In 2007, John Cusack starred in 1408, a film in which he played a skeptic writing a book about the scariest places in America. After learning about a haunted hotel room in New York, he decides to spend the night and is tormented by supernatural forces that attempt to drive him insane. Do you know what's even more mystifying than a paranormal hotel? The film industry's ability to make the exact same movie again three years later.
Rebecca Hall, Dominic West and Imelda Staunton have been cast in The Awakening, according to Screen Daily. The debut of TV director Nick Murphy, the story centers on a woman in post-World War I England who travels to a boarding school to investigate supernatural activities. While leery at first, a "chilling spectral encounter" quickly changes her mind. The film will begin shooting in June.
Hall, West and Staunton are all talented actors, but does nobody see how cookie-cutter this movie is? Believe it or not, it is possible to write a story about ghosts where the main character doesn't give a dismissive wank to all things otherworldly. Until some writer out there discovers this tact, I'll be sitting on my couch and watching old Scooby-Doo reruns.
