By: JWBM
This is an earlier 8 minute short by the director of the now infamous "Aftermath" film. The tone is a challenge to place as it's so brief that it could have taken multiple directions from the outset: from horror, supernatural, science fiction, to even mystery. Though as it is, it has an otherworldly vibe similar to the look and feel of an earlier Lynch or Cronenberg short with a strange, black and white quality reserved for a rough outline of a dream.
Essentially a bored student lacking in motivation falls asleep and finds himself traveling past the physical world into something more enlightened on the other side. Time itself freezes and we see a series of surreal imagery while those around him look on. This certainly had potential, though what makes it a challenge to get into is that there is little connection or background to the people in the story. Stuff happens—cool stuff at that—though it's loose enough to feel like a balloon that took off and is now hard to make out in the distance. The farther it gets away, the more your motivation dwindles. It's the difference of being there at the outset of some sudden event, compared to walking past a situation on the streets with complete strangers and a story too far distanced to fully concern yourself.
"The Awakening" feels like it was going for something along the lines of "Carnival of Souls" meets "Jacob's Ladder" of the same year. Something that makes the mind melt and the senses never settle from out-there, supernatural ideas. I'd mention "Soultaker"—with a similar out-of-body experience—in the same sentence, but fortunately it doesn't have many dated gags to pick at for the year. While in many ways it's unfair to compare an experimental low-budget short just testing out the waters to a worked-through feature length film, however those—while unique and atypical—still had a certain backbone to them that one had more interest and investment to get behind. Possibly with some more time and some more ideas to tap into, this could have been a more worthy addition.
Rating: 5/10
Director: Nacho Cerdà
Info: IMDB link
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