By Autumn Whipple, MoreHorror.com,
Seance (2021) is now available on digital and VOD, and was released on Blu-ray and DVD on August 3, 2021. Order now.
Seance follows Camille Meadows, the new girl at the prestigious Edelvine Academy for Girls.
Soon after her arrival, six girls invite her to join them in a late-night ritual, calling forth the spirit of a dead former student who reportedly haunts their halls. But before morning, one of the girls is dead, leaving the others wondering what they may have awakened.
Starring: Suki Waterhouse, Madisen Beaty, Ella-Rae Smith, Inanna Sarkis, Seamus Patterson and Marina Stephenson-Kerr
Directed and Written By: Simon Barrett
Writer and director Simon Barrett, who wrote genre favorites like You're Next, The Guest and Blair Witch, utilizes run-of-the-mill themes and approaches to the stylish, yet a bit disjointed “Seance”. There's your typical jump scares here you either like or are tired of by now in the genre.
Focusing on an all-female boarding school of Fairfield Academy, the friends gather to summon a spirit, initially as a hoax, yet something more sinister appears to be afoot.
“Seance” seems to borrow from films like Mean Girls, You're Next and the stylization of Suspiria. Mean girl tropes and familiar animal masks abide, and fans of Barret's other stories will notice similarities in his writing, whether this was intentional or not is unknown.
Like many stories these days, there tend to be nonsensical reactions to situations, and I'm never sure if that's intentional for the characters or if the writer doesn't notice. It's again, an unknown.
Karim Hussain’s underlit dark cinematography is another blemish on this and other indie horror films by other cinematographers. You just want to ask if these people even know the difference between a darker film that's lit and color corrected properly and those that aren't. Films like Se7en, Mullholland Drive, and pretty much any Hitchcock film shows how it's possible to take low lighting and still have proper contrast of elements around.
“Seance” is worth at least one viewing for horror fans who don't necessarily care if they are watching a familiar horror film play out. I see what the director was attempting to do, but perhaps bit off more than he could chew trying to be too many things at the same time, and never truly finding the pulse of what this film was supposed to be. Hopefully, this was a positive learning experience for the director and team and they continue to grow and make more films.
Trailer: