SEANCE, DIRECTED BY SIMON BARRETT (HORROR MOVIE REVIEW)

11/6/2021

I’m going to go ahead and compare Seance to Scream, not in terms of content or a meta-approach, but because it will likely reinvigorate the genre and inspire countless ripoffs. So, I loved the film and I can’t wait to see what Barrett does next as a writer/director.

Writer/Director: Simon Barrett
Starring: Suki Waterhouse, Madisen Beaty, Inanna Sarkis, Ella-Rae Smith, Megan Best, Stephanie Sy, Jade Michael, Djouliet Amara, Seamus Patterson, and Marina Stephenson Kerr

Camille Meadows is 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.

In order to give what we believe to be a more unbiased constructive criticism of the piece, the members of Bloodhound Pix are tackling each review as a panel of three. None of the members know the others’ thoughts on the content until after they submit their initial response.

Initial Reaction

K. Seance opens with a typical slasher setup: a clique of girls attempt to summon the ghost that supposedly haunts their boarding school, but it’s all just a prank. One of the girls, Kerrie (Megan Best), returns to her room and mysteriously falls to her death. Was it the ghost? Suicide? Or is there a killer on the loose?

Then a new girl arrives at the school, Camille Meadows (Suki Waterhouse), and she’s given Kerrie’s room. Helina (Ella-Rae Smith) was Kerrie’s friend, so she befriends Camille while the school’s mean girls led by Alice (Inanna Sarkis) bully her. Before you know it, the girls are disappearing one by one and they have to discover whether the ghost is for real or there’s a killer stalking them. I’ll leave it at that as there are several brilliant twists in store for audiences.

This is Simon Barret’s first crack at directing, and hopefully not his last. It’s an extremely self-assured and polished debut. The film creates an effectively creepy mood, while subtly weaving humor beneath the proceedings, and including plenty of sly nods to the combined subgenres of slasher/murder mystery/giallo without skipping a beat. The score manages to be eerie, tense and melodic all at once. The acting is spot-on. Inanna Sarkis imbues her mean girl character with humanity, as do all the actors in her clique. Horror fans will be glad to see some Channel Zero alum filling out the cast: Megan Best as Kerrie, Seamus Patterson as Trevor, the school handyman and son of the stern headmaster played by Marina Stephenson Kerr. But Suki Waterhouse in particular shines in a role that may very well be the badass final girl to end all final girls.

Without spoiling anything, this takes the genre in a new and clever direction while synthesizing classic tropes in a fresh and satisfying way. We already knew Barrett was a great writer, but now he’s a filmmaker to watch. This will absolutely be the first post-pandemic movie I see in theaters while I wait with bated breath to see what Barrett does next.

J. Full disclosure…I love Simon Barrett. He’s been a favorite writer of mine for the past decade or more so to say I was excited for his directorial debut doesn’t quite get at my enthusiasm and Seance delivers for sure. The film was homage-y in plot and music to be sure and I loved that about it. I got a serious The Woods vibe and if you know Lucky McKee’s vastly underrated film you’ll pick up on it immediately. There’s definitely some Suspiria stuff going on too. Seance is it’s own thing though and there’s another mega hit that it homages also but you’ll have to see it to know what I’m talking about. In typical Simon fashion, there’s a thing going on that’s not really going on and then the rug gets pulled out from under you. I’m not even a fan of “haunting” or “ghost” films but this was extremely well made and surprising as well. The one thing I’ll bitch about was the characters were pretty much death fodder minus the two leads but ultimately it didn’t really matter. Suki Waterhouse’s performance was…off to me. Might’ve been intentional, especially after a rewatch. I never knew any character names but I also didn’t really care that much. They were assholes anyway and deserved what they got. I also wished the death scenes were more graphic as 90% of everything was off screen until the end. Like a lot of 70’s giallo and slashers before it, that's par for the course. I can’t wait for Simon’s follow up and I’ll be pissed if he isn’t given free reign to do whatever he wants from here on out.

Response

J. This was a terrific debut film from a terrific filmmaker and it wasn’t a Marvel or MCU or franchise film! It was something original! Hallelujah! My hope is that Simon will get more opportunities for smaller scale stuff like this although someone give him a little more money dammitt! I know he’s going back to his Adam Wingard collaboration for a little while but that motherfucker just made Legendary a shitload of cash with his Bongzilla vs. Dong film.

K. I’m going to go ahead and compare Seance to Scream, not in terms of content or a meta-approach, but because it will likely reinvigorate the genre and inspire countless ripoffs. So, I loved the film and I can’t wait to see what Barrett does next as a writer/director.

Bloodhound’s average score: 6 out of 5

Bloodhound Pix is made up of: Craig Draheim, Josh Lee, and Kyle Hintz