Hey friends! Barbarella here. The fine folks at Well Go USA launched supernatural thriller The Awakening on Digital this week. Nominated for Best Feature Film at the Guadalajara International Film Festival, it will be on Blu-ray and DVD exclusively through Amazon on December 15.
The Awakening stars Claudio Cataño (Pacific), Alejandro Buitrago (“Narcos”), Héctor Sánchez (Mi Bestia), Andrea Olaya (“Thousand Fangs”), Quique Sanmartín (Pepe Caceres), Jaisson Jeack (“Thousand Fangs”), Carlos Mariño (The Initiated), Andres Londono (“Narcos: Mexico”), Salvador Bridges (Adiós al amigo), and Ricardo Leguizamo (“Vampire Academy”). It tells the story of an elite military unit’s encounter with something primeval and sinister in the Columbian jungle.
The film opens with the team deploying to a jungle location on a mission to take out a particular target, but it must cut through an area that has been considered haunted or cursed for some time. When the team makes its move, it wakes up something malevolent that then begins to wreak havoc on everyone.
Initially, the story proves sufficiently intriguing, but it doesn’t take long to devolve into something else completely. It’s disappointing to have such a talented cast, but to not provide enough meaty content or character development to make the most of that cast. I think of so many ways they could have improved the story and made audiences care a little about the people involved. That said, the actors make the most with what they have, and the performances prove to be the best aspect of The Awakening.
In addition to the lack of character development, other factors adversely impact the viewer experience. The most detrimental involves the inclusion of a similar story that occurs 500 years prior when Spanish conquistadors encounter the same evil and must battle for survival. While I understand that showing the parallels between what transpires with the elite military unit and the conquistadors could be an effective way to demonstrate how long the evil has existed in that location, it proves much more of a distraction than a comparison. The way-too-frequent switching between timelines jumbles the thread of a story that was there and just causes confusion and chaos.
I’m not that opposed to chaos, in general. Often times chaos can energize a film, but in this case, even the chaos cannot liven things up enough. Scenes that should be incredibly intense just come across as somewhat dull and repetitive. With an excellent cast and a potentially creepy location and scenario, The Awakening has a great deal of potential, but ultimately, it just doesn’t deliver.
The Awakening is on Digital now, and it will be on Blu-ray and DVD exclusively through Amazon on December 15.
Check out the trailer.
