HORROR YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED: THE AWAKENING (2012)

The Awakening is a charming and spooky old-fashioned ghost story set in England after WWI that tells the story of paranormal investigator, Florence Cathcart (Rebecca Hall) who specializes in debunking supernatural occurrences. When Florence is called upon to investigate reports of a ghost at a boys boarding school, she finds that there are more then one definition of haunted. Director Nick Murphy crafts a very effective and quite spooky tale that explores that people can be haunted by their pasts as much as a home can be haunted by spirits. Aside from building some chilling atmosphere and providing a nice dreary visual style to enhance it, he also gets good performances from all his cast with Hall portraying a woman whose motivations may stem from her own past and Dominic West as Robert, a man haunted by the war time guilt that he lived when others didn’t. These personal issues are played out against the mystery of what exactly is going on in this massive house. And once we find out, the film gives us some nice revelations and surprises along with the chills and thrills. A very entertaining and delightfully old school haunted house story.

A solid 3 spooks!