The Awakening (2011) 1h 42m

Sumptuous is a good word, but it doesn't sound appealing.  It hits the ear how some people cringe at the word "moist."  I think this is what might separate myself from the person that gave the quote that ended up on the poster.  Saying "it didn't make me want to smash my dick with a hammer" just doesn't have the same wide appeal when appearing in such print.

Our main character in The Awakening is a woman that works to debunk paranormal experiences in the early 1900's.  We're introduced to her as she metaphorically pulls back the curtain on a sham seance and exposes their charade piece by piece.  Shortly after this experience she is asked to come to an all boys school to help with the possibility of a ghost existing in the large mansion-turned-school.

This film reminded me a lot of the Del Toro produced movie The Orphanage.  They contain common threads as far as concept and presentation are concerned.  You could establish small connections with a majority of the characters as each one had legitimate depth.  The acting is solid and visually the film does a great job of making you feel as though you're in a haunted space in 1900's Britain.  This is more of a light horror film.  It consists of a few jump scares, but mostly a pending dread or suspense felt by the viewer.

I give The Awakening 3 Union Jacks out of 5:

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Day 20: The Diabolical (2015) 1h 26m

The funny thing about rolling dice to pick what movie I'm going to watch is that sometimes you get something good, and sometimes you come up craps.  After watching the movie I previously reviewed (High Lane) I was hoping to get a decent pallet cleanser.  This time, lady luck was on my side.

The Diabolical focuses on a single mom and her two children.  An entity of some sort randomly appears in their home and causes all kinds of fear and havoc.  One of the kids believes that it might be the spirit of their deceased father.  Over time more and more of the plot unravels including a laboratory that wants to buy/threatens to foreclose on their home and someone close to them is tied in as well.  I'm not going to plot heavy on this one because aside from the sci-fi section at the end, this movie was pretty good.

A lot of the visual effects were great.  The figure that keeps appearing through the house looks frightening as fuck.  There's an early scene where we first see him and there's just a featureless face that he suddenly rips into and tears a film away to show the real face underneath.  It went from "Oh, that guy is rad looking," to "holy fuck!" that fast.  Every time he appears in his grotesque form it's always a good creep out.  My personal favorite being the one involving the dryer.

The "twist" part of the ending you see coming a little bit before the reveal if you know what to look for.  Also, as I said above, the sci-fi tie in element toward the end elicits more of a groan than a gasp.  Overall, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, so I do recommend The Diabolical.

I give The Diabolical a solid 3 fake ghost photos out of 5: