The Awakening (2011) Reviews

A famed author and noted skeptic attempts to debunk a haunting at a prestigious London prep school, and encounters a supernatural force that seems beyond human comprehension in director Nick Murphy's creepy gothic chiller. England, 1921: As the high cost of war takes a heavy toll on the national psyche, many people turn to spiritualism and the supernatural for reassurance that something better awaits us in the beyond. But Florence Cathcart (Rebecca Hall) isn't buying it. A noted academic, Florence favors logic over fantasy, and she's built her career on proving that ghosts don't exist. Meanwhile, at Rockwood Boarding School, the recent death of a young boy has parents uneasy, and students convinced that the boy still wanders their hallowed halls in spectral form. Summoned to Rockwood by Headmaster Robert Mallory (Dominic West), Florence becomes more determined than ever before to reveal the haunting as a hoax. But when the staunch cynic fails to find a rational explanation for the eerie occurrences around the school, her steely resolve is soon overpowered by sheer terror. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi