The Awakening (2011) - Engaging and creepy  

Perhaps the biggest thing `The Awakening' has going for it is its setting. The huge house/school in the countryside truly is the stuff ghost stories are made of. It looks visually stunning (in an ancient and creepy kind of way) whichever angle it's filmed from. You can't help but believe that there has to be at least a few spooks running around somewhere.

Rebecca Hall basically plays a nineteen-twenties Ghostbuster (or rather Ghost-disprover, as she specialises in proving to the world that the supernatural don't exist). She gets called to a school to disprove the existence of an alleged ghost who has caused the death of a living boy.  She certainly proves that she's more than capable of headlining a movie all by herself and the other characters are all secondary to her.  Because it's set in a school there is naturally at least one child star.  Kids in adult-orientated films can be grating at the best of times, but here the boy does well enough that you won't find him totally irritating.

Naturally, her investigations lead her to start to doubt her previous beliefs about the lack of real ghosts. There are a few twists and turns and even a handful of red herrings. Don't try to figure it out too much, it'll explain itself eventually. But if you're hoping for every last detail being explained, you may find yourself scouring internet message boards for answers (especially when it comes to the ending!).

It's spooky, it's well-shot and it has a few bits that make you jump - if anything it's those 'jump-scares' that let it down.  Everything else is so well done that relying on something that suddenly appears on screen combined with a random noise isn't really needed to add to the mood. But, despite that, it has an overall premise that you may have seen variations of, but this one is decent enough for you to give it a chance. What more do you want from a ghost yarn?

7/10 if I woke up on Groundhog Day and had to watch this again, I could live with that