Obviously influenced by that popular 1976 supernatural horror film, this update of a Brand Stoker novel has beautiful location footage, some really intense moments but not much else in the way of what makes a supernatural film memorable. Slow pacing and weak performances (Charlton Heston, particularly, trying too hard to be commanding) are other weaknesses that contributed to this being a bomb in 1980.

The story surrounds the transition of the soul of an evil Egyptian queen into the newborn child of Heston and wife Jill Townsend. She grows up to be Stephanie Zimbalist, scared of something she doesn't quite understand thanks to blackouts, blaming herself for the separation of her parents and his taking up with his lovely assistant Susannah York.

There are some memorable moments, particularly at the locations of presumed Egyptian pyramids, and several outside. One gruesome death has a man falling off the platform of a pyramid, swinging dangerously and falling further and faster, another inside of pyramid where a "Raiders of the Lost Ark" type trap impales him. Another character falls off a balcony, struggles to move and then is impaled by a chart of glass that they accidentally loosen.

This obviously has more in common with "The Omen" and "The Exorcist" due to its supernatural themes, coming out the year before "Raiders of the Lost Ark" yet nowhere near as compelling. Heston's acting in this is totally forced, seeming like something from 20 years before, and completely out of step with what everybody else is doing. This fails on many levels, yet is worth seeking out for a one time viewing as long as the watcher is completely awake, but not like the demonic queen the plot sums up.

This is a dreary and dull rehash of Bram Stoker's novel The Jewel of the Seven Stars. It had already been made once, unsuccessfully, as Hammer's BLOOD FROM THE MUMMY'S TOMB, but somebody had the bright idea of making it again, in Britain, with Charlton Heston in the lead role. They didn't succeed very well, although the film is just about worthwhile for the authentic Egyptian scenes of sphinxes and desert tombs, which, for sheer visual value alone, blow away the staged sand-boxes that Hammer employed in their various Egyptian escapades.

Things kick off with a suitably atmospheric Egyptian prologue (lasting thirty minutes) which show Heston and his companion/lover York eventually discovering the tomb of Queen Kara they have been searching for. Heston uses a sledgehammer to smash his way into the tomb, while at the same time his wife gives birth to their daughter before promptly leaving for America - without Heston. I do admit that the sound effects guys manage to work up a few chills with the eerie moans and echoes that rise out of Kara's tomb because of the wind, but Newell's direction is static and saps the life out of any potentially exciting events.

Cut to eighteen years later, and Heston's grown-up daughter (Zimbalist) arrives in London to live with her father. He dashes her off to Egypt in a scene which serves no purpose to further the plot - instead, it just seems to be an excuse to show some nice Egyptian locations (again) and the dusty interiors of a tomb. The plot really begins to fall apart at the end, with Heston becoming obsessed and his daughter possessed; some incestuous love between the two is hinted at but never explored - only through a brief kiss. The final occurs in the British Museum (not a bad place for a finale, I do admit) and sees Heston trying to resurrect the Queen - not realising he is doing so, except through his daughter. Horrified, before he can act he is buried under some unexplained falling masonry. Halfway through this scene we see a young male associate of Heston's breaking into his house to find some ancient artifacts missing - we don't see this guy again, which makes the scene totally arbitrary and pointless, and perhaps suggests that footage has been left on the cutting room floor. The ending sees Zimbalist reincarnated as the Queen (well, either that or she's suddenly decided to try some new eye make-up and a new hairstyle),set loose in London.

The acting is pretty wooden, even from the experienced players. Heston is believable as the stuffy Professor, but he can't get over the fact that his character is a cliché and one-dimensional. Zimbalist just doesn't have the presence to be scary as his daughter, while York tries to make the best of her nothing role. Eagle-eyed viewers will spot a young Ian McDiarmid popping up as a psychiatrist before he shot to a kind of fame in RETURN OF THE JEDI (as the Emperor, no less) as well as Miriam Margoyles as a nurse.

This is a dull, action-less film, it has to be said, complete with long scenes of dialogue and standing around. To try and counter-act this, the producers obviously demanded that a string of gory deaths be thrown in periodically, in the style of THE OMEN. These deaths are staged in a silly over-the-top way but they do serve to make things a bit more watchable. One man is hanged via a runaway cable; another is crushed by a truck; another stabbed by a trap and finally, in the film's most painful death, an unfortunate character falls on to his own syringe which embeds in his heart. The film's best death belongs to York, who falls to her death through glass. Except that this doesn't kill her; a swinging piece of glass falls down into her throat and finishes the job. Before this happens, we are subjected to a few moments of intense suspense, sadly the only suspense in the entire film's running time. THE AWAKENING was a flop and is a bad film, yes, but there are some things worth watching for so it's not the worst movie ever - just a below average one.

Starting in the Eighties although he certainly had some duds earlier in his career, the number of decent film projects seemed to dry up for Charlton Heston. My guess is that Heston decided to cash in on all the end time films that seemed to be cleaning up at the box office starting with The Omen. So the man most famous for starring in The Ten Commandments decided to do a combination of a Omen and Mummy tale.

Thus was born The Awakening. In it Charlton Heston plays an archaeologist who discovers the tomb of an unknown Egyptian princess. Heston knows something's afoot because he has previously uncovered records of a royal household member whose name like that of Prince Moses was stricken from all records because of some terrible occurrence.

Around the time Heston is unsealing the tomb in the valley of kings, his daughter is being born who grows up to be Stephanie Zimbalist. Flash forward to 18 years later and the daughter like Damien the devil's child seems to have a whole lot of people dropping dead around her.

Any film fan will recognize the plot threads in both The Omen and in the Boris Karloff classic, The Mummy. They're combined here in The Awakening with more or less mixed results. Susannah York is also along for the ride as Heston's girl Friday assistant who meets a rather grisly end.

It's not the worst film Heston ever did, but you sure long for the days of even the stilted Victorian dialog of Cecil B. DeMille.