Awaken the Shadowman

One of the worst movies I have ever seen. I made my husband watch it just because the reviews were ok at first, but I can only asume that those reviews were from the pleople involved with the film.

Currently half of the reviews for this movie (the earlier half) are 8-10 stars, while the other half is very low. The high ratings are all from new accounts who have written no other reviews. Hmmmm. This is a pretty good indication that the high ratings are coming from people involved with the film, which I think is really shady. I would have given this 5/10, but am rating it lower to counter the obvious astroturfing.

Anyway, this is an OK indie project that does its best to be eerie/creepy/subtle, and I can appreciate that. No part of this production is Hollywood-grade, but that's not always a bad thing. My main gripe is the rushed ending. It feels like they ran out of time/money and had to wrap it up as quick as possible. There are so many things left open. Not "open to interpretation," but completely ignored. Like parts of the story are missing. Near the end everyone is spouting overly cryptic things at the main character, and he keeps saying, "What are you talking about!?" Then someone says, "Now you know. Now you understand." And he's like, "No actually I don't." This is the moment I really connected with him.

Oh, and then right after that exchange, we flash forward an unspecified amount of time, with no explanation of what happened after the cult did its thing, why it was doing the thing in the first place, or how the guy escaped them and got out of the basement. Roll credits. ...ok thanks?

When a young couple and their newly born child learn that their mother is missing they race back to their home town to assist in the search only to learn that the town holds a dark secret.

Sadly the dark secret is never fully explained and the film is an anti-climatic empty 90 minutes of boredom.

It's not that nothing happens, it's that nothing even remotely interesting happens.

The movie ends on about 50 question marks and that simply isn't acceptable.

The Good:

Jean Smart

The Bad:

Everyone else

This concept had a ton of potential, it was filmed in a neighborhood I love, centered on a subject close to my heart (recovery from wildfires), and the shadowman concept is hard to f*ck up - but even with all of these positive elements this was an absolute disaster. It's slow, it's shockingly poorly acted, the cinematography was basic and the script was a meandering, dull snooze fest. The filmmakers owe me the $5.99 On Demand rental fee, plus the cost of 90 minutes of my life. Shame on you!

I was initially lured in by the movie's cover/poster, as it did seem somewhat interesting, and the fact that this was a supernatural horror movie also just jabbed at my interest.

Now, I have to be bluntly honest and say that I didn't get to the end of the movie, nor do I think that I actually made it halfway through. This movie was an ordeal to watch, because it was an unfathomably boring movie, and nothing much of any interest happened. And the lack of anything even remotely worthwhile watching made me give up on the movie. And I have no intention of returning to it and finish watching it.

The characters in the movie were generic and could essentially have been in any other horror movie. They were lacking depth and distinctive qualities and characteristics, which made for a very bland viewing experience. It was not the fault of the actors and actresses, but the writers were to blame here. The acting was adequate, but the talents were definitely struggling with the limitations imposed on them by the script and storyline.

As for special effects, well I saw very little, and what I did see didn't really impress me. And this was a supernatural horror movie, yet I managed to see only very little in the supernatural department, which was also not working in favor of the movie.

There is nothing recommendable about "Awaken the Shadowman", and thus I cannot come up with a reason for why you should actually take the time and effort or throw money after this movie, because it was just not entertaining at all.