The Awakening review

 Eighteen years ago, Egyptologist Matthew Corbeck (Charlton Heston) was in Egypt with his pregnant wife (Jill Townsend) and his comely assistant (Susannah York), looking for the tomb of an Egyptian queen whose name had been erased from history because she was bad news-REAL bad news. Of course, he ends up finding the tomb, but as he's breaking the seal on the outer door, a wind rushes out and travels to his pregnant wife. Now, in the present day, his daughter (Stephanie Zimbalist) is about to turn eighteen, but she's not feeling like herself these days...and Dad is beginning to believe that he can bring the dead queen back to life via an incantation that was found in her tomb.

The Awakening is an adaptation of a novel by Bram Stoker, the author of Dracula, that had already been filmed twice in the preceding ten years-first for television in 1970 as an episode of Mystery and Imagination, a British anthology series, and a year later as Blood from the Mummy's Tomb, a co-production between Hammer Films and American International Pictures. I don't know what the statute of limitations is for remakes, but nine years seems a little too soon to remake a film to me. I could be right, as The Awakening didn't cause much of a stir at the box office. It died a relatively quick and painless death in theaters, then went on to become a fairly early VHS release.

The problems with the film are pretty obvious: a star well past his prime; a TV director making his first studio film; an attempt to ride on the coattails of The Exorcist and The Omen while moviegoers were paying to see slasher films; a muddled script; and what appears to be post-production tampering by the studio. Even with these problems, the film is still watchable, thanks largely to the camerawork by Jack Cardiff (Black Narcissus, The Red Shoes, The African Queen) and the lush music score by Claude Bolling. The music was good enough to convince the tiny label Entr'acte to release a soundtrack LP-if you want to listen to it, here's a recording from vinyl on YouTube:

Even though it's not a terribly good movie, and the film ends before anything really fun happens, I still find myself being drawn to the film over and over again. I think that I've owned the film on four different formats over the years, with the latest being the Blu-ray released by Scream Factory. There's not even the slightest shudder to be found, but I trot it out and watch it every few years anyway. There's something there that's appealing, but I sure can't put my finger on what it is. Your mileage may vary, however; you may find the film to be more akin to The Put-to-Sleeping than The Awakening.

As I said earlier, the film didn't make a whole lot of money in theaters, and it got bad reviews from the critics who stooped to review it. Here's Siskel & Ebert's take on the film from their show Sneak Previews (it's the first film reviewed in the episode):

I certainly don't want to dissuade anyone from watching The Awakening, however, because it's watchable and might appeal to those who like mummy movies and/or any of the lesser Indiana Jones films. Here's the theatrical trailer from YouTube; it might convince you to give the feature a watch:

And just for funzies, here's one of the TV spots that have been uploaded to YouTube. You've got to admit that this advertisement at least makes the film look interesting:

The full film doesn't seem to be streaming anywhere on the Web, but you can rent a stream of it from several of the usual providers. It's also available on DVD from the Warner Archive via Amazon, and on Blu-ray from Shout! Factory at your favorite online media retailer.

But-to make up for the lack of a link to the full feature, I've got a super-secret surprise down here in the swamp for the more literary-minded among you: links to the full text of the novel on which The Awakening was based, Bram Stoker's The Jewel of Seven Stars!