Wake Wood

After the death of their beloved daughter Alice (Ella Connolly) by a savage dog, the veterinary Patrick (Aidan Gillen) and the pharmacist Louise (Eva Birthistle) move to Wake Wood, a small town in the countryside. Patrick befriends the local leader Arthur (Timothy Spall) and the couple grieves the death of Alice.

Sooner Louise witnesses part of a bloody ritual in the woods and they learn that the villagers practice a pagan ritual to bring back to life the beloved deceased one for three days for a better farewell within the first month of the casualty and within the village limits. Patrick and Louise accept the conditions and lie to Arthur about the date that Alice died. They succeed in resuscitating Alice but something goes deadly wrong.

"Wake Wood" is an interesting film that has a storyline very similar to "Pet Sematary" with desperate parents using a weird ritual to revive their beloved nine year-old daughter. The dramatic and creepy story is supported by good performances and worth watching this Hammer film. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Despertar dos Mortos" ("Awake of the Dead")

Love these tucked away films that you chance upon. Nice, neat, right running time, little shocker.

Its the premise thats of interest here and fascinating. A youngish couple losing their only child (and she says she cant have any more)and then given the chance to have her back, as she was, but for only three days. Given the emotional turmoil involved, and the couples position (a split is also on the cards), how many couples would go along with this. I suspect quite a few.

This also comes along with i) not everyone playing by the rules i.e. lying (how long girl was dead) and ii) it comes at a price! The viewer knows this, he's watched a lot of horror films.

Like the Irish feel, the ancient ways handed down in a localised village, the underlying creepy atmosphere, then again balanced by the modern i.e. the wind machines at the boundaries of the village.

Nice touch with the life cycle, from death comes rebirth; the mixture of births e.g the dead rebirths, cesarean of the cows, and even Alice pulls her doll through a rubbish bag.

Maybe Brendan Gleason ought to have played the squire, Timothy Spalls accent was a bit suspect.

And I am utterly delighted to say this is exactly the sort of movie I hoped Hammer would produce when it rose from the ashes. Last week, I laid into The Resident which was hopelessly feeble. This is anything but. A gory, edge-of-the-seat cracker which also has a fabulous psychological edge. From the start it grabbed me. Which is not too surprising because in the first three minutes a young couple's daughter is torn to death by an angry Alsatian. This inspires the pair, Patrick (Aidan Gillen) and Louise (Eva Birthistle) to start a new life, deep in the Irish countryside, at a village called Wake Wood (what a great name). Louise senses there is something a little odd about the locals, who are led by a squire, played with perfect gravitas by Timothy Spall. Many other reviews have given the game away at this point. I am going to avoid doing that and just suggest supernatural jiggery pokery. Patrick and Louise get involved and the consequences are bloody but rather brilliant. I have read that Wake Wood has echoes of the Whicker Man and I sort of understand this thinking. Certainly, the villagers share a secret and are involved in behaviour which outsiders are unlikely to understand. Gillen and Birtwistle are rather splendid as the fraught interlopers. They succeed where Hilary Swank failed so hopelessly in The Resident. And then there is Spall. I've been enthralled by Spall, so to speak, since the days of Auf Widersehen Pet. He gets better with age. But the real hero is director David Keating who was also on the writing team. With a limited budget he has created a movie with levels of horror and suspense which would make the heroes of Hammer proud.

Following the unnecessary, yet excellent remake 'Let me In' Hammer returns with Wake Wood a supernatural chiller in which a child is brought back from the dead to comfort her parents for three days. But she's not quite the angelic child she was.

Eva Birthistle plays the grieving mother Louise and Twelve Rounds (2009) bad guy Adian Gillen is exceptional as the deceased child's father. Reliable Timothy Spall and the child actress are notable and the supporting cast are solid. 

There's some effective bloody gore, grizzly births, severed spines, dog attacks and killings. Some supernatural elements take place out of shot to avoid the use of CGI, which adds to the believability and saves the budget.

Wake Wood is dark, damp and dreary just as it should be. Nevertheless, it is slightly stifled by a filmed for TV look. That aside, with a small budget director David Keating keeps the blood flowing and the pace going.  It benefits from plausibility and atmosphere with an on location shoot. There's plenty of shadows, eerie music, sharp editing and a grounded screen-play (by Brendan McCarthy) to keep you watching with a grin that Hammer may have a place in this century.

With elements of  Don't Look Now, Case 39, Carrie, The Wicker Man and Pet Cemetery to name a few you could argue it's all be done before and better. However, Wake Wood's great ending debatably leaves you thinking sometimes less is more.

I found the story line original, or at least something I haven't seen in the past 10 years, because it's nearly all been done by now. The story moves at a good pace, showing you mysterious things along the way, teasing you a little before revealing what exactly is happening.

I would describe Wake Wood as a mix between the Exorcist and The Wicker Man. While it never reaches the brilliance of the previously mentioned films Wake Wood is a solid film, with good acting, particularly from the ever excellent Aidan Gillen. The cinematography is hardly groundbreaking but suits the mood of the film well.

Any fan of supernatural horror should be satisfied with what Wake Wood has to offer.