The Awakening

This is one of those strange little films that's actually better the longer you leave it if I had written this review i like the majority of people would have given this a 4 rather than a 7 and that 4 would have been based solely on the technical aspects of the short. Now a couple years after having seen it images from this film haunt me (and not in the way Aftermath does). This isn't so much a film as it is a series of beautiful fantastic images that occasionally make you question the basest of things. All in all a gem if you realize not to take it at face value or look at it simply for plot. One of Cerda's more approachable pieces of work and really a great spring board for anyone's career.

A not-so-bright highschool student falls asleep in class after receiving a failing test grade. When he wakes up, all time has frozen-- except for him. All clocks are stopped, and everyone around him remains stuck in the position they were in when this event occurred. This clever little movie is superbly acted and directed, but it neglects to explain things required to know in order to fully appreciate it. Still, the film's whole creepy freeze-frame atmosphere was portrayed very effectively.

The Spanish horror director Nacho Cerdà recently just released his first long-feature with "The Abandoned", but until the time that film gathers a large fan-base and/or a cult-following, he's still mainly (in)famous for the three short films that he made during the 1990's. Especially "Aftermath" is a hugely controversial (but not necessarily brilliant) piece of European cult-horror, but it doesn't deserve half as much attention as the experimental and cleverly plotted debut "The Awakening". This short is extremely atmospheric, stylish and it features a modest twist-ending even though it's only 10 minutes long! A confused and mediocre student falls asleep during class, yet when he wakes up he appears to be stuck in a time paradox. The clocks have stopped, his fellow students and the teacher remain motionless in the same position and there's an awkward Egyptian drawing on the blackboard lurking at him. The denouement of this short may not be too innovating or difficult to predict, but it was nevertheless a beautifully presented. The black and white photography and deliberately messy editing makes it look like the film comes straight out of the late 1950's/ early 1960's, when surreal horror classics like "Carnival of Souls" and "Eyes without a Face" where scaring the hell out of inexperienced horror buffs. I'm not entirely sure if it was Cerdà's intention to bring homage to that type of film, but I'd like to think it was. Either way, although sadly too short and perhaps not entirely flawless, "The Awakening" at least was a hugely promising debut and undeniably a film with a lot more depth than "Aftermath".

Nacho Cerda's first film is an effective little 8 min piece. It tells of a student who falls asleep in class only to awaken and find that everything and everyone around him has come to a complete stop and is frozen in time. There are some very effective scenes in this film and the black and white cinematography lends it a very old school Carnival Of Souls feel. What brings the film down, however, is the lack of exposition, a problem that plagues many short films. Before he falls asleep, the student is staring at a bill, and more importantly the symbol of the all seeing eye atop the temple. The eye and temple become a recurring theme throughout the short but what they have to do with the proceedings is left completely unexplained. There is also some random imagery after he awakens that is never returned to or elaborated upon. All in all, this is a good film but it would perhaps have been better served as a longer short, perhaps an episode of Twilight Zone.

A struggling student falls asleep in class, whilst staring at the pyramid on a dollar bill. When he wakes up, he finds that time has stood still; the other students and the teacher remain motionless, as the teenager wanders around the classroom, confused by his bizarre predicament.

An early 8 minute black and white short by Spanish director Nacho Cerdà, Awakening, with its confident direction and interesting imagery, certainly shows that its creator has talent. However, it is not a completely successful venture due to a few unanswered questions (the relevance of the pyramid is never explained), a rather predictable ending (that has been used many times before in other movies), and less than stellar acting from its lead.

Cerdà does manage to create a nice creepy and surreal atmosphere, and his handling of the 'frozen in time' scenes are extremely well done, but I really wish that the story had been on a par with the film's technical aspects.