The Seance

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?

THE SÉANCE is a Gravitas Ventures production. And all that entails.

To ME, it entails two things. Firstly, as the Gravitas Ventures logo slithers off screen, I look for the ridges and troughs of the slug slime it leaves behind and secondly, I have to prepare myself to view a movie that is unconscionably execrable.

So imagine how shocked I was, shocked I say, when THE SÉANCE actually DIDN'T make me reflexively void my bowels. It was, and I gag as I say this, actually... kind of... good? Which in this case means not terrible.

Do remember that it was, after all, a Gravitas Ventures picture, and even though I actually enjoyed it, all of the boilerplate contract terms and conditions of a Gravitas Ventures abomination still apply. That is, bargain-basement production values, color balancing that makes you want to bathe, sound design where the soundtrack drowns out the dialogue, a single location set for the entire picture, and so on. Yep, it's all there.

And yet, though it astonishes me to admit it, the story was somewhat interesting and the acting didn't trigger retching. The two principles who were the only people on screen about 80% of the time, were actually, dare I say it, pretty good. The male lead even managed to be a little charming. He might go on to perform in real movies someday.

THE SÉANCE did go on one scene too long and ended with a clunk, but still, I actually would call it worth watching.

I'm viewing the whole experience as a Christmas miracle. But be careful, Gravitas Ventures putting out a decent picture could be a sign that Armageddon is upon us.

I watched this over the holidays and was drawn in at the beginning with the main séance which was done rather well. The two main characters had good dialog back and forth some of which was serious and some was on the lighter funnier side. I did find that there was a little more banter about the same hoax theory over and over which seemed to make one want to stop following until the next suspenseful scene happened but it was still good banter. I think that a little bit of editing could make the difference in how I felt trying to stay focused on the suspenseful aspect of the film. The ending was a little strange but maybe I just need to watch it again to make sure I was following along correctly and didn't miss something along the way which I probably did. So if you're looking for blood and guts horror this is not the film, but if you're looking for a good suspenseful story then here you go. Take 80 minutes out of you're day and let your mind take you back to the days when you and your friends would try and spook each other by playing tricks or maybe some of you weren't playing tricks.

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...

I am not a writer by any means and am proudly left-brained, but the guy who did this is a natural for crafting dialogue. Any horror fan knows it's nearly impossible to have a completely unique idea within the genre, so other elements are essential to keeping your interest, and the conversation between the two heroes is witty, fleshed out, and most importantly, realistic (except one part). Even the science behind the happenings sounds reasonable enough to a layman like me. While you will likely get annoyed with the constant naysaying from the gal, it's obviously necessary to the plot so you just have to accept that. The horror elements in particular are REALLY good at points as you build emotional connections with the reason for everything as opposed to the norm of "me demon, me bad." When a person is going towards an area they probably shouldn't, you really feel it and the eerie elements are well executed, especially with the main villain who looks like something to truly fear.

That being said, once the side character supernaturals are revealed, you can sense the low budget nature of it all and it would have served the film better to just NOT show anything, or keep it as out of focus shots, as the "Shakespeare in the Park" vibes you get from the spirits dampers things. Another small offset is when the heroes are immediately resigned to doom and just start joking about it all. While the lighthearted banter is the solid backbone of the story, it needed to keep the stakes high at the appropriate moment.

All in all though the acting was spot on, the dialogue beguiles you, and the horror elements will meet 100% of your daily-recommended allowance. I really hope the writer continues in this field, but to be honest he would knock a rom-com out of the ballpark...just don't cast Jimmy Fallon for that one!

Side note: It's really aggravating there was a teen horror flick with a similar name released in the same year, making this nearly impossible to find via search engine. I hope this gets entered into some festivals and gains noteriety.

(I rate movies based on expectations. You can't put Sharknado on the same scale as Jaws.)