SEANCE starring Suki Waterhouse, Inanna Sarkis | Directed by Simon Barrett – May 21st Release!

RLJE Films and Shudder will release the horror SEANCE In Theaters, On Demand and Digital on May 21, 2021.

SEANCE stars Suki Waterhouse (Assassination Nation, The Divergent Series: Insurgent), Madisen Beaty (Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), Ella-Rae Smith (“Into the Badlands”, Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw), Inanna Sarkis (Boo 2! A Madea Halloween, After franchise),  Seamus Patterson (“Channel Zero”) and Marina Stephenson-Kerr (“Channel Zero”).

Known for writing some of the most revered horror films over the past decade, Simon Barrett (You’re Next, The Guest) wrote the screenplay and makes his feature directorial debut with SEANCE.

SYNOPSIS:

Camille Meadows is the new girl at the prestigious Edelvine Academy for Girls. Soon after her arrival, six girls invite her to join them in a late-night ritual, calling forth the spirit of a dead former student who reportedly haunts their halls. But before morning, one of the girls is dead, leaving the others wondering what they may have awakened.

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT: 

The best horror movies are, at their core, mysteries. There’s always an element of the unknown, or the unknowable, at the center of the narrative, with the characters providing the audience with a tool to scrape away at its surface, ideally dreading what they may find beneath.

Many classic horror films embrace this directly. Slashers like the original Black Christmas, The House on Sorority Row or Scream, or beloved giallos such as Deep Red, The Black Belly of the Tarantula and Blood and Black Lace deliver variations on traditional murder mysteries while lacing them with scares. Additionally, these films were modern and relevant, providing audiences with catharsis for the cultural anxieties of their times.

I have long wanted to make my own variation of this horror-mystery narrative, but with the added goal of weaving in supernatural elements, as ghost stories tend to be murder mysteries as well. This thought process led me to write Seance, a film that I hope pays effective homage to the teen slasher mysteries of my youth, while at the same time being its own unique thing.

As horror cinema is often susceptible to waves of faddish subgenres, to which I myself have unabashedly contributed, people sometimes ask me what I predict the next trend in horror will be. I think trends are born when creators give horror viewers what they’ve always wanted: fun, original, relevant films that genuinely surprise and unsettle. My goal with Seance is to create a horror film that contains elements of comedy, romance, intrigue and action, one that hopefully makes viewers want to watch it again, just like I did with the films that inspired it.

Thank you for viewing Seance, and I hope you enjoy it.