I really enjoyed Nick Murphy‘s directorial debut, The Awakening, and back in 2011, we reported on his follow-up, the crime-thriller Blood.  The plot centers on two policemen who kill a murder suspect and are then plunged into chaos when they are forced to investigate their own crime.  I’m ashamed to admit that I had forgotten about the movie, but now a trailer has been released, and it looks like Murphy has nailed the genre just like he did with gothic horror in The Awakening.  Also, I’m not going to turn down a movie with a lead cast that includes Paul Bettany, Stephen Graham, Brian Cox, and Mark Strong.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  Blood is set to hit U.K. theaters and VOD on May 31st, and be released on Blu-ray & DVD on June 10th.  That short release window isn’t a great sign, but I’m still eager to see the flick, and hopefully a U.S. release will be announced soon.

We’ve enjoyed an influx in strong horror movies in the past year or so, spearheaded by The Cabin in the Woods, but also including the likes of The Innkeepers, The Woman in Black and Sinister, just for starters.  The Awakening definitely constitutes a step down from those efforts, but it also demonstrates the ways the genre as a whole has benefitted from them.  After years of cynical torture porn and empty shock tactics, horror movies have finally remembered what it means to properly scare people. The Awakening does far better than it might solely by keeping that equation in mind. Hit the jump for my full review.

[This is a re-post of my review from the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival.  The Awakening opens today in limited release.]

You can keep your modern ghost stories. I understand why they would terrify some people, but those films tend to leave me cold. They use modern science to find something which cannot be scientifically explained, but trying to find ghosts the same way special ops teams try to find terrorists diminishes the illusion. You can only shake the camera so much before I wonder if the ghosts have access to a tripod. The stories also tend to lack any subtext and generating scares is their sole mission. I prefer my ghost stories gothic and foreboding and that’s why I adored Nick Murphy‘s The Awakening. The film still uses the same conceit of using the scientific to explore the paranormal, but does so with early 1920s technology and it’s far more exciting to see an investigator who uses cameras which rely on a trip-wire and a magnesium flash than someone who went down to the local Best Buy and asked for a quality camcorder. In addition to its creativity, Murphy paints a gorgeous picture that delivers the thrills, chills, and terrific performances from Rebecca Hall, Dominic West, and Imelda Staunton.

The first 10 minutes of director Nick Murphy’s horror film The Awakening have been released online for your viewing pleasure.  The story takes place in England shortly after World War I, and centers on a hoax-buster (Rebecca Hall) who is called in to investigate the recent death of a student at an all-boys boarding school.  When she gets there, she discovers that there might be something truly supernatural going on around her.  Matt caught the film last year at TIFF and called it “a damn fine piece of gothic horror,” and this clip promises a great deal of moody atmosphere.

Hit the jump to watch the first 10 minutes of the film.  The pic also stars Dominic West and Imelda Staunton.  The Awakening opens on August 17th.

The trailer and poster for Nick Murphy‘s The Awakening have gone online.  I caught the film last year at the Toronto Film Festival, and thought it was a damn fine piece of gothic horror.  The story takes place in England shortly after World War I, and centers on a hoax-buster (Rebecca Hall) who is called in to investigate the recent death of a student at an all-boys boarding school.  When she gets there, she discovers that there might be something truly supernatural going on around her.  Part of what makes The Awakening great is the atmosphere and pacing, and the trailer foregoes that in favor of creepy photographs, hands on doorknobs, and other clichéd imagery that does Murphy’s film a disservice.  The trailer doesn’t outright spoil anything in the movie, but it does take a lot of moments from the third act, so consider yourself warned.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer and poster.  The film also stars Dominic West and Imelda Staunton.  The Awakening opens August 17th.

Director Nick Murphy made an impressive debut theatrical feature with his gothic horror film The Awakening (click here to read my review).  Screen Daily reports that he’ll be making his follow-up with Blood, an adaptation of the Bill Gallagher BAFTA-nominated TV series Conviction.  The plot centers on “two policemen who kill a murder suspect and are then plunged into chaos when they are forced to investigate their own crime.”  Murphy has assembled a strong lead cast for the picture with Paul Bettany, Brian Cox, and Stephen Graham (Boardwalk Empire) set to star with Gallagher handling the screenplay.  Filming is set to begin in the UK in January.

I’m hoping that The Awakening gets out in front of audiences sooner rather than later because Murphy is definitely a director to keep an eye on, and I’ll certainly be keeping Blood on my radar.

The international trailer for director Nick Murphy’s period psychological/supernatural thriller The Awakening has been released. The film stars Rebecca Hall as a woman bent on exposing all séances and ghost stories as exploitative shams following the death of her husband. However, when she’s called to investigate a disturbance at an all boys’ school, she’s forced to rethink her conceit. I’m really digging this trailer. The scares come from a genuine Gothic creepiness, and the mood and feel of the period really shines through. The performances don’t look too shabby either. Matt caught the film at the Toronto Film Festival and really liked it, so I’m definitely looking forward to checking it out when it hits theaters.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer. The Awakening also stars Dominic West and Imelda Staunton.

You can keep your modern ghost stories.  I understand why they would terrify some people, but those films tend to leave me cold.  They use modern science to find something which cannot be scientifically explained, but trying to find ghosts the same way special ops teams try to find terrorists diminishes the illusion.  You can only shake the camera so much before I wonder if the ghosts have access to a tripod.  The stories also tend to lack any subtext and generating scares is their sole mission.  I prefer my ghost stories gothic and foreboding and that’s why I adored Nick Murphy’s The Awakening.  The film still uses the same conceit of using the scientific to explore the paranormal, but does so with early 1920s technology and it’s far more exciting to see an investigator who uses cameras which rely on a trip-wire and a magnesium flash than someone who went down to the local Best Buy and asked for a quality camcorder.  In addition to its creativity, Murphy paints a gorgeous picture that delivers the thrills, chills, and terrific performances from Rebecca Hall, Dominic West, and Imelda Staunton.