Séance

(2006) Séance HORROR

Written and directed by Mark L. Smith directing a straight to rental but interesting idea about blond teenage girl, Lauren (Kandis Erickson) who decides not to visit her folks for the long holidays, decides to seance (waking up ghosts) with her friends in the student dorm instead, for the purpose of getting rid of a repeated dream of a little girl whose always haunting this particular person, we don't know how or why this little girl is haunting her. Upon the seance, also brought to life in ghost form, the person who killed the little girl, who eventually set out to kill remaining people still hanging around in the building! There's some interesting stuff said about myths about ghosts, but with higher production values this film could've been decent.

Staying in their dorm over a weekend break, a group of students find that a ghostly girl haunting the area is only the start of their troubles when they inadvertently release a ghostly killer into the building.

This was quite an enjoyable if somewhat flawed effort that gets held down somewhat. One of the biggest issues with this one is the fact that there's never any real indication given that the killer is all that scary, as he's quite lame-looking and never does anything that can really be called creepy. The only remotely chilling option here is the flickering ability generated when he appears and disappears, yet none of those scenes are competently pulled off to make the scenes worthwhile, and when the killer here is completely non-scary it doesn't bode well for the film as a whole since the central figure required to generate the scares in your chilling film doesn't meet those standards. That also ties in with the film being so slow-paced and generally unwilling to really showcase the killer which leaves this one to spend a large portion of time not really doing much of anything. We get a particularly long period of time between the titular event and the first appearance of the killer to them, which makes this one feel like an eternity before it gets good. The good stuff does come here in the final half when the gang finally learns the truth about what they're up against and how to finally stop it which soon devolves into a series of chases, confrontations and body-hopping which is all sorts of fun as the action is pretty enjoyable and the kills are pretty bloody. The other effort that really helps this one out is the rather clever ideology this one has regarding the paranormal nature of what goes on here. The central idea to use a séance to contact the individual around them is all quite fine, but then to go around and introduce the idea of using the Quija board and how erroneous their thinking was in using it is the best since they eventually learn how wrong they were and how it impacts the resulting massacre throughout here. That's one of the best qualities here and really helps this one out from it's flaws.

Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, Brief Nudity, drug use and themes of child abuse.

This was one of the worst movies I've seen in a long time. Aside from the technicality of the use of the word Seance to give a "point" to the movie, the rest of it was utter bull. From the way the actors "acted" to the more than lack luster (or is it less than lack lu.. nevermind) stage design, this movie had awful written all over it. A review? This movie isn't even worthy of such. This is more of a warning than anything else. You may enjoy this if you like cheap laughs and a few jumps (and that's only if you have a weak heart), but aside from that this really isn't worth it.

The only reason I gave 2/10 is that I wanted to be "nice".

...because I was tempted to switch over when this was on my TV.

From the opening credits I was convinced this was a made-for-TV movie from the US. For a good 45 minutes in, it wouldn't have been out of place on Nick at Night. It has the look and feel of something filmed in one studio over the course of about 3 days.

The actors are serviceable, but nothing outstanding. The production design can barely be commented on other than "rooms and corridors". Special effects and any kind of gore appear for about 5 seconds and aren't very effective. I laughed when they probably intended me to go "Ew!" It was only when we saw a nipple and someone said 'F***' that I realised this may not be made for TV (HBO or Showtime wouldn't let something this cruddy be made). Something extremely rare happened - I actually fast-forwarded through some parts. Pointless dialogue mainly.

I don't think I've given such a low rating to a film on here yet, but this only gets a 2/10. I couldn't wait for it to be over.

During holiday break, girls in an empty dorm building hold a seance to contact the ghost of a little girl that haunts their room. Unfortunately, they also bring back a murderer who lived in the building, too.

For the most part you can forget any comments about this movie being creepy. (Reviews from someone involved in the production?)

It has a few lackluster moments, and it tries, but ultimately fails. Mostly because scenes that are supposed to be set in the dark seem to have as much ambient light as your average daytime soap opera. And the slow fade effects of the ghosts are more cheesy than spooky.

The actors playing the students all are very good, with A. J. Lamas a notable standout. Kandis Erickson is also a more than capable lead. Bridget Shergalis is a good silent ghost. Unfortunately the ghostly whistling maintenance man killer is about as scary as a carton of oatmeal. (i.e. not at all scary. Maybe partly due to the overstrong lighting and sometimes laughable fade effects.)

This film could have been so much more if only better choices had been made in respect to lighting and special effects.