"The Summoned" intrigues in setup but payoff lacks impact

The Summoned (2022)

A weekend self-help retreat should be productive and healing, right? In director Mark Meir’s feature debut “The Summoned,” it’s actually a scripted plan of deception to sacrifice someone for a Faustian bargain. This horror indie begins like “Get Out” involving a biracial couple taking a drive not to the white parents’ house but to a getaway. And, well, it continues to feel like Jordan Peele’s inimitable masterwork with a touch of “The Twilight Zone” and a lot of “Ready or Not.” 

Musician-turned-mechanic Elijah (J. Quinton Johnson) and singer girlfriend Lyn (Emma Fitzpatrick) are “summoned” by eccentric British guru Dr. Justus Frost (Frederick Stuart) to join him at The Staufen House for a mental health retreat. Conveniently, it’s in the middle of nowhere to, you know, confront their individual sins and work on their communication as a couple (Elijah wants to get married and start a family, and Lyn is less certain). The couple is also joined by two other guests: author/tech tycoon Joe (Salvador Chacon) and his ex-wife, actress Tara (Angela Gulner). All four are given their own rooms for solitude, and almost immediately, Elijah begins having bad dreams of being in an elevator, burying a body, and then actually being tempted by Tara. Are these nightmares random? Are Elijah and Lyn going to make it?

“The Summoned” sets an off-center mood from the opening frame, as a lifeless body is being dragged through sand. Director Meir tries out some gauzy, out-of-focus visual flourishes to literalize Elijah’s eventual disorientation, and some of it is sufficiently ominous. Much less effective are the bombastic musical stingers. Even Brian Satterwhite’s heavy-handed score sometimes feels misplaced to a distracting, overbearing degree.

The setup to Yuri Baranovsky’s screenplay is intriguing, until all of the pieces make way for a predictable morality tale with soapy dramatics and overcomplicated double-crosses. At the same time, the prickly banter between these four characters keeps things lively and darkly playful, and the performances are all solid. Broadway actor J. Quinton Johnson serves well as the pure-hearted Elijah, allowing us to invest enough in his survival (if not in his relationship with Lyn, at least in his own life). Seemingly modeling his performance (and a wispy mustache) after genre character actor Jeffrey Combs, Frederick Stuart gets the showiest role and seems to be having a ton of fun as the preening, mistrustful Dr. Frost. As the dangerously flirty Tara, Angela Gulner is the film’s wicked standout, especially when she gets blood on her hands (and face) and has a line about the “Fuck, Marry, Kill” game.

As a twisty single-location horror tale, “The Summoned” can only keep its cards so close to the vest for so long. There’s a conversation Elijah overhears, making a later revelation pretty obvious. There’s also a whole lot of silly lore for the cast to sell, and while they do a capable job, the film is much more effective in its stalk-and-slash simplicity with bloody-faced monologues and axe-wielder confrontations. “The Summoned” has enough going for it as a competently made genre offering with little means, but its execution of familiar devil-dealing ideas doesn't ultimately land with enough impact or bite as its brethren. 

Grade: C

XYZ Films is releasing “The Summoned” (86 min.) on VOD on July 7, 2022.