ReviewSeance movie review: boarding school slasher starring Suki Waterhouse offers a stylish rehash of classic horrors
- Seance takes elements of old school low-budget films, but leaves the jump scares behind
- British actress Suki Waterhouse plays a tough ‘scream queen’, who’s not afraid to throw a punch
3/5 stars
Low-budget horror films used to be scary but shoddy looking affairs, but the past 10 years has seen the reverse come true – the films look great, but there’s nothing in them to make you jump out of your seat. That’s certainly true of Seance, the directorial debut of horror screenwriter Simon Barrett.
It’s a nicely shot, well-acted movie, which makes stylish use of its location, a sprawling boarding school in wintry Winnipeg in Canada. But Barrett’s cool and measured directorial approach – qualities which suggest he could have a solid career as a director ahead of him – means that there are no shocks of note.
Seance does compensate for its lack of frights in other ways, and it’s evident that Barrett worked hard on the script to make the story stand out from the usual low-budget horror schlock. Although it starts as a typical haunted high school flick, it uses elements of gore films, slasher movies, and straightforward suspense to brighten up the storyline, and even throws in a bit of quiet lesbianism – a staple of 1970s horrors – to add an extra twist.
Horror buffs will not be too disappointed, especially as it’s impossible to guess the ending, even though vague clues are splashed liberally throughout.