Director: Rob Savage
Starring: Haley Bishop, Jemma Moore
Running Time: 56 minutes
Synopsis: The setting is London during the Covid-19 lockdowns. As a fun activity, a group of six friends (each sequestered in their own apartment) including Haley (Haley Bishop) and Jemma (Jemma Moore) join an on-line Zoom call for a virtual séance. Medium Seylan beckons the spirits, but after Jemma disrespects the process, very bad things start to happen to everyone on the call.
What Works Well: This low-budget but highly innovative screenlife horror experience was conceived and filmed during the pandemic, and perfectly captures the isolation, anxious excitement, and radically rewired social norms that quickly emerged in a shut-down world only connected on Zoom. When evil invades, the mostly unknown cast members deliver natural reactions, leveraging the characters' loneliness to enhance the threat level. The unapologetically short running time ensures no wasted content and adds punch to the mounting suspense.
What Does Not Work As Well: The premise only works with some contrivances, like everyone carrying their laptops around whenever they investigate the latest bump. A lot of time is spent with jerky camera movements investigating "what's behind the door" and "what's in the dark room" as a set-up to the next jump scare. The run time expediency ensures character depth and narrative explanations remain at the strictly superficial level.
Key Quote:
Seylan: So because we're doing this over Zoom, what it does mean is that we're slightly less protected than we might've been, so it's very important that you respect the spirits, and you respect each other.
All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.
No comments:
Post a Comment
We welcome reader comments about this post.