Going into Wake Up, it would be easy to expect some kind of anti-woke, far-right power fantasy. The premise practically invites that reading of it. A group of self-important Gen Z activists are breaking into a fictional Ikea equivalent and vandalizing it in an attempt to raise awareness of the countless animals that have to die to run this business. Fortunately for the store, they got just the right security guard covering the night shift, as he turns it into his hunting ground and takes care of the little pests one by one.
Of course the movie is much more self-aware than that. Kevin (Turlough Convery) is no action hero. Instead he’s depicted as an incel who spends too much of his time on weird internet forums and lets his rage and frustrations with other people foster, only looking for a good enough excuse to finally let it all out on someone. So what better job than being a security guard (I guess even the police didn’t want him), and a bunch of activist kids breaking into his store is just the perfect moment to finally show the world that he is no man to be made fun of; he should be the one sitting at the top of the metaphorical food chain.
So the thing is that both of the previous paragraphs are kind of true. Yes, the security guard is clearly a radicalized monster who abuses the position of power he was given and who is willing to go way further than the circumstances would ever justify. But it also continuously takes shots at the teenagers for their beliefs. Wake Up is a movie that very firmly believes that activism is a waste of time that doesn’t lead anywhere and frequently suggests that none of this would’ve happened if we just had a conversation about our differences. Both sides are wrong. Both sides are going too far. We need to find a middle ground by sitting down and just talking it out. Wake Up is annoyingly centrist in its messaging. For a slasher that clearly wants to play in political territory, it has nothing meaningful to say and comes into it without any perspective whatsoever.
That’s especially frustrating coming from directing trio RKSS, made up of François Simard, Anouk Whissell, and Yoann-Karl Whissell, whose previous movie We Are Zombies (2023) had plenty of clever commentary hiding in its comedic genre shell. But then I suppose this one wasn’t written by them; instead, they’re shooting Alberto Marini’s screenplay. And while I’m not familiar with his work, based on Wake Up, I’m not impressed. The actors all do a great job, but their characters are underwritten stereotypes. And once again, the movie brings nothing to the highly politicized issues it presents. When it starts, it’s almost reminiscent of Bertrand Bonello Nocturama (2016), but I will restrain myself from going any further with this comparison because it would not be a kind one.
But let’s try to ignore all of that for a second (hard to do given how core it is to the movie, but we will try), because there is a somewhat competent slasher in here too. A home superstore makes for a great location. There’s only a limited amount of exits, and the ones that do exist can be locked securely. There’s different areas that can keep things at least a little visually diverse for an enclosed space. And there’s plenty of weapons for anyone creative enough to make it work. It’s also a building with a very clear layout that both the viewer and the characters can understand easily and work around. The movie only makes so much use of all of these theoretical strengths; many of the kills are pretty basic, to be honest, but there’s one scene that’s a showstopper.
I’m sure this could be considered a spoiler to some people, so skip this paragraph if you don’t want to know about specific set pieces, but since it is shown off in the trailer, I will talk about it here. At one point the kids get covered with glow in the dark paint before any light in the building is turned off. What follows is an exceptional slasher moment in which the entire screen is engulfed in darkness, with only the pain on our protagonists being visible. And somewhere in that darkness lurks the security guard, prowling around them and ready to strike from any direction. It’s the clear highlight of the movie, but its ingenuity also serves to call attention to the lack of creativity in other parts.
If you go into Wake Up wanting nothing but a decent slasher, you will get that, and a pretty mean one too. But the political angle of the movie completely falls flat and ranges from boring with no substance to a little tasteless in its worst moments. For a political slasher that wants to provoke, this one is really missing the edge.
