It seems that 2011 was a fairly successful year for old-fashioned horror cinema, with The Woman in Black grossing over one-hundred-and-ten million dollars worldwide and becoming the most successful horror movie at the UK box-office since records began. On the more modest end of the classical horror scale is The Awakening, which, as of yet has no US release date and has grossed only three million dollars worldwide. However, both films' success in terms of picture quality is potentially important as an antidote to "found footage" horror movies like the Paranormal Activity franchise, as it could mean more films like The Awakening could be made in the future.
It is 1921, and over 1.5 million people have been wiped out in the proceeding five or six years due to The Great War and a flu epidemic, leaving people very superstitious and believing in the supernatural. Rebecca Hall plays Florence Cathcart, an author and a scientific sceptic, hellbent on debunking those who manipulate peoples' fear of the supernatural to take their money. She is visited by Robert Malory (Dominic West) a teacher from a boarding school, who requests that she investigate the story of a ghost at the school and whether or not it is related to the recent death of a student.
What is immediately apparent is how Florence is presented as part of a new generation of women receiving university education and who are not now slaves of the home. In one of the first scenes of the film, she is seen wearing trousers, and the mere fact that she has been educated comes up often, mostly in a disdainful tone by some of the other staff at the boarding school. However, the strange thing about this is that educated women with a changing sense of fashion is so rare in films set in the late 19th or early 20th-Century that, at first, it makes one wonder why more films do not portray this important social change. Although, it must be said, that while characters such as Florence have been poorly represented in the media, one place where such examples can be found are in this particular sub-genre of gothic horror. Think, for example of Laura in The Orphanage, played by Belén Rueda, or Eleanor in the 1963 film, The Haunting, played by Julie Harris.
Unfortunately, the highest hurdle which The Awakening must overcome is its derivativeness. Everything from the structuring, to the characterisation comes across as something that has been done time and time again, only this time it is less effective. Its plotting seems to have been cobbled together from the plots of The Sixth Sense, The Orphanage, The Haunting and The Others (to name a few). Even the gothic building where most of the action takes place seems to be the type of old, gothic building we have seen before. To its credit, it manages to come out as not overly derivative due to when it is set, and the lead performance by Rebecca Hall.
To elaborate, by setting it only a few years after The Great War means the film is able to explore the psychology of grief quite expertly. For example, after Florence first exposes a group of hoaxers, the woman who was being conned slaps Florence in the face and states, "You've never had children, have you?" This is interesting, as it shows that in this time where death hangs over everything, people would rather be given false hope than no hope. Florence herself, far from believing her own scepticism, believes that if she debunks enough charlatans, she may find real evidence of paranormal activity. Like most people at this time in history, she has lost someone she loved and beneath her confident exterior lies a person riddled with grief and loneliness. Horror, like sci-fi, really works best when the external horror magnifies a deeper, psychological internal horror; which Rebecca Hall manages to present in Florence as someone whose loneliness causes her to unravel. One scene which is particularly impressive is when she is bathing and she notices there is a peep hole in the wall of the bathroom; she knows this because earlier in the film she used it to sneak a look at Robert while he was bathing. She momentarily allows her loneliness to consume her, drops her towel, and looks towards the peep hole as she thinks Robert may be using it too. It turns out Robert is not actually there, but it is a fantastic moment for Hall who manages to come across as grief stricken, but not weak for giving in to lust and loneliness.
However, the film only manages to keep its momentum going for the first two-thirds of its running time, and even when it does work it is only tense, never terrifying. Firstly, the last half-an-hour of the movie begins with an attempted rape, as Florence is exploring the grounds of the school. She is confronted by the groundkeeper, Mr. Judd. It is hinted at that Mr. Judd faked an injury to dodge the draft, and he is also shifty, so of course he must be a vile rapist. Firstly, this is a toxic trope used by filmmakers to cynically give more sympathy towards the heroine, who is already under enough pressure so, naturally, she has our sympathy. Secondly, it shows a stunning lack of knowledge of the criminal intent, and the psychology of rape. In films it is always a crime perpetrated by slimy, shifty men; never suave, sophisticated men who use their charms to manipulate - which is what many of the people who inflict sexual violence are. It is a venomous and manipulative trope which plagues anything from trash for teenagers (like Stephanie Meyers' Twilight series) to art-house, award contenders (like Peter Webber's Girl With a Pearl Earring or Jane Campion's The Piano). If these filmmakers really believed in this trope, they would not make it the action of the least developed characters in their respective films. At least, Florence manages to rescue herself, and not be rescued.
Also, the ending pulls a few too many twists to be convincing, all of which come across as convoluted and silly. Thankfully, Rebecca Hall is dedicated to her performance throughout and never allows the silly ending or manipulative attempted rape scene affect her performance. Also, director Nick Murphy manages to make two-thirds of an excellent film, which for a debut filmmaker is fairly impressive and is "one to watch". Overall, a single excellent performance and an interesting concept manage to convince us for roughly an-hour before things go badly wrong.
6/10
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