Michael Ledo
James (Jason Cook) and Jennifer (Valerie Azlynn) inherit his mother's North Carolina home in Cedar Rock Falls. They plan to fix it up and leave the odd town that has no children...just ghosts of children. Their six year old son Danny (William Pifer) develops many "imaginary friends." Fairly predictable mystery with the midpoint clues. The soundtrack and acting gave the production a "made for TV" feel. We don't actually see much of the action. We hear a noise and then see a messy room. We do get to see a glass fall over and Valeris Azlynn hold her head under water. Watchable and forgettable.Guide: 2 F-words. No sex or nudity.
katzcrazy1984
I am a big fan of thriller and horror, and I love a great haunted house story. I'll be honest, I turned this film off after 15 minutes and watched another film but decided it wasn't fair to a film that I had been pretty keen to see so I started it from my left off position.The acting seemed a bit... sketchy from the get go, with little to no facial expression and pretty terrible dialogue. It wasn't until about 20 minutes in that I believed the actors were actually trying.It felt like a 1990s horror TV show ( maybe because Lance Henriksen was in it... and the lighting.) The antagonists* of the story are very well done with make up etc. Although I felt they really seemed/looked more like zombies than ghosts. The music really helped the movie immensely. I was epic in proportion to the rest of the movie. Dark and mysterious. Beautifully done.There are parts that to kick and scream the film into being something well done and enjoyable.Try and ignore the vast amount of obvious issues and stupidity of some of the characters. So much martyring, so much weakness. It really made me hate most of the characters. The end is appalling in so many ways (and not one of them a good one)All in all, worth a watch but don't expect anything great. Still its not a D rated piece of goza so that is something.
jcallen-6
Dark Awakening is a creepy, edge of your seat horror/thriller. If you enjoy films such as Poltergeist, The Shining, Stir of Echoes, or Paranormal Activity I would strongly suggest checking out this one!In addition, Lance Henriksen and Jason Cook give terrific performances and their chemistry works very well. Lance's character even offers up a few light hearted seconds of humor. Dark Awakening may start off like other haunt films but clearly becomes a brand of it's own with many twists and turns, this is not a picture to miss out on.Much credit is due to director Dean C. Jones and the producers, they set out to fill a house full of ghastly screams and have done a heck a job!
Splatter Effect
The premise of this film has been seen before, but dose that mean it's flawed? Or bad? No. "Dark Awakening" shakes up that fact, coming out meaningful, and simplistic, making this an enjoyable film on many levels.The movie kicks off quite nicely, I like how the movie executes the characters coming together, offering some chemistry. Honestly, though, that said chemistry goes on and off- the characters seem as if they don't belong together in some sequences of the movie. But never the less, the movie overall executes the said motion nicely, and solidly. The story, also, pays off. I personally liked it. I felt as if the plot / story was unique for what it was, giving a nice, refreshing take on the genre of horror. The story also gives the audience a unique sense of terror, and suspense. [ Me at least ] . . adding to its fresh, new take. With that being said, this horror movie takes on a unique take, instead of letting down. The ghost / paranormal execution of the children was great too. I liked it. The makeup / execution filled with a sense of dread, and terror, something other movies tend to actually miss.In this case. "Dark Awakening" was a unique take, it had a plot seen before, with common clichés. But fortunately, the movie refreshes, giving the audience more then what they bargained for. It also has good, solid visual effects, along with a scary atmosphere that hits the audience head-on. I'd recommend it to horror fans when it hits theaters.[ For a personal record, I'm not the biggest fan of horror, this was a pleasure for a 2015 horror flick. I liked it. ]