Pregnancy is a serious time for anyone going through it, the immense changes and strains that your body is going through are so awful at times that not everyone is able to cope with the experience. So imagine how bad pregnancy is when you wake up with no memory of yourself, your unborn child, the people around you, or the isolated home you find yourself in. This is the reality that Anna (Erin Kellyman) finds herself in in writer/director Alan Friel's latest film, Woken.
Woken begins as something of a mystery film, as we the audience are dropped into this situation alongside Anna with no extra information, and learn of things along with her. Anna finds herself on a cold and bleak looking island with three other people, her husband James (Ivanno Jeremiah), and 'neighbours' Helen (Maxine Peak) and Peter (Corrado Invernizzi) who live on the other side of the island. These three people seem light on answers as to how Anna lost her memory, and the quiet looks they make, and whispered words they exchange when they think she's not looking make them seem less than completely trustworthy.
Anna and the audience are forced to question everything, to doubt the authenticity of this strange situation. However, it's not long before the tone of Woken shift when Anna encounters two people on the beach. A man and woman arrive on their remote island, having travelled there in a pedalo. Stranger than the manner of their arrival, however, is their appearance. Covered in strange, bone-like growth, the two of them are clearly infected with some strange condition. When James and Helen arrive on the scene and kill the two strangers, burning them and their belongings, Anna realises that even more sinister things are happening, and that despite the dangers she suspects are already around her even worse things await beyond the shores of their tiny island.
There's not much more that I can say about Woken that wouldn't give too much away, and perhaps I've already said too much about the plot, but the film does this wonderful trick part-way through when you realise that this isn't just some mystery thriller about a woman trapped in a possibly dangerous environment, but that it may have more of a horror of science-fiction bent to it that opens it up to some truly interesting new directions.
The film is told from Anna's point of view, and as such Erin Kellyman is taking us through every single scene of the film. We learn things as she does, we get taken by surprise with her, and the audience will very quickly come to care about her as her survival means our continued exploration of the world that Friel has created. Kellyman does a phenomenal job throughout, essentially carrying us along through the film with her. It would be easy to have Anna's character fall into some kind of damsel-like stereotype, running and panicking in order to survive. Instead, Kellyman plays her with a fierce determination and a cunning nature that shines through as she tries to figure out the mystery of her memory loss, and ultimately through the earth-shattering answers she receives.
Maxine Peak makes for a brilliant supporting actor, bringing the usual warmth and kindness that you expect from her other roles, yet managing to inject just enough of a sinister edge that it makes for a quite unnerving performance. I found myself wanting to trust the character of Helen because she seemed so normal and kind, but the situation that Anna was in made that presentation somewhat twisted. It was wonderful to see Peak in this position, and I think this might be a brilliant role for her so that people realise she has much more range than the projects she's usually cast in.
Woken is a fairly short film, but thanks to its twisting, unexpected narrative, and strong performances from its lead cast it ends up delivering a really satisfactory experience. It has some darkly claustrophobic moments that make you fear for Anna, it has some deeper lore that makes you super interested in the wider world outside of the island and the hope for more movies in this setting, and it borrows from some interesting genres to create a film that will leave viewers happy.
With Solo: A Star Wars Story, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple showcasing Erin Kellyman in more overtly action oriented roles it's lovely to see her doing that whilst also bringing in other aspects such as vulnerability and a sense of fear. Kellyman has managed to impress me in everything I've seen her in, and whilst I think that Woken is likely to fly under most people's radars compared to those big name projects, it further showcases that she's an actor to keep an eye on.
Woken is available on digital release in the UK from 25th May 2026.
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