Seance

A prank at the all-girls boarding school Fairfield Academy leads to the death of a student named Kerrie. The prank seems to have brought out a real supernatural spirit. The death is assumed to be a suicide. New student Camille Meadows (Suki Waterhouse) arrives to take over Kerrie's room. She gets into a fight with the clic of girls involved with the prank and they all get detention. While in detention, they decide to perform a seance to contact Kerrie.

It's all very average and middling starting with lead actress Suki Waterhouse. The story, the location, and the filmmaking are all middling. It's not actually scary although it's a little spooky. The twist is not shocking as much as it's a relief that it makes sense. The mystery is the same. I'm just glad that it's not completely stupid but the reveal is a long information dump.

Another one of those awful casting decisions. Grown woman, some in their late twenties (and looking so) playing spoilt preppy brats is once again quite laughable. Why directors believe the CV's stating 'playing age', is beyond normality, do they look at up to date head shots or actual age? Subsequently you spend most of the film questioning said decisions and wondering if any females in the mid-teens actually exist.

As for the film, well direction is fine, the story is ropey, going from idiot girls to Nancy Drew and almost Scooby-Doo in places, which would have been believable if teens were in the roles. Seasoned horror fans will guess the plot, deaths and reveals as nothing is actually new. The score is a consistent annoyance, going from 80's to 40's, to orchestra to synth etc, but you will watch and see worse nowadays.

However you still can't get past the terrible casting and dreadful acting, the ballet scene drives home just how bad it actually is.

No, just no! I'm sorry but as youthful as Suki Waterhouse looks, at almost 30 years of age (she'll be 30 on Jan 5), she is NOT a credible teenager. Come on! We forgave 'Grease' for casting 30 year old's as teenagers, and that was decades ago, surely the cast directors/producers could have cast someone in their late teens or early 20's, there's so many talented English actors that would have been so much better suited for this role!!!

Not bad for a slasher but the ending was kind of meh or typical. As a film set on a boarding school for girls, it looked severely understaffed, using very limited location & small set of characters. I think it mostly for their budgetary limitations but it looked quite odd at times.

A new student at a posh boarding school moves into the room of a student who died under mysterious circumstances and starts to feel like her spirit is haunting her and that her killer might still be out there.

Seance has the atmosphere down pat, but it's filled with an assortment of uninteresting and unrelatable characters who either grate on the nerves or who are so dull they blend into their surroundings. The suspense scenes aren't handled with much care either and they never surprise, shock, or keep the audience on the edge of their seats. There's an attempt and livening up the film during the finale, but it's too little too late by that point.