SEANCE Review – Stylish Horror Mystery Has Plenty of School Spirit
Drew Tinnin
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SEANCE Directed by Simon Barrett
Written by Simon Barrett
Starring Suki Waterhouse, Ella-Rae Smith, Madisen Beaty, Seamus Patterson
Stepping out of the world he and cohort Adam Wingard helped craft over the last decade with films like You’re Next and The Guest, writer Simon Barrett makes the leap into the director’s chair with Seance. Keeping the visual footprint and needle drop tracklist from those earlier films, this story about boarding school elites communing with the dead feels like it resides in a parallel universe alongside the horror new wave Wingard and Barrett helped create. In short, It’s a sister film about sisterhood.
One of the young women at Edelvine Academy for Girls just happens to be a ghost. When the enigmatic Camille Meadows (Suki Waterhouse) takes the place of a recently deceased student after a fatal prank gone wrong, the mean girls who rule the school don’t exactly welcome her with open arms. Becoming fast friends with a shy outcast named Helina (Ella-Rae Smith), Camille doesn’t back down for a second when Alice (Inanna Sarkis), the leader of the pack, bears down on her in study hall. Earning a little unspoken respect, the group invites Camille to a late-night ritual in hopes of communing with their dead peer to find out how…or why…she died.
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Set up more like an atmospheric slasher, the central mystery stays at the back of the class. There are potential motives and untruths introduced like a coveted college scholarship essay contest and Camille’s non-existent dance skills when she’s supposed to be a prima ballerina. These details throw the group off the scent of the real killer and the talking board roundtables are a little bit of a misdirect. Someone is definitely hiding something but everyone is looking down the wrong dark hallway. Embracing the theatrical, there is a Melpomene masked killer slinking around but is it a phantom or flesh and blood? That’s where the real fun starts. Seance has a mystery at its heart; it’s just not the one the students are desperate to solve.
In an early classroom scene, Camille is chastised for not knowing the 17th century performer Margaret Hughes was the first female actress to ever appear on stage. Time is taken to teach us this fact, yet the murderer really isn’t much of a thespian. The kills are not excessive or exaggerated in any way. Almost like an afterthought, quick stabs feel like inserts that quickly dispense of the background players. What’s probably a sign of a quick shooting schedule, Barrett doesn’t allow for any lingering setups or tension building. Designing more thoughtful set pieces around the murders might have helped the pace around the middle. But the third act looms. Seance can’t wait to get to the end. And it’s worth the wait.
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Through deft edits, whiplash hits and bloody bursts, the supercharged finale is undeniably crowd pleasing (even if you’re not quite ready to cheer inside an actual theater). The most ardent of horror fans will not be disappointed by the ending of Seance.
Barrett’s love of murder mysteries and anime shine through during some of the detective novel twists and heightened emotional beats. His dry humor suits Suki Waterhouse’s hard stare perfectly. Barrett’s sensibilities are there, but the true heartbeat of Seance lies in the bratty ensemble coming together in unexpected ways to fight the unknown instead of each other. Putting aside their personal beefs and cutthroat competitiveness, they form their own click until the all-girl Mystery Gang comes down to one, final girl.
Find Seance In Theaters, On Demand and Digital on May 21, 2021.
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Seance
Summary
In a style driven murder mystery centered around a group of female students coming together to commune with the dead, Simon Barrett has crafted a sister film to movies like You’re Next that’s really about sisterhood.
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