Director: Simon Richardson
Year: 2017
Country: United Kingdom
Alternate Titles: Darkness Wakes; Charlotte Wakes
Genre: Supernatural
Plot:
Heading out to a remote house, a college student hired to cat-sit for the weekend continually feels like someone or something is in the house with her, and when it comes true in the form of her dreams foretelling what’s going to happen to her tries to prevent it from happening.
Review:
Overall, this one was a decent enough effort. Among the more likable elements here is the general atmosphere and setting of the main house. The immediate isolation, evidenced by being out in the middle of the woods with a long drive just to arrive there, this gives a great tone and feeling of being away from everyone around them. The spacious interiors, numerous floors and functional layout all add together to give a wholly enjoyable tone of something sinister happening later on, and along with a lengthy setup giving this ample opportunity to build up creates a fine sense of suspense about the house.
The other great aspect to like here are the actual scenes of her being tormented. The various dreams, where she’s being haunted by something monstrous lurking unseen in the shadows of the house where only glimpses of it’s long nails and inhuman proportions comes together for several standout sequences. That they hint at something potentially dangerous in the house with her, playing off the suspense of the location while being visible dreams meaning it’s not enough to get her to leave makes for some chilling sequences as she goes through the house only to come upon the creature in highly-stylized, visually-dynamic sequences.
These sequences are perfectly placed fodder for a perfectly dark and chilling finale. Spurred on by the glorious double-dream of the creature attacking and attempting to mate with her in some dazzling scenes, there’s a far greater sense of danger here where her inability to trust anyone causes some incredibly fun scenes once the full extent of it all gets revealed in crazed confrontations with the demonic creature that’s been haunting her, the abduction to the house next door and then the stumbling upon their exploits in the basement. This frenzy of activity comes about due to the setup beforehand while paying off great twists, giving this one a lot to like about it.
There weren't a whole lot of issues but they are problematic. The main factor here is the complete mystery surrounding the various characters and their purposes here. There’s nothing here about the mysterious man she meets in the woods nor is there any follow-up to his pervy actions despite being involved frequently once he’s been introduced, much like the meeting with the dead woman that she nearly runs over. Giving their purpose as a throwaway blurb ten minutes until it ends is a wholesale mystery and complete mistake, much like the confusing nature of what their ritual is supposed to do as this implies several possible causes without giving a clear answer. These are what hold this one back.
Overview: ***.5/5
A generally fun and twisting entry that does have a few issues not being as clear with it’s storyline that it doesn’t really need to do, this is a far better than expected effort that keeps enough positives to be quite enjoyable. Give this a shot if you’re into this type of genre effort or appreciate ambitious slow-burn indie efforts while those that don’t enjoy either of those should heed caution.
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