[Film Review] Seance (2021)

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. 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.

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. 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. 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. 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.

Of course, there are many horror-come-thrillers set in girls’ schools; The Silenced, Cracks and Phenomena to name a few which took place specifically in boarding schools. Like those others, there is a strong sense of isolation in Seance, being trapped with whatever is out to get them; though that largely comes from the secluded locale, rather than any clever writing or cinematography. The overall tone of the film is similarly serious to those three mentioned, verging on melodrama; but here’s the first issue I need to raise: that humourless tone is great, but it feels contradictory to what the characters and dialogue lead one to expect. What I mean is that given a bunch of snarky “teenagers”, who prank each other, stay up past curfew smoking weed, and pay more attention to their hair than their class, a slightly cheesy tone with eighties-throwback vibes might have felt more fitting.

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. 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 music added a little pace here and there, but nothing quite gave Seance the spooky atmosphere it cried out for.

Seance was written and directed by Simon Barrett. 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. 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). 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.

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