Very few celluloid ghost stories take the less is more approach. Notable early examples are a 1942 movie called THUNDER ROCK which dealt with an embittered lighthouse keeper who encounters the ghosts of those who drowned near his lighthouse. Then there was Hollywood’s 1944 offering, THE UNINVITED. Next year came the watershed anthology DEAD OF NIGHT which contains two ghost stories. One was serious about the ghost of a murdered child, the other comic which concerns two rival golfers. In 1951 came the definitive version of the world’s best known ghost story, A CHRISTMAS CAROL (SCROOGE).
In the early 1960s two movies appeared within 2 years of each other that became classics of the genre. 1961’s THE INNOCENTS, an adaptation of Henry James’ THE TURN OF THE SCREW, concerns a governess and her two children who may or may not be possessed by ghosts. THE HAUNTING (1963) is an adaptation of Shirley Jackson’s famous novel and concerns a house inhabited by malevolent spirits. Both take the approach that the hauntings may be in the minds of their female protagonists rather than actual occurrences.. Both are also the last major British ghost movies to be shot in black & white.
The BBC provided one of the very best ghost films in 1989 with their adaptation of Susan Hill’s THE WOMAN IN BLACK. For me it remains one of the creepiest ghost movies I have ever seen. Only 1979’s THE CHANGELING, which was made in Canada by a British director, is creepier. Hammer remade TWIB in 2012 with Daniel Radcliffe. That version is good but I did not like the resolution. Also high on the list is THE OTHERS, a 2001 film with Nicole Kidman which has a twist ending right up there with M. Night Shayamalan’s American ghost story THE SIXTH SENSE (1999).
Which brings us to THE AWAKENING (2011) which shares the same title as Charlton Heston’s 1980 version of Bram Stoker’s JEWEL OF SEVEN STARS. This AWAKENING is set in 1921 and follows Florence Cathcart, a young woman who makes her living by exposing fake mediums. She is summoned by a teacher to a boy’s boarding school to verify if they are experiencing a haunting right after a student has been found dead. Skeptical at first, the deeper Florence investigates the more she finds out until she uncovering a tragedy that occurred there years ago which may have a connection to her.
The investigations begin when the school is on holiday. Only Florence, a school matron, the teacher who summoned her, the groundskeeper and a single student are left. There are story threads involving all of them which are inexorably woven together until a startling and powerful conclusion is reached. While the basic story is original, THE AWAKENING borrows a number of devices from the films I have mentioned earlier but that’s OK. If you’re going to steal, then steal from the best. The photography is beautiful, the music/sound effects are effective, and the scares are well measured.
The performances are uniformly fine. Rebecca Hall as Florence is driven to expose charlatans because she lost her fiance in World War I. She is “modern” yet vulnerable. Dominic West is the teacher who brought her to the school. He suffers from PTSD and blames himself for living when his comrades didn’t. Imelda Staunton’s school matron harbors a dark secret while child actor Isaac Hempstead Wright is captivating as the boy whose parents are away during the trouble. If you enjoy this old school type of movie, then THE AWAKENING will definitely be your cup of tea.
The Capsule Critic 