Publicity and word of mouth are curious bedfellows. Awake came to my attention mainly because it starred Hayden Christensen, an actor whose portrayal of a young Darth Vader, looms large over his career. Not necessarily for the right reasons. The gossip of the time inferred that his performance in Awake was of a similar nature. Yet the basic premise for the movie is quite intriguing, so I decided to see for myself. Medical based thrillers are a curious and underrepresented sub-genre. Directed by Joby Harold, Awake is a "high-concept" movie that deals with the universal fear of hospitals, surgery and "anaesthetic awareness". It also features several plot twists that takes the film in a direction that the viewer may not have anticipated. The production shows signs of being influenced by the works of Hitchcock and M. Night Shyamalan and the Italian Giallo genre.