Movie Review: Seance

 
 
Simon Barrett takes us to haunted boarding school in his new horror film Seance. As usual with horror movies, there are only three ways it can go, bad, meh, and awesome. Luckily, I can now tell you that Seance is the latter of the three.
 
First off, Seance doesn’t waste any time getting right into the spooky stuff, with a group of girls staring into the bathroom mirror, calling on the legendary school ghost, after learning it’s a prank all hell breaks loose and one girl is dead. When the new girl shows up, played by Suki Waterhouse (The Bad Batch, Assassination Nation), everything begins to unravel as the girls continue turning up dead. The question is, is it or ghost killing off the girls or is it something/someone more alive? Don’t worry, I’m not going to spoil it for you. I wouldn’t do that to you. Seance is a movie you’re actually going to want to watch for yourself.
 
So often we see actors playing teenage characters when they are obviously not. There’s nothing like seeing a teen with crow’s feet and smile lines [laughter]. I’m grateful the cast actually looks the right age.
 
The cast of Seance is both believable and talented. Suki Waterhouse did an amazing job of coming across as stand-offish, scared, and vulnerable while being tough as nails. The rest of the ladies – Madisen Beaty, Ella-Rae Smith, Inanna Sarkis, and Marina Stephenson-Kerr – did great as well. Let’s not forget Seamus Patterson, he was great in his part as the shy groundskeeper.
 
Barrett not only wrote a great screenplay he also made a great movie that’s clever, fantastically shot, well-timed, and spooky in all the right places. He even found a way to make us feel sympathetic towards the mean girls who we’d usually be happy to see killed.
 
It’s filled with twists, surprises, and mystery. It lays out a complex, but easily followed story with a finale you won’t expect. While I would recommend it to any horror fan, I do think it will speak to the 16-25 crowd the most.
 
I have to say, I really enjoyed Seance.  You should check it out for yourself, it opens in theaters on May 21, 2021, followed by a Shudder release later this year.