickly turns into a massacre when they find themselves trapped with a hunting-obsessed night guard. A merciless , brutal killer goes bersek, terrorizing the group of friends. . Fun getting in !. Hell getting out !. Terror never felt so real !. The night of dreams quickly turns into a true nightmare !.

A bone-chilling and gory horror flick with a devasting and threatening series killer executing astonishing crimes. The Canadian film-making trio RKSS behind the cult classic Turbo Kid direct this crazy, ultraviolent survival slasher, presented at the 2023 Sitges Film Festival. It stars a group of environmental friends, environmental activists who raid House Idea, a furniture shopping centre, at night to protest the deforestation of the rainforest. What they don't expect, however, is to run into a psychopathic and bloodthirsty security guard who loves primitive art and is eager to play cat and mouse. An out-of-control villain, hunters being hunted, and lots of blood and gore are the keys to this film, which produces more tension than trying to put a wardrobe together piece by piece.

The premise of the film is as macabre as it is simple: a foolish group of young people enter a shopping mall resulting in terrible consequences. The Thrill is the relentless hunt carried put by a heinous and sinister hunter/murderer against some unfortunate trespassers. The chilling plot is simple and plain, an ordinary screenplay of hundreds of Slashers , a serial murderer turns a mall into his own personal playground, and the essential twisted issue results to be that the killer on the loose undertakes a criminal spree while the victims flee desperately. A typical criminal spree in which some teenagers begin a night in which fun turns into a nightmare when they realize that they are relentlessly pursued .Wake Up(2023) follows the style of the recent Karusell (2023) by Simon Sandquist , ¨Hell Fest¨ (2018) by Gregory Plotkin and ¨Haunt¨ (2019) by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods ,also dealing with a psycho-killer going bersek at in a public and closed establishment, in these cases amusement parks. Al the same time, all of them bear remarkable resemblance to the classic ¨Tobe Hooper's The Funhouse (1981)¨ about four teenagers spending a night at a carnival funhose, who become next on the list of victims.

It contains dark and sinister cinematography, in fact the camera often assumes a pointedly aggressive stance, as well as screeching and eerie musical score by Arnau Bataller . This short-budget film was made by directors François Simard, Anouk Whissell and Yoann-Karl Whissell (RKSS) . They direct professionally but nothing special this disturbing survival story full of horrror, chiller and chases inside a mall. They're working interchangeably for television or cinema. Their debut feature was ¨Turbo Kid¨ it is a post-apocalyptic film made in 2015, an anti-prophetic story with a lot of gore, which adds an eighties science fiction aesthetic and shows a past that has not come to fruition. Rating: average 5/10. The flick will appeal to horror fans, although we had already seen the plot and the situations portrayed before and better filmed .

I was having a horror film weekend this weekend and started off with this and I must admit I was pleasantly surprised. I was expecting bad acting and no good story or deaths but I can say I was wrong. Most if the character's were good especially the main security guard, the only ones acting I thought was bad was the jock in it lol. Anyway the story made sense and the deaths were eventful. I like jumpy horrors and edge of your seat ones and i felt at times this film had both and right till just before the end. There was also twist so this film wasn't boring and did keep me entertained the whole way through. It's defo worth a watch.

Wake Up comes with an interesting and initially promising concept, offering a storyline that makes us think about extremism and its consequences, both from the activists' side and the security guards, who defend their work with questionable tactics. The film seems like it wants to explore this tension, questioning just how "right" or "moral" each side really is. But as it goes on, it quickly becomes clear that this potential for reflection is left unexplored and stays on the surface. It's a pity, as Wake Up had the chance to touch on relevant themes, but it misses the mark by not going deeper.

The plot is straightforward: a group of activists break into an IKEA-like store overnight to stage a protest. Tension rises when they realize they're being hunted by a security guard with homicidal tendencies. From here, the movie takes a classic slasher route, where the main objective is simply for the characters to survive while being hunted by a relentless killer. It's a well-worn formula we've seen many times, so from a narrative standpoint, Wake Up doesn't bring anything new to the genre.

The biggest issue is precisely that predictability. I felt like I knew exactly what was coming, with no twists or surprises to change those expectations. The film doesn't try to innovate or challenge slasher stereotypes. Instead, it sticks to them closely, making it feel predictable and, at times, a bit monotonous. It's not poorly executed-the production is solid, and the setting works-but it lacks the originality that would set it apart from so many similar films.

Even so, there is one standout moment. In one of the film's most memorable scenes, the characters are covered in glow-in-the-dark paint, making them easy targets for the killer. This scene in the dark is visually interesting and really captured my attention. It's the high point of the film, and I feel that if there were more of this kind of creativity in other scenes, the experience could have been much more engaging.

However, Wake Up doesn't go beyond a very basic horror thriller that meets the minimum requirements for entertainment but doesn't quite impress. In short, it's neither good nor bad; it entertains, but it's unlikely to leave a lasting impact.

If you just went to the Ikea store and you feel you still didn't get enough of it you can give this movie a go as it looks like it's been shot there. I guess they had to remove all Björks and Knutts to replace them by something similar, but it's clearly inspired by the Ikea franchise. Nothing wrong with that if it was a good movie, which it isn't by the way, unless you don't mind a guy getting his head bashed in, losing liters of blood and apparently not being dead as he pops up a bit later in the story without a single drop of blood spatter. Or another kid getting speared by a kitchen knife in the spine but still able to walk around like nothing happened. It's just too ridiculous for me. A bit of slashing, I can live with that, even enjoy it, but dead is dead to me, so when they are still functioning normally after being slashed I'm losing interest.

Quick review: One of my favourite things in a well crafted movie is when you can relate to (and perhaps even side with) the villain or antagonist. In 'Wake Up', for the majority of the film, I wasn't even sure which side or character was supposed to be the antagonist. By the end it seemed slightly more clear which side the filmmakers were intending, however I can assure you I was on the other side. It was a well done film in that respect.

I love that this feels like a film where no one is safe and nothing is off limits. Anything can and will happen by the end of the film. The final scene was just the beautiful icing on the cake. I enjoyed this one. 7/10.