Starring - Suki Waterhouse (The Bad Batch, Pride & Prejudice and Zombies), Madisen Beaty (Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), and Inanna Sarkis (College, |Boo 2: A Madea Halloween)
Release Date - 2021
Genre - Horror
Tagline - "New friends, old haunts"
Format - Bluray (Personal Collection) (Screener)
Rating (out of 5):
It seems like with every passing day I am becoming more and more impressed with Shudder and their partnership with RLJE Films. There has been a few of their releases that I didn't care for but for the most part their collaborative releases have been extremely fun. A few weeks ago I received the press release about for the 2021 horror film Seance. RLJE was handling the physical release of this one while Shudder would be premiering it on their streaming platform later in the year. The film looked interesting enough so I reached out for a review copy. I want to thank the folks over at RLJE for sending this one my way to check out.
The film follows an all girl boarding school and a new student who arrives sometime after the apparent suicide of one of the girls. As with any school, there is a bully and her clique who set their sights on the new girl. After a fight they are all sent to detention where they decide to hold a seance to speak with their dead peer. The next day one of their own goes missing before her body is found sometime after. They suspect that their dorm is haunted but something more sinister is lurking in the halls.
I can safely say that Seance is not the film I was expecting. I assumed the movie was going to go one way but it switched it up on me and kept me on my toes. I really enjoyed it and think a great deal of the horror community will like it as well. The acting in this one is great. The characters are going to be quick to remind viewers of The Craft but I enjoyed the casting and the characters they portrayed. The cast was very natural in their roles and their on screen chemistry is great. Their performances really sell the story. The story for this one is not complex but it's not as it appears. I don't want to go too deep into it for fear of spoiling it BUT I really did enjoy it more once we know what was really going on. I was fully prepared to write a negative review up until the 40 to 50 minute mark and then the film switched gears on me. I really enjoyed the way the film ended but I am a little disappointed that the movie was not what I was expecting. It would have been cool to see the story unfold like it was marketed. Finally, the film doesn't take it's death scenes seriously at first but as the film hits that final act I keep mentioning it revisits them with a little more detail while giving us one last death that makes the entire film worth watching. The film does use practical and visual effects with them both complimenting each other very well. Overall, Seance was a clever and fun horror tale that caught me off guard. I enjoyed it but I can see many viewers will want to compare it to The Craft and for obvious reasons. I highly recommend checking this one out.
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