Perhaps he unconsciously stayed within a comfort zone for this debut, and if so, I really hope he can write something bold again for his next directorial effort. Those films were surprising in their content, and caught viewers off guard so it’s a real shame that this one is not original: the structure of its plot is almost the same as that of You’re Next (which had a significantly better pay-off too). Lights flicker and objects move without the involvement of a living soul. you do the math.' Student Lauren thinks that the ghost of a little girl haunts her room. His name may be familiar as the writer of some notable films, such as Blair Witch, The Guest and – a favourite of mine – You’re Next, though this is the first feature film he has directed. Sance plot '5 college kids, one ghostly killer. Seance was written and directed by Simon Barrett. The music added a little pace here and there, but nothing quite gave Seance the spooky atmosphere it cried out for. Cinematographer Karim Hussain is precise and effective, though not as striking as his work I’d admired in a couple of favourites from recent years, Possessor and Parallel. The production of Seance is lovely, making good use of the expansive building (though I would have liked to have seen some secret passages) and its grounds. The head of the academy, Mrs Landry (Marina Stephenson-Kerr, Todd and the Book of Pure Evil), has a little more nuance to portray, walking an uneasy line between discipline and sympathy. The new girl is Camille (Suki Waterhouse, who couldn’t have been more different to her role in The Bad Batch) and the high-school clique she joins includes Bethany (Madisen Beaty, Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood), Alice (Inanna Sarkis, After We Collided), with Helina (Ella-Rae Smith, Into the Badlands) who acts as Camille’s buddy into the established school year. This cast could easily have been transported to Heathers or Picnic at Hanging Rock in some other decade, and they play the young student archetypes of Seance with ease. These are all neatly groomed and thoroughly made up women (not teenagers by a long way) somewhat sweary and reasonably bitchy, but not too much of either, demonstrating that they come from well-to-do families. When a new student arrives to fill the vacancy, she finds herself included in a séance to contact the departed girl, and caught up in a mystery as more deaths follow. A clique of young women in the prestigious Edelvine Academy recite the words to conjure the resident ghost, and shortly after, one of their number falls to her death.
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