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Written and directed by Alex Wright, Seance: The Summoning delves into the world of religion, paganism and demons.
Seance: The Summoning revolves around a group of friends; Marcus (Chris Olivero), Joey (Bobby Campo- The Final Destination), Eva (Nazneen Contractor- Star Trek Into Darkness) and Sara (Deon Ogden), heading to the city morgue in hopes of contacting spirits. Marcus works at the morgue so can get them access to wherever they need to go, while Eva is a self-proclaimed medium who Joey believes is a fake. Joey believes there is no such thing as afterlife and wants Eva to prove it.
As they sit down and begin the séance a spirit makes contact and starts to spell out what it wants, causing Joey’s anxiety hit the roof and break away from the circle. After a dressing down from Eva who notices why Joey’s so scared they sit back at the table for a second time. Something goes awry and a dark and demonic force attaches itself to a scared Joey. As his possessed form begins to take over, Marcus tries to control him and gets his neck snapped by the beast within his best friend. Managing to knock him out and tie him up Eva and Sara try to exorcise the demon back to hell. Christian believer Sara soon realizes her efforts are no match as the powerful demon has many tricks to lure her.
The seance sequence itself is well-done and delivers some solid jolts and unexpected gore. While these scenes may be cliché they provide some pretty enjoyable and thrilling moments to help balance out the repetition of what’s going on.
The characters were interesting as the group of friends all had totally different personalities. There was the atheist, the Christian, the witch and someone who couldn’t care less. This created a spectrum that made the film a little more enjoyable. The acting was well done with fairly unknown actors and I enjoyed what they offered. The morgue was also a perfectly chilling and dark setting for a demonic horror.
For me personally, Seance: The Summoning works if you can be forgiving of the minor short comings throughout the film. The devil is in the details and the little ones make or break a good movie, but as a hardcore horror fan I can be forgiving of small details missed.
If demonic movies are your thing like mine, you’ll enjoy Seance: The Summoning to some extent, but if you have to have some intelligence in your horror, you may want to give this one a miss.
WICKED RATING: 4.5/10 [usr 4.5]
Title: Seance: The Summoning
Director(s): Alex Wright
Writer(s): Alex Wright
Stars: Bobby Campo, Nazneen Contractor, Chris Olivero
Year: 2011
Studio/ Production Co: Berkshire Axis Media
Budget: (unknown)
Language: English
Length: 85mins
Sub-Genre: Thriller
