The Seance

I liked a lot of "The Seance," but think it made a big miscalculation that hurt my connection to the film.

"The Seance" begins with Nate (Michael Minto" holding a séance. It's a good one -- lots of stuff happens, a family member of one the attendees appears to manifest himself. However, it turns out that one of the attendees is Andy (Miranda Skerman), who hosts a You Tube series where she debunks mediums, psychics, and the like. After all the other attendees leave, Andy sticks around and tries to figure out how Nate did everything, and get him to admit he's a fraud. But does he have a connection to the spirit world? Or is he perpetrating an elaborate hoax on not just his attendees, but Andy herself? These are the questions that will be explored over the course of the evening...

For a low budget film, it's a wonder. Great lighting, clear sound, and solid acting all around. Word of warning, there is a lot of talking and dialog. A lot. For the most part, though, I found it interesting and engaging, and I like that it plays its hand pretty close to the vest. At some point in the movie, what is going on appears to be clear but even so, there are little hints that maybe it's not what we think it is. I also like that we actually GET an answer to what's going on.

Where I think the movie makes a huge mistake is that when it gets to the most suspenseful part of the movie, what it's been building to, the tone of the movie all of a sudden shifts. The characters start making jokes and there is general goofiness. And it was jarring -- I'm thinking, "Hey, when did this become a comedy? Or was it always a comedy and nothing was funny until now?" Think The Three Stooges showing up all of a sudden during the climax of "Silence of the Lambs." So the suspense that was so carefully built was replaced with... goofiness. A very, very odd creative decision.

And what's even more confusing is that in the coda, it turns back to deadly serious at the end. If they had kept a consistent tone throughout the movie, it would have been more successful.

So I liked enough of it to mildly recommend it, but still...

..if you know what to expect. This is a comedy/dialogue driven drama/horror, like a stage play. Not as brilliant as "Sleuth", not as funny as Polansky's "Carnage", not scary or gory. Nevertheless, it is funny, enjoyable, some fresh ideas and the actors are really good. I wouldn't call it innovative or exciting, but this has a delightful plot, and as i said, if you know what to expect, you'll like it. 6.8/10.

A sceptic attends a seance, and won't leave the house until she finds the truth.

Some nice ideas in this movie, treating the seance scenario as more than a gimmick in an attempt to dig down into character. The camera work is good, always trying out the interesting angle, and the location is used to the full to shape the story. This is mostly a two-hander, with decent performances as the characters lay out their conflicting beliefs through flashbacks to their pasts. Sometimes the music is interesting, with a mix of piano, strings and synth, although it does get laid on heavy in some talking scenes.

The big drawback is the dialogue, with way too much piled on when we can figure things out for ourselves, and way too much sarcasm even after the opening scene has pitched its sceptical credentials. That scene might have been better if the direction just concentrated on the actors' faces as they reacted to events, instead of having them butt in all the time, which would have made the piano episode really hit home with just a few lines. The Tracey-Hepburn patter between the two main characters is kinda annoying, although they do settle into an interesting antagonism. But even then, the tone gets misjudged, especially in a scene that repeats the lame humour of the phrase "portable poltergeist panic-room," completely deflating the spooky events that preceded it.

The psychology turns out simple in the end, which is disappointing because it seemed to be building on the interesting idea of ghosts as people in wave, rather than particle, form, which could have mapped on to how we deal with each other emotionally. The resolution has the right idea, but goes on too long.

Overall: Plenty to chew on, but the writing watered it down.

Ps. What's with the roccata in the music credits?

Well written and acted, with nice sets and sound design. The special effects aren't great, but the chemistry between the actors is. The dialogue is engaging but does get a little too cutesy sometimes, hence the 7. Not scary, but dark, atmospheric, nicely crafted and well worth a watch IMO.

I really wanted to love this movie, I'm a big fan of supernatural themed horror so the story appealed to me. The acting from the two main characters is pretty good, some of the supporting cast not so much, but as they are not in the movie too long it doesn't distract from the enjoyment. Some of the things that did distracted from my enjoyment were this.

During some scenes, the background music (mournful cello of course) is often overwhelming and drowns out the dialogue. The female lead is quite an obnoxious character, and it becomes tiresome listening to her constant attempts at debunking, disbelief and general rudeness. And the ending was a bit of a damp squib.

The movie does have its good points though. The dialogue between the two leads in mostly snappy and they have some good chemistry. The story is interesting, if not overly original, or perfectly executed, but I'm guessing from some of the "special effects" it was not made with a blockbuster budget. Overall I did enjoy it, and it made me wanting to keep watching to the end. And I do like the phrase "Portable Poltergeist Panic Room" for its alliteration.