Séance

My review title pretty much sums up the movie so if that's not your thing, you probably won't like it.

This was a very well done movie in pretty much all respects. The atmosphere was wonderful, the acting was okay, the story was decent and personally took me by complete surprise.

The thing is, this is not my kind of movie. I don't know if it's aimed at my demographic, honestly, but it's also called "Seance" and it's not really a ghost story, which is what the title and trailer make you think it is, and is what I wanted to watch. I mean, it sort of is, but not enough of one to be called "Seance."

Even though it wasn't really a ghost story, they did an excellent job making it look like one. I loved the spooky atmosphere. But the story and characters were infuriating to me. It's meant to be infuriating, the way Mean Girls is I guess, but I hate movies with bullies and clueless characters. The only reason I'm rating this a 5 and not lower is because I think it's unfair to rate it that low when I think a lot of people will like this - as long as they know what they're getting into. It is a horror story, but not one you'll expect from the title or trailer. For me, personally, this is a 4/10 because the story and characters were so unappealing to me. They didn't deliver what they advertised. I hate that. But the movie isn't a bad one. It's very well done.

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.

The only thing that made this watchable was Suki Waterhouse. It's an average teen mystery of the horror genre. I wasn't bored, it was a watchable time passer for a Sunday night. Held my attention. I did find some of it predictable, I predicted the reveal, maybe others won't. Was it scary? No. Was it intriguing? Yes.

If you like this type of thing and have nothing else to watch, stick it on as an okay time passer.