Written and Directed by Simon Barrett
Starring Suki Waterhouse, Madisen Beaty, Inanna Sarkis |
Rated R for bloody horror violence, language and some drug use
Runtime: 1 hour 32 minutes
Streaming on Shudder May 21

by Victoria Potenza, Staff Writer

While the initial title and even some of the posters for Seance had all of the trappings of another basic teenage haunting film, this is a perfect example of not judging the book by its cover. Director Simon Barrett crafts an intriguing, fun, and occasionally creepy tale of school hauntings and caddy teenagers. 

Camille is a new student at the prestigious Fairfield Academy. She is immediately sucked into the drama and potential haunting of the school because the room she is staying in belongs to a girl who supposedly killed herself not too long ago. She finds out that the student died while she and her friends were trying to contact the “Fairfield Ghost” who supposedly haunts the school. Now Camille must deal with a potential haunting and even worse, the mean clique of girls who like to summon ghosts. As the body count begins to rise, no one knows who or what is killing the students and everyone becomes a suspect. 

With the popularity of films like the Ouija series it is no surprise that an indie horror fan like Simon Barrett would want to take his spin on this kind of story. If you are familiar with Barrett, who wrote Adam Wingard directed films like You’re Next and The Guest, you will find that his big directorial debut does not stray far from the genre-mixing fun of his other work. While the film has all of the trappings of a typical teen ghost story, Barrett mixes many horror elements, making this part thriller, part ghost story, part who-dun-it. Ultimately nothing is as it seems in Seance making for a pretty fun ride. So if you have felt uninterested or tired of some of these studio horror tropes just know that Simon Barrett is prepared to give you a unique viewing experience. 

Suki Waterhouse really stands out in her performance as new girl Camille. Camille is a badass teenager who is not afraid to get in a fight. Truly she seems like the high school version of Erin, the final girl in You’re Next. Seeing another woman get a chance to play the protagonist who is resourceful and unafraid to get her hands dirty is one of my favorite aspects of Barrett films. While it still seems like these roles are designated for male protagonists it is always a breath of fresh air to see a young woman get to really chew on a role and play a true action star. 

The film is also peppered with social commentary like the issues with these prestigious female boarding schools which still have the veil of a finishing school. It is clear that the majority of the student body is affluent and has nothing better to do than mess around, get into trouble, and perhaps summon the undead. It also pokes fun at the trivial things that teachers made us all believe was so important back in our grade school days. It also invokes the memories of slumber parties in grade school as the “Fairfield Ghost” is summoned in a similar fashion to the way we tried to summon “Bloody Mary” back in the day. While most of us probably grew out of this before high school, it does perhaps say something about the stunted and sheltered nature of these expensive boarding schools. 

He gives us a diverse cast of women most of whom were new to me, and did a great job. Ella-Rae Smith as Helina is one of the only truly gentle and kind characters in the film which makes her stand out all the more amongst the backstabbing and conniving ladies in her class. Most of the cast seems to know exactly what kind of movie this is and deliver great performances. Since it seems most of the characters have something to hide it gives the cast a lot of fun moments to have in their performances.

And of course how could I not mention the amazing score. If there is one thing I expect from Barrett/Wingard productions it is a synthy moody score and this film did not disappoint. The music comes from the artist Sicker Man who provides an atmospheric synthwave score for this thriller. The film looks great which makes sense considering the cinematographer is Karim Hussain who also did films like Possessor, We are Still Here, and Hobo with a Shotgun. This man clearly knows how to shoot some great genre films and feels like the perfect person to work on this one. 

While the film feels more moody than scary overall, there were several moments that thoroughly creeped me out. I love being scared and this film gave me a few moments that make me tip my hat to the director. The school acts as a perfect set piece for creepy things to happen including dark libraries, musty archives, and a soft lit theater full of scary mannequins. It also has plenty of twists and turns and does a great job of making the viewer question every character's motives. It is hard to not give too much away but it is a film one should go into a little blind. While I could see this film not working for everyone I thought it was truly enjoyable. If you like all girls boarding schools, urban legends, and interesting female characters you might want to give Seance a watch.