Rebecca Hallis a profoundly gifted performer, and evidence is steadily mounting in favor of her being a force to be reckoned with within the horror genre in particular as well. Before she sought to solve the mystery surrounding the premature death of her secretive husband inthe twisty, sharply originalThe Night House, Hall played a paranormal investigator/debunker in 1921 London who travels to a cavernous boarding school in search of a supposedly pernicious entity haunting the building’s maze of corridors in 2011’sThe Awakening. As an early opening title suggests, 1914-1919 ‘is a time for ghosts’, especially in Britain, given the enormous number of casualties as a result of the recently ended World War I and the influenza epidemic. The BBC production is a truly thrilling showcase for its lead, and for those whom love aclassic ghost story in the tradition ofThe Others,The ChangelingorThe Innocents— look no further. With its gothic visage and delicate approach to an ultimately emotive story (in the same way something likeThe Changelingproved poignant),The Awakeningis a jolt-ridden ride through sad, unresolved pasts. And it contains one of the more creepy dollhouses ever to appear in a recent horror flick.
What Role Does Rebecca Hall Play in ‘The Awakening’?
Hall’s crusading, ghost-hunting protagonist inNick Murphy’s feature is outwardly icy but deeply wounded Florence Cathcart — a notorious writer whose rise to fame is the result of her widely publicized proficiency at naming and shaming supernatural fraudsters. As the film opens, the audience is introduced to Cathcart as she enters a lavishly attendedséance of sorts, supposedly to conjure the spirit of a departed child. After a few minutes of keen and mostly silent observation, Cathcart almost laughingly pulls the sheet off the whole charade, exposing it as scam. Hall is able to glide from sincere would-be trustee to skeptic with all the effortlessness of a world-class piano virtuoso, and she would later use this skill for marrying piercing intellect with fast-rising flight or fight inThe Night House.
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Cathcart regularly and unintentionally upsets grieving relatives by perfunctorily debunking claims of returned loved ones — and she is accosted by an older matriarch early on in the piece as a result of her determination. From the get-go, it becomes apparent Cathcart garners a semblance of authority over her own repressed feelings by doing what she does so successfully, but the stolid veneer is ultimately tested when she’s summoned away to a grandiose school etched into the countryside. Rebecca Hall shines in the part, especially as her character is led farther down an increasingly terrifying and inexplicable path. Her will tested, her slavish devotion to singling out anything other than the ghost put under immense strain. The character’s arc is so organically performed that it’s never short of engrossing to behold. Hall’s ultimate concession in accepting what’s before as paranormal happens via an emotional tipping point, and the urgency Hall is able to imbue in the role while she changes gears to pinpoint the threat’s motivations sucks the viewer in mercilessly. It’s a fantastic role wedged within a deeply atmospheric ghost tale — and the perfect precursor to watch forfans who loved the layered darkness ofDavid Bruckner’sThe Night House.
‘The Awakening’ Is a Ghost Story with Gothic Undertones
The Awakeningis a particularly cerebral supernatural horror that pays homage to classic ghost stories,haunted house flicksand gothic dramas, while also using the tropes of the genre as a playground for its primary character. While Hall’s Cathcart (who is always scrutinizing every angle to see if she can detect familiar harbingers) makes for a fascinating narrator, she quickly surrounds herself with an ensemble of outstanding actors while roaming a location that stands tall among the very best the genre has to offer. Directed by Nick Murphy, who’d later become a prolific TV director, the elegiac mood of the film is heightened greatly by the melodic and at times mournful score byDaniel Pemberton.Pemberton would go on to provide music for a raft of films of varying size, scope, scale and genre, from terrifying psychological horrorIn Fear,toSteve Jobsand theupcomingMichael MannpictureFerrari.
The cinematography and color grading on display is similarly highly effective here.Eduard Granzis able to capture the post-World War 2 cityscape of London in ashen tones, while scooting the camera through the twisting hallways and high-ceilinged rooms that characterize the Cumbria boarding school where virtually all the action takes place. There’s a distinct gothic air to proceedings quite often, and it hangs heavy. There’s a twist ending too, which in the same way other contemporary films of the genre have done, comments plaintively on the crushing nature of mortality while still retaining a chilly air. Cathcart meets her match more than once inThe Awakening too, it must be said. While her iron-willed nature is hard for others to break down, she is often challenged and ultimately charmed. WithDominic Westin a critical role as sympathetic school teacher Robert Mallory (whose own belief in the ghost goes a long way towards reshaping his opposite’s point of view), both he and Cathcart share an abundance of strong scenes. There’s a creepy sequence involving the apparent recurring appearance of a partially transparent student in a series of school photos dating back years before thatagaincalls to mind some of the moments in Alejandro Amenabar’sThe Others. That studentcouldwell be the one bedeviling the other pupils — and the one responsible for an untimely recent death.
Despite Cathcart’s protestations that the boy in the photo could have affected the image by running up and down the student line, the viewer knows she is shaken, and it’s this line between the perspective of the on-screen protagonist and the viewer’s gaze that is frequently manipulated so skillfully. West’s Mallory and Hall’s Cathcart ultimately draw intimate in the heat of a deeply distressing and frightening situation, but their shared sensitivity means the romantic connection formed between them is vital in raising the stakes, as the entity’s identity becomes clearer. Other key players such asImelda Stauntonas the nosy housekeeper,Game of Thrones: House of DragonsandThe HallowstarJoseph Mawleas a sinister groundskeeper, and the ever-reliableShaun Dooley(The Woman in Black) render the film all the more absorbing. Riding in on the winds of the ghostly classics, but appealing to its own intellectually and emotionally stirring core,The Awakeningis a powerful early testament to Rebecca Hall’s brilliance when it comes to carrying horror films via finely-tuned portrayals of interestingly drawn protagonists.
