Awakened (2013)

If you like the concept of life after death this movie is for you. I felt compelled to watch the rest of the film after the first 20 minutes. I'm a fan of anything mystery and supernatural, This movie did a great job maintaining a dark tone and suspenseful story. I found this movie via the PlayStation network, I was thinking about whether I should buy it or not. Its a good thing I bought it since I enjoyed the film and would recommend this to anyone who wants to watch a supernatural movie. Although the movie was about 2 hours long what made it all worth watching was finding out what happened towards the twisted end.

This movie is comically bad. Terrible script, awful acting and annoying score. Some day it will be a drinking game of movie clichés. I wondered who would actually put up the money for this rubbish and hire these actors. Then I did a little online research and everything made sense. The "director" and "writer" is the lead actress Julianne Michelle's mom. Neither has the qualifications for it. This mother-daughter duo is relentless in promoting themselves by over stating their qualifications, giving super pretentious interviews (Julianne claims she did Wall Street as a "favor" to Oliver Stone), and slapping on award claims from some 3rd rate film festival. Just take a look at those 10/10 ratings. 100% must be from family and friends who are nodding along as if they received a really crap piece of drawing from a child but still has to smile and say good job.

I honestly can't remember the last time I was so angry that I wasted my time watching a movie as I was with this one. The story concerns a young women who returns home for the first time since she was a child and her mom died, convinced that her violent drunk of a dad killed her mom and determined to somehow prove it.Lead actress Julianne Michelle seems to basically have two expressions--smiling and not smiling--she doesn't even come close to having the talent required to be a lead in something like this, not that it ultimately matters since the filmmakers completely sabotage their film with one of the most thoroughly destructive surprise endings I have seen since Alexandre Aja's High Tension. In the unlikely event that you somehow found Samantha and her quest for answers dramatically involving the ending will punish you for that mistake.I seriously cannot emphasize this enough--do not waste your time watching this movie. Awakened is a train-wreck that seems to go on forever before completely self-destructing at the end. It's really bad but not in a way that's in any way entertaining. The songs over the end credits actually felt like salt being thrown in my eyes--so the punishment doesn't end even as the credits run. Again, just don't watch this movie. If you do prepared to be angry by the time it's over. Consider yourself warned.

I have never written a review but felt compelled to join IMDb after wasting two hours on this piece of rubbish. Firstly I have to comment on the DVD cover... A decomposing woman (like that of the girl on The Ring) with her hands on a young girl. There was no horror like this at all throughout the movie. Very misleading. Then the reviews. Lots of 10's (which is up there with the likes of Shawshank Redemption). What!?? All I can think of is that friends and relatives of the film maker and cast have pooled together to give a fake review.The acting was awful, the script was terrible. The plot crap. There was nothing redeeming about this time waster. By the end of the movie my wife and I were laughing at how bad this was... Watch at your own peril.