Brooke MacKenzie of the UPN’s and CW’s Everybody Hates Chris and Steffani Brass of HBO’s Six Feet Under are the centerpieces in this direct-to-video tale about a group of 20-somethings’ vacation stay at a remote cabin in the woods gone wrong. Dabier Snell of the CW’s Black Lightning, Charlie Ian of Damien Chazelle’s award-winning Whiplash, and Tina Cole, whose resume stretches back to the ‘60s U.S. TV series My Three Sons (but you know from her recent work in the cabin-in-the-woods horror, The 6th Friend), co-stars.
Of course, in these evil rental-cabin-in-the-wood tales, we meet the lone survivor who’s doped up in a hospital bed and suffering from dreams of spinning wall-mounted crosses and phantom strangulations that doctors believe are hallucinations. And the detective and the M.E on the case don’t buy her story. But the professor well-versed in the legend of Abigail sure does.
The best friend of Michele Chadwick (Steffani Brass), Sophia (Brooke MacKenzie), became enamored with a locket found at the cabin and awakened Abigail, a centuries-dead malevolent witch. The flashbacks of the witch’s persecution begin in quick succession and Sophia starts to kill off her friends — murders in which Michele initially takes the blame. Once released into the custody of her grandmother (Tina Cole), Abigail returns to finish the job.
Based on the fact the producer and co-writer on this is Remy MacKenzie — the producer behind the Drive-In and VHS trash classics Evil Town (1987; actually an unfinished early ’70s film, God Bless, Dr. Shagetz, starring a past-his-prime Dean Jagger) and Evils of the Night (1985; with more past-their-prime ’60s actors) — we’re assuming Brooke is related as a daughter, granddaughter, or niece.
Director Jose Altonaga and MacKenzie previously produced the Fast Times at Ridgemont High knockoff Hot Times at Monclair High (1989; with a down-and-out Troy Donahue from Shock ‘Em Dead) that we, at B&S, still haven’t seen after all these years. But if you were a fan of the USA Networks’ “Up All Night” weekends, you may have seen it; the out-of-print DVDs now sell for upwards of $150.00.
Reawakened is available on demand and on DVD from Wild Eye, who were kind enough to send us a review copy. You can learn more about the movie on its official Facebook page and also watch it on Amazon Prime.
All in all: a good job by all for a low-budget indie streamer that’s worthy of your coin.
About the Author: You can learn more about the writings of R.D Francis on Facebook. He also writes for B&S About Movies.
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