Today I rewatched a film I’ve seen two or three times before and enjoy to varying degrees every time, the BBC’s film The Awakening. It’s a film about a woman who, since the death of her love in World War I, spends her time debunking ghost sightings and seances and the like. It’s definitely a premise that has been done before (see: 1408) but I like the period spin on it here. The main character, Florence Cathcart, seems to express a particular desperation in her work. It’s as though her true purpose in investigating the supernatural is to uncover some evidence of an afterlife in which she can be reunited with her lost soldier.

Having now seen the film multiple times, I think I finally appreciate the level of foreshadowing that went into writing the script. The ending has a twist that I must confess I didn’t see coming when I first watched it–although I guessed Kaiser Sozei’s identity within five minutes. Great care was taken to ensure our attention is drawn to certain details, although we aren’t privy as to their purpose until the very end of the film. Indeed, many of them seem more like artistic atmospheric details than hints to a “gotcha” climax. This contributes in large part to the charm of the film: it has been described as “a chilling ghost story plotted like a mystery.” As a fan of both ghost stories and mysteries, I thoroughly enjoyed this aspect.

The first time and a half I watched The Awakening–the very first time I tried I was so distracted that I had lost track of the plot within fifteen minutes–I actually didn’t especially enjoy the film. It was an earlier attempt at watching a new film every day for the month of Halloween. I found it somewhat trite and overdone. But for whatever reason it has grown on me. Attribute that to what you will. Overall, I have to say that The Awakening is worth a watch, especially given its current streaming status on Netflix.