The Awakening
Cohen Media Group | Release Date: August 17, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
53
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 24 Critic Reviews
Positive:
7
Mixed:
14
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
New York PostSara StewartAug 17, 2012
The self-possessed Hall is well-suited to this proto-feminist role, smoking and rolling her eyes as the pasty old men around her exclaim, for what is clearly the millionth time, "An educated woman!" as if she were a zoo animal. Read full review
75
The PlaylistOliver LytteltonAug 16, 2012
Has more than its share of flaws, but it also gets its balance of tones right, proving spooky, involving and occasionally resonant, while still managing to bring something new to a well-worn tale, and providing a terrific lead part for one of the most promising actresses of her generation. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriAug 18, 2012
The Awakening has the good sense to find a mood and stick with it. It's not afraid to take itself seriously. It'll send shivers up your spine, both as a thriller and as the melodrama it eventually becomes. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalJohn AndersonAug 16, 2012
The film benefits enormously from having the luminous Rebecca Hall as its lead. It also gains an ominous gravity from the haunted, wounded and wobbly England in which it's set. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeAug 6, 2012
A too-rare instance in which a gifted young actor signs on for a fright flick without coming away tainted, The Awakening places Rebecca Hall in a convincing historical setting and gives her more to do than widen her eyes in fear. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubAlison WillmoreAug 15, 2012
The Awakening is both a ghost story and an exploration of mourning and survivor's guilt, though a late twist turns the film away from its delicate merging of these two themes into something both more plotty and stilted. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumAug 8, 2012
Not to be confused with a dramatization of Kate Chopin's great 1899 proto-feminist novel, this by-the-numbers British ghost story, set just after WWI, devotes a lot of energy to set decoration. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzAug 16, 2012
There is nothing in the film that will keep you awake at night. Instead, The Awakening works much more subtly, with a profound sense of dread and resignation, a death-obsessed movie given life by Hall's performance. Read full review
60
Village VoiceNick PinkertonAug 14, 2012
Hall's committed performance validates even the maddest developments, and she slips into the period well, recalling Virginia Woolf in her lank, swan-necked bearing and tremulous suffering. Read full review
60
Time OutKeith UhlichAug 14, 2012
This handsomely made spook story (love those echo-prone hallways!) becomes less involving the more the narrative's mysteries are solved. By the time all the tarot cards are on the table, it's likely that you too will feel conned. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawAug 6, 2012
There are some nicely creepy moments, and director and co-writer Nick Murphy interestingly dramatises some of the neuroses feeding the appetite for ghostly phenomena – repressed sexuality, guilt and self-harm. Read full review
60
Total FilmRosie FletcherAug 6, 2012
Creepy, jumpy, if somewhat samey, it's set above the spooker norm by its strong visuals, grief-steeped period setting and lingering ambiguity. Read full review
58
IndieWireEric KohnAug 16, 2012
As ghost stories go, this one's done just well enough to provide reminders of how it has been done better. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia PuigAug 23, 2012
The handsome production design notwithstanding, The Awakening is not an elegant thriller. It's more like solemn drivel. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Chris BerubeAug 16, 2012
There is a rich movie to be made about this culture of fake seers and gullible marks, but it isn't The Awakening, a dull British import that never lives up to the pretensions of its period setting. Read full review
50
The New York TimesStephen HoldenAug 16, 2012
Most of the supernatural sightings are flickers at the corners of the screen, so that at certain moments watching the movie feels like taking an eye exam. You see it, then you don't. But the film is not especially scary, and even its boo! moments lack a visceral shock. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleDavid LewisAug 16, 2012
Perhaps this is a film that needs to be seen several times to fully understand the last 20 minutes. But in my book, that's not what a great ghost story should do. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesStephanie ZacharekAug 16, 2012
The Awakening just meanders like an aimless ghost. Read full review
50
VarietyDennis HarveyAug 6, 2012
Though handsome to look at, so-so supernatural chiller The Awakening recalls "The Others," "The Orphanage" and other haunted-house tales of recent vintage, making an impression more derivative than memorable. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierAug 16, 2012
This stately chiller owes a lot to 1960s British flicks like "The Innocents" and "The Haunting," but unfortunately heads towards cliches with every step. Read full review
40
EmpireDamon WiseAug 6, 2012
Solid production values lend a polish to the spooks and there are strong performances all round, especially from the ever-excellent Rebecca Hall, but there's little here to add to the well-worn haunted house genre. Read full review
38
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertAug 29, 2012
The Awakening looks great but never develops a plot with enough clarity to engage us, and the solution to the mystery is I am afraid disappointingly standard. Read full review
38
Washington PostMark JenkinsAug 16, 2012
The Awakening is nonsense, but with its posh British cast and colors drained to near-gray, it's very solemn nonsense. Read full review
25
Slant MagazineChris CabinAug 15, 2012
The film takes pains to ensure that the story feel like laborious toil rather than a trip through the dark side of the ethereal. Read full review
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