SEANCE
(director/writer: Vivian Kerr; cinematographer: Johanna Coelho; editor: Toby Yates; music: Arturo Rodriguez, Holly Tatnall; cast: Scottie Thompson (Emma Strand), Connor Paolo (Albert Strand), Jilon VanOver (George Ford), Vivian Kerr (Lillian Ford); Runtime: 85; MPAA Rating: NR; producers: Marion Kerr, Vivian Kerr, Savannah Lindblad, Tuttle Makenna, Rachel Stander; A Season of Rain/Rue Dangeau; 2024)
“Engaging mystery story.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Vivian Kerr (“Scrap”) is the director/writer, co-star and one of the producers of this high concept, low-budget, period piece horror thriller, shot as a sophisticated Victorian-styled thriller. It has good production values (costumes and set designs), an intelligent and a gripping love story, a spooky seance, is wonderfully acted and beautifully shot by the French DP Johanna Coelho.
In 1892, the successful novelist Emma Strand (Scottie Thompson) is vacationing with her passive and insecure less successful artist second husband, Albert Strand (Connor Paolo), at the California seaside. By chance, she runs into her first husband George Ford (Jilon VanOver) and his mentally fragile second wife Lillian Ford (Vivian Kerr) at the beach.
During a sudden rainstorm, the Texas residing couple accept an invitation to spend the evening with George and Lillian in their isolated mansion and wait out the storm.
The visit stirs up both troubling and pleasant past memories for both Emma and George, who have been separated for seven years and still find they have an attraction for each other.
There’s also a possibility George’s house is haunted. Recently the couple’s young daughter Hazel drowned.
Lillian, an avid reader of books on spiritualism, convinces the guests to undergo a seance to contact her daughter in the other world. When things don’t go Lillian’s way, she becomes unhinged and attacks Emma for not befriending her. She also fears for her safety as her husband blames her for Hazel’s death.
One of my favorite ‘haunted house’ films was the Shirley Jackson story adapted for the 1963 “The Haunting,” a mesmerizing film directed by the great Robert Wise. It got its horror scares through the power of suggestion. “Seance” also gets its horror scares the same intelligent way–in a film that ponders married life as well as life’s ecstasies, disappointments and cruelties.
Vivian Kerr’s engaging mystery story does its psychological excavation in a creepy haunting atmosphere, leaving us with the disturbing message that “grief can make people uncomfortable.”
REVIEWED ON 10/23/2024 GRADE: B+
dennisschwartzreviews.com