 | MOVIE DETAILS • Name: The Jack in the Box: Awakening • Year: 2022 • Country: UK • Director: Lawrence Fowler • Main cast: Matt McClure, Mollie Hindle, James Swanton, Nicola Wright • Runtime: 93 minutes • Production company: Fowler Media • TRAILER
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Despite the fact that I didn’t expect The Jack in the Box: Awakening (2022) to be a life-changing movie, I must admit the feelings after watching it were quite positive. I have never been a fan of movies based on spirits or supernatural forces taking control of objects, I am more an action person, but here we get a little bit of everything. This movie is not as close to films like the popular saga of The Conjuring as I thought the first time after watching the trailer, despite almost all the action happening in one location, that big luxurious mansion in the middle of nowhere.
The premise is simple and something we have seen a few times before. An evil spirit has possessed a jack-in-the-box and will grant any wish made by the object owner in exchange for souls. So a dying mother convinces her son to bring a few lives to the evil clown-like monster so she can get rid of her terminal illness.
This is a sequel to the movie The Jack in the Box (2019), although the stories are not connected beside the main creature. Both are titles are written, produced, and directed by Lawrence Fowler, sharing his narrative and visual style. A style that works, entertains, gives some genuine frights, but doesn’t bring anything new to the panorama.
In The Jack in the Box: Awakening (2022) we get effective camera work, cinematography that is dark but still allows the audience to be able to see everything going on, and a soundtrack that accompanies well the horrifying situations that the victims of the Jack get into. Especial mention to the creepy sounds made by the Jack, that slim scary figure that might call the attention of the most avid horror movies fan here. The acting is convincing although it doesn’t outstand, neither as a great performance nor as a flaw. The story is built in a way that the tension and fear are set from the first minutes and won’t end until the ending credits start to roll. Everything works here pretty well, but the only problem this movie has is its lack of originality.
An entertaining hour and a half full of scary scenes and a creature that won’t disappoint the ones looking for something monstrous and explicit. A story that keeps the enjoyment and entertainment from start to end. A decent watch if you are looking for a solid scary movie to get rid of the stress and problems of your every day. But something that we have seen before.
The Jack in the Box Awakening (2022) is coming out on digital on January 3, 2022, and it accomplishes what it promises: a decent scary creature horror film in the most classic way.
RATE: 5.5/10
IMDB URL: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt12764628
