"Seance" a fine all-girls slasher with a supernatural red herring

Seance (2021)


Writer Simon Barrett has worked in the horror genre (and collaborated with director Adam Wingard) for more than a decade that it’s shocking he is just now making his solo directorial bow. Coming from he who penned “You’re Next” and “The Guest” (as well as directed the wraparound of “V/H/S/2”), Barrett's first writing-directing feature shouldn’t be anything less than cunning. An old-school slasher flick, set in an all-girls boarding school, with a supernatural red herring, “Seance” seeks to subvert expectations, mixing and matching subgenres, and eventually, it gets there. However, for most of the duration, the film occupies a tepid space with little personality given to its paper-thin characters. Otherwise, “Seance” saves most of its rewards for the back half.


At the reputable all-girls Edelvine Academy, the female students like to scare each other with the superstition that the spirit of a suicidal girl still haunts the halls. Bloody Mary or Candyman-style, the head mean girl, Alice (Inanna Sarkis), leads in the chant, “Edelvine Ghost, rise up to us!” in the mirror of the lavatory. Of course, the prank just leads to one of the girls, Kerrie (Megan Best), falling—or being pushed?—from her dorm window to her death. This apparent suicide leads to an opening at the school for stone-faced senior Camille Meadows (Suki Waterhouse) to be enrolled by the headmistress (Marina Stephenson) as classes are already well underway. Camille has her own motives but butts heads with Alice and her posse, including Bethany (Madisen Beaty), Yvonne (Stephanie Sy), and Rosalind (Djouliet Amara), but could there be a papier-mâché masked killer who wants this clique dead?


Influenced by 1983's "The House on Sorority Row," "Seance" seems to know it's trotting out slasher movie tropes, forcing these schoolgirls to practically put themselves in harm's way. As the title would suggest, the girls do conduct a seance—more than once—to communicate with their dead classmates, speaking Latin incantations and using a lipstick tube through a phone case as a planchette. This, of course, is all just a misdirect for our survivors more so than the audience, as we see someone knocking out a girl outside on the school grounds at night or making it look like another one just took a fatal slip in the shower. As soon as one of the girls says, “I need to go to practice,” following her friend's disappearance and the possible murder of another, we know her number is up.


Suki Waterhouse is certainly a pretty face with a fine handling of dry humor here, but she tends to be a blank presence. As Camille, the blankness is fitting when the character is set up to be a cagey cipher; she is the protagonist that we’re following, but there are amusing clues to Camille not being honest about who she is (Camille is more than capable of fighting back in the study lounge, throwing major punches at Alice like she’s been studying boxing rather than ballet). Former Viner and social media personality Inanna Sarkis has the most bitchy spark as the one-note Alice, but the most connection we get to any of the characters is maybe classmate and Kerrie’s friend Helina—played vulnerably by Ella-Rae Smith—who shows Camille around and then develops a close friendship with her. 


Simon Barrett showcases a striking visual eye, shooting one particular burst of violence on a theater stage in the theatrical style of an Italian giallo. The chilling electronic score by Sicker Man also cleverly mixes between being a score and being diegetic from Camille’s music player. On the whole, though, “Seance” lacks the same energy and wit of Barrett’s previous team efforts. Once the climactic whodunit is out of the way, a slight tonal switch from earnest to something more heightened makes for a fun diversion. When the killer notices a character trying to cut loose with a knife, it’s a savvy touch when he/she snaps with, “Do you think I didn’t see your shoulders moving? Come on, it’s amateur hour.” There’s quite a bit of “You’re Next” going on in here, particularly when a character reacts like a kick-ass survivalist with anything at their disposal. Death by filing cabinet, anyone? Paired with other indie genre debuts, like Tara Subkoff’s “#Horror” and Osgood Perkins’ “The Blackcoat’s Daughter,” “Seance” might make a fine triple bill.


Grade: B -


RLJE Films and Shudder are releasing “Seance” (93 min.) in theaters, on demand and digital on May 21, 2021.

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