The Spanish horror director Nacho Cerdà recently just released his first long-feature with "The Abandoned", but until the time that film gathers a large fan-base and/or a cult-following, he's still mainly (in)famous for the three short films that he made during the 1990's. Especially "Aftermath" is a hugely controversial (but not necessarily brilliant) piece of European cult-horror, but it doesn't deserve half as much attention as the experimental and cleverly plotted debut "The Awakening". This short is extremely atmospheric, stylish and it features a modest twist-ending even though it's only 10 minutes long! A confused and mediocre student falls asleep during class, yet when he wakes up he appears to be stuck in a time paradox. The clocks have stopped, his fellow students and the teacher remain motionless in the same position and there's an awkward Egyptian drawing on the blackboard lurking at him. The denouement of this short may not be too innovating or difficult to predict, but it was nevertheless a beautifully presented. The black and white photography and deliberately messy editing makes it look like the film comes straight out of the late 1950's/ early 1960's, when surreal horror classics like "Carnival of Souls" and "Eyes without a Face" where scaring the hell out of inexperienced horror buffs. I'm not entirely sure if it was Cerdà's intention to bring homage to that type of film, but I'd like to think it was. Either way, although sadly too short and perhaps not entirely flawless, "The Awakening" at least was a hugely promising debut and undeniably a film with a lot more depth than "Aftermath".
Review of The Awakening
