La Maison des ombres

The Awakening is pretty much what you would expect it to be. It's well made with gorgeous cinematography and strong performances from its cast. And the story if unsurprising is solidly made and well told. The film is directed well and builds a nice amount of suspense throughout. At times its confusing because of the sheer amount of convoluted ideals being thrown around. The story concerns an educated young woman who debunks ghost theories. She is approached by the headmaster of a school to help out with a problem concerning the boys being frightened there. After some convincing she arrives at the location and begins her investigation. Many secrets are discovered and it builds to a somewhat expected finale. For those of you who've seen the brilliant films The Others, The Orphanage and The Devil's Backbone there's not much new here. Still it's competently made and there is a nice slow burn of suspense even culminating in some surprising scares and plot twists. Overall it's a old fashioned classic spook fest with a bit of wit and borrowed imagination from slightly better films. A bonus scene features sexy Dominic West in a solid performance shedding his clothes which is much appreciated but unnecessary like the other "bathtub" scene. And there seems to be niche with that running through the proceedings it's almost as if the people involved with making the film knew they had something that wasn't the most original concept so they threw in unnecessary things to kind of lead you astray it's a little manipulative on their part but keeps you engaged as a viewer and you don't feel too cheated at the films conclusion. Overall it's an elegant, solid but expected ghost story.

This film is set in a post-World War One society, devastated by loss and alienated from traditional Christian answers about the afterlife. The settings, context and costumes are done perfectly. The tensions between the situation and characters develop quickly, with the help of some genteel and understated movie tropes. But it is in the these tropes that it loses its way somewhat, and towards the last quarter IMO it loses its way royally. Take a pick n mix from haunted doll house, weird kid, who's a ghost, repressed memories and crazy ladies and you can have the awakening of your choice.....

Creepy and eerie film in which a gloomy ghost haunts a school and while an arrogant fake investigator called Florence (Rebecca Hall) discovers false psychics, as she goes to investigate it at a far and solitary location : Umbria, where has happened a strange murder. She arrives to investigate the weird and ghastly boy who's terrorizing the schoolboys and awakening the house's darkest inhabitant at the isolated mansion and then Florence learns a sinister secret . There Florence is welcomed by the suspect governess (Imelda Staunton) and a shy little child (Isaac Hempstead) . With the help of the headmaster (Dominic West) of the Boarding House they must fend off the damned spirit who takes the scared kiddies. As she becomes the next target for the dark ghost resulting in a twisted and surprising finale . All the children are gone...except one. He never forgets . He never left .

The pace of the movie is slow but I never found it dull , the plot deals with a paranormal investigator who finds out false cases of fake medium, cheater clairvoyants , and swindler fortune tellers . As the scary tale narrates the legend of a manor and reveals more untold secrets , evil and tricks of a menacing ghost. It belongs to "Haunted House" sub-genre with various notorious films from the Sixties as ¨The Haunting¨ 1963 by Robert Wise , going on to nowadays . Main and support cast are pretty good . As Rebecca Hall as a skeptical private investigator who exposes frauds and hoaxes , Dominic West as the principal who falls for her , Imelda Staunton as the stiff-upper-lip housekeeper , Isaac Hempstead Wright as a weird student , Shaun Dooley , Joseph Mawle , and John Shrapnel as a local priest.

The picture follows the style of the recently successful Brit films as : ¨The Woman in Black¨ 2012 by James Watkins and its sequel ¨Angel of Death¨ 2014 by Tom Harper . It contains a colorful and evocative cinematography by Eduard Grau. As well as frightening and moving musical score by composer Daniel Pemberton. The motion picture was compellingly directed by Nick Murphy . He's a good craftsman who often works for Britsh television and BBC , making several TV episodes and series, such as : Christmas Tale , The Fog , Nightflyers , Rogue , Surviving Disaster ,The Secret , Prey , Primeval , Dracula , Occupation , Heroes and villians, among others . And occassionally for cinema he has only made two nice films : Blood and this The Awakening 2011. Rating : 7/10 . Better than average horror movie . The flick with appeal to terror fans .

The movie does not sound original, in terms of plot and style, it is a very old-style ghost story, built according to the most traditional but still effective means in pictures like these, where the supernatural has to find its ways. Creaking doors, mysterious sounds, light and dark play, set in a solitary gloomy mansion in the English countryside, are part of the oldest tradition of scary movies, the plot twists are also not new, but the impression I got is that of a simple, well crafted ghost story, with an interesting psychological insight, that without needing exaggerated sci-fi effects gets to appeal and entertain the viewer till the end. A good English cast helps give insight to the the frailty and fears of its characters, and to make up for some flaws in the picture, above all a rather hasty and underdeveloped finale, as opposed to some slowness in the previous parts.

It's 1921 after the horrors of WWI, England is full of charlatans trying to scam grieving people. Florence Cathcart (Rebecca Hall) is a professional skeptic driven to exposing hoaxes and getting the cons arrested. Robert Mallory (Dominic West) invites her to investigate a ghost at a boarding school. There was a murder long ago that could be the source, and recently a student had died. Florence is met by governess Maud Hill (Imelda Staunton) and the boy Thomas Hill. Teachers and staff soon goes on vacation leaving Florence alone with Robert, Maud and Tom in the school.

This setting has a good old fashion atmosphere. It's basically a big old isolated building with a handful of people and a ghost story. You can't really get any more classic than that. The story does have a convoluted twist that could be quite problematic. I was able to follow the twist, and I'm fine with it. Rebecca Hall is a nice capable actress. And she makes a good avenging heroine and a damsel in distress.