It always strikes me as odd when online synopses pretty much ignore the main things you should know about a movie. For instance, check out what Amazon Instant has to say about Awaken the Devil:
Brothers Tom and Vernon stumble into an abandoned building for shelter, entering a hellish world of shadows and nightmares that would change their lives forever. Trapped and psychologically tortured by unseen forces... (and it cuts off here, at least on my Roku)
It makes no mention of what I thought was the most important thing about the film - that it's essentially animated. I mean, it does star real actors, but the backgrounds and supporting characters are mostly animated/CGI, along the lines of a Sin City (but a lot cheaper looking). It looked to me like it could have been on Liquid Television, if you're old enough to remember that sort of thing. And you'd save people a lot of trouble by mentioning that. Anyone looking for a "normal" movie won't be disappointed, and it may actually be helpful for those of us who are looking for something a little bit different. I'm sure I would have watched it sooner than I did had I known that it was made in that style. Oh, and if you read what comes after the ellipses on Amazon, it ruins the whole story. I'm glad it cut off where it did, so there was at least a little mystery to the narrative.
Also, I'm not sure if "tone poem" is a well-known enough term to put into a synopsis meant for popular consumption, but it's pretty apt here. The entire story of Awaken the Devil could easily be summed up in a sentence, but the film itself is much more concerned with creating a mood pretty independent from the plot.
I don't know that I could sum up the plot much better than Amazon. I guess the things they left out - Tom & Vernon are homeless, and Vernon is mute and uses a wheelchair. And Tom looks strung out and is into drugs. So they aren't exactly living the high life. (It's not like two rich brothers step into an abandoned building during a storm, or anything like that.) One day, while the brothers are just hanging out, begging for money, Vernon starts seeing the cryptic message "You Been Chosen" (and occasionally the grammatically correct version) all over the place. He doesn't know it at the time, but "unseen forces" bring them to the abandoned hotel, where it eventually becomes apparent *what* he has been chosen for. The title should give you a hint.
But like I said, this isn't the kind of movie that you watch for the twists and turns of the plot. There isn't an awful lot of dialogue; Vernon can't talk and Tom just mostly delivers monologues where he just sadly reminisces about their lives (things they did growing up, their mother's death, etc.) - it's all kind of bittersweet and generally pretty dark. But it mostly works. Once you get on board with the fact that not an awful lot is going to happen story-wise, the overall vibe of the film just sort of washes over you. It's an admirable attempt at an artsy horror film - probably pretty low-budget, with not a heck of a lot of people in the cast and crew. At any rate, I think it's far better than the 2.8 rating on imdb would indicate. It's just that most people wouldn't know that it's a half-animated tone poem - so I can see why they'd give it a terrible rating. If I rented this while I was having a party or something and was hoping for some fun satanic laughs, I'd be pissed too.
Horror-wise? There are just a couple of scenes that justify it's R-rating - most notably a pretty gnarly blood-vomiting scene. I had to stop drinking my beer during that one - it was one of the few times I've been grossed out enough to be glad I wasn't eating at the time. There's a little nudity (not much of the good kind), but there isn't an awful lot of blood or anything like that. You get the occasional creepy visual, but nothing terrible. It's just unrelentingly dark and weird enough that I couldn't really see it being anything but rated-R, you know?
The acting was pretty decent, considering that the whole film has a pretty indie vibe. Matt Simpson Siegel was good as Tom - he get's a lot of chances to ACT, as Tom is either (a) reminiscing about his past mistakes, or (b) high as hell. He gives a pretty twitchy/out-there performance, but it mostly works in the context of the film. Jason Roth has a pretty tough role as Vernon - being mute, he has to pretty much act based on his facial expression. And honestly, he looks SO MUCH like this guy I know that it was pretty distracting - funny how that works. But I think he ended up doing a really good job with acting with his eyes. And I liked how Vernon would communicate - he's got a little chalkboard connected to his wheelchair that he uses to write out short messages. It was a pretty interesting way to get things across - you could see him react, think, and write. It gives you as a viewer time to think about the context/situation, and kind of think what he may be writing. Even though it's not really efficient way of communication, you tend to give a little more weight to things you read versus things you read, for whatever reason.
Anyways, Awaken the Devil is probably going to be a pretty aggravating film for a lot of people. It's true that it doesn't have a standard narrative and isn't scary in a traditional sense. But still, I dug it. I know that "tone poem indie-horror" probably only appeals to a small percentage of people, but count me among the ranks.
I would see how you feel about "tone poem indie-horror" and then decide if I should recommend this film.
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