Séance Games: Metaxu

You know how it is, scrolling through Amazon Prime, looking for something to watch and most times you're really playing movie roulette. Will it be good, or meh? I saw SEANCE GAMES listed, a new horror movie starring Eric Roberts, and I thought, why not? Very glad I took the chance. A lot of these movies tend to be very claustrophobic, which is a reflection of budgetary constraints. This movie opens with great scope, and becomes a very refreshing take on the haunted house story, upgrading it with Internet and social media elements. Very interesting take and well acted by some young newcomers and of course, Eric Roberts brings class and sophistication to his role. A great feature film directorial debut from Tane' McClure, and I look forward to seeing future projects from her and the rest of the cast!

The very beginning drew me in - working through the final scene but without context. It caught me immediately, though there was some curious confusion. At first, I was bothered by the cheesiness and thought the acting was sub-par. However, as I watched it, I came to feel more like it was an intentional artistic direction (especially when you consider some of the actors). There are some bigger names along with new names, which makes this small cast a great mix. You can see the true acting skill towards the end, as all of the anger comes out. This movie watched like a stage play on film. And . . . You know what? I liked it!

I love horror movies. Willing to give a lot of movies beyond a chance and have watched quite the "bad" horror movie every now and then and I've just gone my way. Thought that wasn't my cup of tea, but I get why others would like it.

This one though... wow. I made a point to finish the movie to see if it had any redeeming qualities... it really didn't. Don't want to give spoilers and want to give people their own chance to view, but felt the need to review so it drops way lower than the 5.9/10 I saw the ratings at (and helped confirm it would at least be somewhat worthwhile to watch). It wasn't.

This is a 2024 supernatural horror flick, but it's as if I was watching a 20 yo episode of Dante's Cove, it's all SO out-dated, amateurish, silly and totally NON scary!! The whole (intended) supernatural part of the movie is filled with smoke, rattling doors, rolling eyes, badly faked gore, and an increasingly annoying, supposed to be suspenseful score. Among the ghosts that appear in the clouds of smoke are a lady with blown-up lips and a bad wig, a post 60's hippie mother with according lingo ("yeah man!"), and - scariest of all - Eric Roberts, earning one of his easiest pay checks ever, having 2 minutes screen time and 3 lines to say.

The story is nonsensical, something with two highly popular influencers competing for a million dollar prize, by starting a seance in a haunted house while their millions of followers are watching. The settings are unconvincing, the view on the house from the outside is as if it was cut from a magazine and stuck on cardboard.

The only thing just a little bit bearable were the scenes and dialogues that concerned the relational problems between the characters. In my humble opinion Andrew James Ferguson and especially Madison Taylor are seriously good actors, but totally wasted on this ill fated project. Avoid, I would strongly advise (and don't believe the several raving fake reviews!).

Participating in a viral challenge, a group of influencers arrive at a remote house in the middle of nowhere to undergo a special livestream challenge performing a specific seance, but when they release the spirit of a figure trapped inside must try to get out of the house alive.

This was a decent enough if somewhat flawed genre effort. Among the better features here is the impressive setup that plays quite nicely into modern influencer culture with how they get into the game and how it takes place. The arrival at the house and meeting up with the secondary group that's also attempting the same thing offers the kind of worthwhile starting point that's based quite nicely on how typical youth in this style start behaving. With a rather creepy, mold-covered house that has the traditional unused-for-years look and aesthetic that tends to play perfectly for the type of challenge being attempted here, it serves the film perfectly with the actual seance that takes place here as this sets the final half on a wild path once the group starts to succumb to the ghostly figures in the house. That's where the film works the best as the paranoia on display and wild revelations that come about during a series of brutal-by-comparison sequences give the film some positives. There are some big issues present that bring this one down overall. The biggest drawback with the film is the utterly uninteresting group of characters we're forced to follow as the typical means of modern youth and their actions are brought to full force here. The usual assortment of antics here involving the group being completely inconsiderate and only thinking of their followers despite what would be scenarios that demand more attention to their surroundings or sympathy for others is on display throughout here as the group spends the majority of the first half going through their follower numbers than anything more endearing which makes the group difficult to deal with. As well, once the film does finally get going and the bodies start dropping it's done without much in the way of thrilling sequences or intense confrontations so it's really hard to care at this point in the film where it's getting going. It's the main thing holding this one down among its other factors.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, and a clothed sex scene.