Woken (2023) Review
Fresh from her standout turn in 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, rising star Erin Kellyman takes centre stage in WOKEN, a tense, genre-blending sci-fi thriller from writer-director Alan Friel making his feature debut. Alongside one of Britain’s most respected performers, Maxine Peake, Kellyman delivers a committed performance in a claustrophobic mystery that explores paranoia, memory and survival against an apocalyptic backdrop.
The story follows Anna (Kellyman), who awakens on a remote island after an accident with no recollection of who she is, where she is, or even the pregnancy she is carrying. Surrounded by unfamiliar faces — including her husband James (Ivanno Jeremiah) and neighbours Helen (Peake) and Peter (Corrado Invernizzi) — Anna is forced to piece together the fragments of her fractured identity as those around her attempt to fill in the blanks.
Yet unease quickly settles in. As Anna begins to question the reality presented to her, she uncovers a devastating truth: humanity has been decimated by a pandemic. Even after this revelation, however, a creeping sense of dread lingers. Convinced darker secrets remain hidden beneath the surface, Anna’s growing paranoia leads her to suspect that the greatest threat may not lie beyond the island, but within it.
For its opening act, WOKEN proves highly effective. Friel carefully cultivates an atmosphere of uncertainty and tension, ensuring viewers remain engaged as suspicion steadily mounts. By the time the film arrives at its first major reveal — roughly thirty minutes in — the narrative appears poised to deliver something genuinely compelling. The twist confirms what audiences have already begun to suspect: all is far from what it seems.
Unfortunately, it is after this pivotal moment that WOKEN begins to lose momentum. As the film gradually reveals more of its hand, diminishing returns set in. What initially feels unsettling and mysterious soon becomes increasingly familiar, with subsequent revelations landing less effectively and exposing a disappointingly formulaic core. Rather than deepening the intrigue, the narrative slips into predictable territory, undermining much of the tension established so successfully in its opening stretch.
That disappointment is amplified by the film’s strengths elsewhere. Kellyman anchors proceedings with conviction, while Peake lends her customary gravitas to an otherwise underdeveloped supporting role. The ensemble is uniformly reliable, elevating material that often feels more conventional than its premise suggests. Visually, the film fares better still: the rugged beauty of County Clare, Ireland, where the production was filmed, provides a striking backdrop, with atmospheric cinematography capturing the island’s craggy isolation to considerable effect.
Given the calibre of talent involved, WOKEN feels like a missed opportunity. Its premise, cast and early suspense suggest something more ambitious than standard genre fare, yet the film ultimately settles for familiar beats and predictable storytelling. While competently assembled and intermittently gripping, this is sci-fi thriller territory that rarely rises above the ordinary.
Woken is on UK digital 25 May from 101 Films
Trailer
