Dark Awakening

This is one of the better horror/ghost story movies I have seen in a while. An old house, a secret, creepy ghost children, and even creepier elderly people. This film has it all, plus Lance Henriksen who is as usual, excellent.

The rest of the cast is very good and the story is better than some of the crap that is being shoveled out in the last few years.

There are a couple of headscratcher moments in the story, like how a young boy can keep killing without being stopped, but hey, I just decided to go with it.

The movie does manage to build up a genuine feeling of suspense, especially the scenes with the older people.

This is a good movie with some memorable scares and Lance Henriksen giving a solid performance as usual.

This may be Lance Henriksen's best role yet since he starred in the TV series Millennium. The film itself is shot with a filter that mutes bright tones and gives a richness to every color. The actors outside of Henriksen are also quite good at their craft, even if the lead male thinks he's Jack Nicholson toward the end of the story. The pacing is done well, but the opening courtroom scene was unnecessary to the plot of the story. The film ratchets up rather quickly in its last minutes, turning into quite a Slasher film comparable to The People Under the Stairs and The House of the Devil. Henriksen, by the way, plays a real Christian just as Edward Woodward did in The Wicker Man (a character that backfired on the director who made the film to be antichrist instead of Christian, with the opposite result). I'd like to give this film higher than a 6, but the Twilight Zone stares and small-town weirdness provides a factor not suitable to this ghost story. Like most of the films Henriksen stars in, this one is a mish-mash of ideas that don't finish percolating before the story is finished.

I made the mistake of not watching the trailer first. It's pretty disconnected and I couldn't convince myself, not once, that I had made the right decision in purchasing this film. I cringe even now. Sigh. The acting was simply not up to par. Lance Henriksen was the only reputable actor out of the cast of four--does that make you feel good about this? And if you don't guess the ending I'm worried about you. So often did this feel like a made for TV movie. The scenes were awkwardly pieced together and the cinematography was not genre appropriate. It looked like a soap opera. And I don't know what was going on with the music and the sound. Even the house was boring. The makeup on the kids was decent. But the ghost kids fail to deliver and were a contrived vehicle. I knew by the end, when a particular minor character was killed off by her own bad driving, that this movie was the biggest mistake I've made in a while--in terms of paying for it. The rating on this one will surely drop. I wouldn't even recommend watching this on Netflix--if it goes.

The premise of this film has been seen before, but dose that mean it's flawed? Or bad? No. "Dark Awakening" shakes up that fact, coming out meaningful, and simplistic, making this an enjoyable film on many levels.

The movie kicks off quite nicely, I like how the movie executes the characters coming together, offering some chemistry. Honestly, though, that said chemistry goes on and off- the characters seem as if they don't belong together in some sequences of the movie. But never the less, the movie overall executes the said motion nicely, and solidly. The story, also, pays off. I personally liked it. I felt as if the plot / story was unique for what it was, giving a nice, refreshing take on the genre of horror. The story also gives the audience a unique sense of terror, and suspense. [ Me at least ] . . adding to its fresh, new take. With that being said, this horror movie takes on a unique take, instead of letting down. The ghost / paranormal execution of the children was great too. I liked it. The makeup / execution filled with a sense of dread, and terror, something other movies tend to actually miss.

In this case. "Dark Awakening" was a unique take, it had a plot seen before, with common clichés. But fortunately, the movie refreshes, giving the audience more then what they bargained for. It also has good, solid visual effects, along with a scary atmosphere that hits the audience head-on. I'd recommend it to horror fans when it hits theaters.

[ For a personal record, I'm not the biggest fan of horror, this was a pleasure for a 2015 horror flick. I liked it. ]

Dark Awakening is a creepy, edge of your seat horror/thriller. If you enjoy films such as Poltergeist, The Shining, Stir of Echoes, or Paranormal Activity I would strongly suggest checking out this one!

In addition, Lance Henriksen and Jason Cook give terrific performances and their chemistry works very well. Lance's character even offers up a few light hearted seconds of humor.

Dark Awakening may start off like other haunt films but clearly becomes a brand of it's own with many twists and turns, this is not a picture to miss out on.

Much credit is due to director Dean C. Jones and the producers, they set out to fill a house full of ghastly screams and have done a heck a job!