The Awakening

Directed by Mike Newell, The Awakening follows British archaeologist Matthew Corbeck (Charlton Heston) as he unearths the tomb of an Egyptian Queen and is eventually forced to battle said Queen’s sinister spirit (which is attempting to possess the body of his 18-year-old daughter, Stephanie Zimbalist’s Margaret). It’s agreeably over-the-top subject matter that’s employed to increasingly underwhelming (and flat-out tedious) effect by Newell, as the filmmaker, armed with a screenplay by Chris Bryant, Allan Scott, and Clive Exton, delivers an often astonishingly deliberate endeavor that does, at least, fare relatively well within its watchable opening stretch – with the picture’s decent-enough atmosphere heightened by Heston’s engaging performance and a smattering of Omen-like death sequences. There reaches a point, however, at which one can’t help but wish that Newell would just get on with it already, and it is, as such, impossible to deny that The Awakening ultimately progresses into a rather endless second half that builds towards a seriously (and distressingly) inert climax – which, when coupled with a laughably abrupt ending, confirms the picture’s place as a misfire that feels like it could (and should) be so much better.

*1/2 out of ****