Wake Up

This isn’t the first or likely to be the last horror film based on what Gen X sees as horror. Not for them vampire and monsters. The global terrors of climate change and environmental abuse prey much more on their minds. Or that is according to Wake Up.

A group of said activists sneak into what they see as a furniture store that is failing in its environmental duties. The plan is to hide until the store is closed and vandalise, with a purpose. They aren’t to know that the night security consists of a drunk, Jack (Aidan O’Hare) and his deranged hunter brother Kevin (Turlough Convery). +
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What stems from a very simple premise is likely to one of the toughest horror/thrillers of the year as the gang realise what is going, get split up and try to fight back.

It’s poses many questions that go well beyond what the self-righteous attitude of the activists and their methods could be. The film delves into the complicated matter of mental health though this develops later on as Kevin’s instability comes to the fore.

Those matters aside, Wake Up is tightly plotted and insightful. Written by Alberto Marini and directed by François Simard, Anouk and Yoann-Karl Whissell they develop a convincing group dynamic between the activists and a grounded relationship between the brothers.

That the eco-group will be picked off is par for the course with these sorts of films, and that the kills will be bloody and inventive.

What lifts Wake Up away from other films of this ilk is sympathetically pitting the self-righteous activists against, people who are basically just doing their job and have their own responsibilities. The situation is actually greyer than it looks on the activist hit-list. That one of them happens to suffer from mental illness, opens up another stream of debate.

Wake Up received its UK premiere at Glasgow FrightFest 2024.