9. The Awakening

The Awakening Trailer

Pretty Florence Cathcart (Rebecca Hall) is a ghost-chaser and myth-buster in post-WWI 1920’s England. Director Nick Murphy has constructed an atmosphere piece in his 2011 The Awakening, with great sets and locations. Director of Photography Eduard Grau and a 30-person art department have managed to fill almost each scene with aesthetically memorable shots. The pace is much, much slower and quieter than the rest of the movies on this list. However, it is included here for its Conjuring-like heaviness of mood, which makes the viewer anticipate a boogeyman in every dim corner. It also uses the familiar pattern of the upended family unit and characters struggling with demons both internal and external. As with two movies seen later in this list, The Babadook and House at the End of the Street, it touches on survivor’s guilt and grief. Again, the House becomes a metaphor for the trapped and damaged psyche. It implies a haunting that is not so much connected to the physical home but to the people who inhabit it.

Florence is at once fragile and fierce. The combination makes her more endearing than the imbecilic Friday 13th throwaway damsels in distress. The viewer is made to feel more attached to her while she hunts ghosts with old cameras rigged to capture the irritating little buggers. Beware of voodoo doll-ish toys set up in giant dollhouses. The ending has a bittersweet twist that gives a more plot-driven explanation to the ghostly occurrences Florence seeks to dispel.