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Welcome back! Today I’m happily back in the positive category for my Movie of the Day! I also have a good batch of news, and some fun daily trivia.
Movie of the Day
Today’s movie is Woken, and it’s another one that is labeled as horror, but it isn’t. I won’t go into that too much, because I already spoke about this kind of thing when I looked at Bury Me When I’m Dead a couple of days ago. But I do think it’s important to let potential viewers know, especially when they come to a site primarily about horror, when a movie doesn’t really match the labels other outlets apply to it.
Woken is a thriller that begins as a mystery centered on a pregnant woman with amnesia. The woman is told her name is Anna, but she has no memory of herself, her surroundings, or the people around her. She learns that she is on an island, she has a husband named James, her closest neighbors are Helen and Peter, and her baby is due in just a couple of weeks. As Anna struggles to remember anything, she gets the feeling that things aren’t as they seem. When two people from the mainland arrive with a very obvious illness, Anna’s concerns turn into fear. Helen and James aren’t telling her something, and it seems to have something to do with her unborn child.
That’s as much of the plot as I should describe, because the mystery of Anna’s situation is the driving force of the story. There are other genres involved in the movie which would be slight spoilers, so I won’t mention them, but again, none of those genres are horror. Rather, Woken is a suspenseful and tense thriller that picks up the action once the mystery is revealed.
I enjoyed the film. Erin Kellyman plays Anna primarily as a wide-eyed conduit for the audience’s questions about this world, but she’s also a good sympathetic character. I enjoyed how her husband James and friend Helen get more sinister as Anna asks more questions. The process is gradual, and that helps the story feel natural in the way it progressively gets more tense. The first half of the movie might be a bit of a slow burn for some viewers, but there are enough clues being dropped that it will hopefully keep most people engaged with trying to figure out what’s happening. That part of the movie is very well written and executed.
Once the mystery is exposed, the film loses a small amount of its power. Keeping the characters mysterious works well in the first half of the story, but in the second half it blunts some of the emotions (good and bad) we might feel for them had they been more fully developed. It all still works well with Anna as the heart of the narrative though. I was invested throughout, I just think the shift from a more mystery-driven first half to a plot-heavy finale might have benefited from some stronger character work throughout.
Star Rating: 3.5 out of 5
I liked the movie and would recommend it to fans of thrillers that focus on mystery and, eventually, themes of survival. If you’re still unsure, you can check other reviews and descriptions that give away more than I feel comfortable revealing. For me, figuring out the mystery on my own was half the fun I had. Woken is available as a digital rental on platforms including Amazon Prime Video.
Related Movie Recommendation
Released earlier this year, Marshmallow is another movie that starts out as one thing, and then turns into something different once a mystery is revealed. It begins as a story about a mild-mannered boy going to summer camp and getting spooked by a campfire story. Then, well, he finds out that there is some truth to the story, but not in any way he could have imagined. I thought Marshmallow was just okay, but other people seem to like it a lot, so I thought it would make a good companion piece for Woken. You can rent Marshmallow on Prime Video.
In the News
- Shudder announced that V/H/S Halloween, the eighth main movie in the V/H/S franchise, will be released on October 3rd, 2025. (Variety)
- Season two of All of Us Are Dead, the South Korean zombie series from Netflix, is finally in production. (Netflix via Bloody Disgusting)
- The Hollywood Reporter released their ranked list of the 25 best horror movies of the 21st century. Let the debates begin. (The Hollywood Reporter)
- A new book about the making of the Scream franchise will be released soon, and the voice of GhostFace, Roger Jackson, will be narrating for the audiobook version. The book is Your Favorite Scary Movie by Ashley Cullins, and it will come out on August 16th. (The Hollywood Reporter)
- A video game based on the Hellraiser franchise is in development from Saber Interactive and Boss Team Games. It’s described as a first-person action horror survival game, and Doug Bradley will be in it as Pinhead. You can see more on the official site. (Variety)
- Trailers released yesterday:
- Together (final trailer)
- The Balconettes
- The Undertone
Birthdays
Rose Byrne was born on July 24th, 1979. For horror, Rose is best known for playing Renai Lambert in the Insidious movies. She was also in 28 Weeks Later (2007), but my favorite movie of hers is the sci-fi horror film Sunshine (2007).
Elisabeth Moss was also born on this day, in 1982. Elisabeth stars in the series The Handmaid’s Tale, but her best horror movies are Us (2019) and The Invisible Man (2020).
Other actors born on July 24th:
- Anna Paquin (1982) – True Blood (2008-2014), Scream 4 (2011)
- Cailee Spaeny (1998) – Rain in Alien: Romulus (2024)
- Penelope Mitchell (1991) – Sting (2024), Hellboy (2019), Look Away (2018)
Events on This Day
Only July 24th, 1998, S.T.A.R.S. Alpha Team was dispatched to locate Bravo Team who had gone missing. Bravo Team ceased all contact while investigating mysterious deaths in the forested area north-west of central Raccoon City. Led by Albert Wesker, Alpha Team entered a mansion near where they found the crashed helicopter of their compatriots. The horrors held within (and below) that mansion claimed the lives of the majority of S.T.A.R.S. members.
Orphan was released in North America on July 24th, 2009. Thirteen years later, star Isabelle Fuhrman, who played the 33-year-old pretending to be a 9-year-old, would return to play an even younger version of her character in the prequel Orphan: First Kill (2022).
More movies released on July 24th:
- Disturbing Behavior (1998)
- The Rental (2020)
Thank you for reading! Now I need to hurry up and get my work done for the day so I can go play some Resident Evil.
