3D might be sweeping the nation, but the Brits apparently haven’t quite caught on to that phenomenon yet and are cluelessly still casting non-CGI’d actors in antiquated pictures that are called “supernatural thrillers.”
Younger readers might not remember this fossil of a genre, but essentially the British versions of this type of film are generally “drama-ish” (another long-gone film genre), don’t include blue furry creatures, and don’t include grown men dressed in homoerotic tights trying to fight crime/ super-powered villains with daddy issues.
Anyhow, coming out of the U.K. by the same production company that is behind “Brighton Rock” (John Hurt, Helen Mirren, Sam Riley) and Joe Cornish’s “Attack the Block” (Nick Frost), is the supernatural thriller “The Awakening” that stars Rebecca Hall, Dominic West and Imelda Staunton (yes, actors you’ve never heard of; think of them as the U.K. version of Zoe Saldana, Tom Cruise and Meryl Streep).
The movie will be the feature-film debut of U.K. TV director Nick Murphy (“Heroes and Villains” “Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire”) and will begin shooting in June.
Set in post-World War I England in 1921 (ancient times), the picture will center on a skeptical paranormal investigator (Hall) “who travels to a countryside boarding school to investigate rumors of an apparent haunting. Just when she thinks she has debunked the ghost theory, she has a chilling spectral encounter which defies all her rational beliefs,” according to Screen Daily.
Good luck to the Brits with this one. Supernatural thrillers based on ghosts and hauntings might have cut the mustard (or Marmite; disgusting) in the aughts, but in this new era of 5D alien-pop-up groin-shots and mega-super-hero team-ups, we assume only a handful of people will enjoy this picture and they’re probably above 35 (ancient in terms of filmgoing audiences these days).
