Seance
In 1892 California, a woman contemplating adultery is forced to take refuge from a storm at the home of her first husband and his unstable wife, who claims to be haunted by their dead child.
Excerpt
A mark of a great film vs. a good film can be whether or not the people in your film are characters or caricatures. There are some roles where period pieces are played with tongue firmly in cheek. Each actor truly put in the work from sentence structure and cadence to understanding the relationship dynamics of the day. Kerr sought out to deliver a thriller and she worked hard to that goal and I think she succeeded.
Patriarchy is Projecting
There’s a quote that says, “Patriarchy is projecting” and it’s the perfect description of Vivian Kerr’s Seance. The idea of men experiencing some facet of life that doesn’t fit into the hyper masculine boxes they’ve designed for themselves, so they blame women – specifically the influence of women – while eschewing any responsibility. It’s wildly interesting to me the horrors that have been lain on the backs of women to absorb and endure. There are long held myths about witches who lived in the woods in hemlock covered cottages, brewing demonic potions meant to bring malady to the general public. Come to find out, it was just lovely ladies running apothecaries trying to care for their loved ones. Is a witch truly the devil’s mistress or is she just an enthusiastic gardener?
Are women dramatic and emotional or are men dismissing anger, shame and insecurity as emotions? Are women obsessed by a biological clock or are men terrified that their ability to sire children will disintegrate over time? These aren’t necessarily new questions, but women are finally finding congress in being able to speak them openly without threat of retaliation. In Seance we open with a young couple, the striking Emma (Scottie Thompson) and the never aging Albert (Connor Paolo). They’re lounging on a beach when they are greeted by another young couple, the handsome and poised George (Jilon VanOver) and the lovely but slightly frazzled Lillian (Vivian Kerr).
George and Emma are ex-spouses who have been estranged for nearly 7 years. A chance encounter on the beach followed by a desperate invitation to dinner, thrusts the 4 into an isolated, claustrophobic thriller filled with death, betrayal and quite possibly, the supernatural. Seemingly with Lillian and Albert as collateral damage. We learn that Albert and Emma’s relationship was already in disarray. The newlywed couple of 6 months had yet to consummate their wedding bed and it has awakened a sense of insecurity in Emma – a self professed modern woman.
Albert is an adoring, struggling artist that lives for the happiness of Emma, but Emma has erected walls in the wake of their relationship. She finds Albert to be passive and weak whereas George was assertive, strong and demanding. Emma and George broke up because George didn’t take Emma’s need to write seriously. She left him and published a very successful novel that she’s proud of, but she’s not fulfilled.
On George and Lillian’s side, they have recently (only 8 months) lost their daughter Hazel in a drowning accident near the ocean. Their relationship hasn’t been the same since with Lillian wracked with guilt and George trying to hold everything together. Both have their limits and we learn that George and Emma are planning to leave their partners so they can be together. During dinner the topic of spiritualists and communing with the dead comes up and Lillian reveals she can feel Hazel is nearby and hasn’t moved on yet. She suggests a seance to understand what message Hazel is trying to send her so she can pass on to the next stage.
Albert is sympathetic, George seems reluctant, but Emma – though initially resistant – seems intrigued. There’s a part of her that doesn’t want to like Lillian so she doesn’t feel guilty for what she’s about to take, but she also has a soft spot for the young, broken woman. They agree to the seance and after a collection of unexplainable occurrences, they stop and decide to retire for the night. Emma and Albert are encouraged to stay due to the torrential downpour outside even though their hotel is just a couple of miles away. Albert asks for an umbrella, willing to brave it, but Emma insists they stay. Albert is set up in the study and Emma is taken to Hazel’s old room which is still filled with vintage dolls including one with a wind-up that says “Mama” repeatedly in a haunting and distorted tone.
A Call to the Beyond
This is when the film really kicks in as secrets are shared, intentions are revealed and presences are felt in ways that will forever change the quartet. Seance is an impeccably written and adeptly directed thriller that asks the viewer to redefine its view of the hysterical woman. I wondered briefly why the film was set in this particular time period and my theory has to do with that sweet spot during the rise of female authors in the late 1800’s especially. Emma comments that while Mark Twain and Charles Dickens are the celebrated authors of the day, she’s never met a woman anything like the ones they write. In a bid for authenticity, Emma wrote her own novel and it was well received.
In the time before the suffrage movement, here was a woman living in a world that was rapidly changing and evolving, promising new hope for her life. However, Emmas was still raised in an environment that considered her subservient and those lessons are hard to lose. She complains to Albert that she can’t be both the man and the woman in their relationship when he displays reluctance (or indifference) to making decisions. For them it’s a valid complaint, though one that could easily be made without weaponizing his manhood. But it begs the speculation – in a world where men have created these rigid boxes of behavior for themselves, and then placed those boxes on the backs of pedestalized women, is it so difficult to understand when that box topples?
On its face it looks like Emma is almost hypocritical – demanding “manliness” from her soft-spoken and sensitive husband. But her desires are rooted in decades of cognitive dissonance. Women are taught that men are the goal, to crave them, to obsess over them, to love them, marry them and then give them children. So even a woman who is considerate of her independence and life’s mission outside of procreation will have some slip-ups. Especially when met with the stress of redoing her past. She left George initially because he wasn’t supportive of her goals and dreams. She fell again for someone the complete opposite and George fell in love with someone he claimed to have what he wanted.
George’s obsession reads as aggression and Emma’s uncertainty reads as cowardice. One is a product of her time and the other is from a bygone era and it’s what makes them perfect and terrible for each other. Thompson has eyes that portray soul in every scene. She gives me a less cooler headed Bertha Russell (Carrie Coon from The Gilded Age (2022)). There is an innate coldness, but it’s rounded out by a warmth shone in glimpses. She intimately understands Emma and her chemistry with VanOver harbors the exact right balance of desperation and longing.
Paolo and Kerr are not window dressing in the film, both delivering powerful performances of their own. Lillian’s poor raveled mask begins to unravel almost immediately, but Kerr allows the spool to empty slowly, in sync with the devastation happening around her. Paolo plays Albert with dedication and commitment. Admittedly, there’s not a lot for him to do, but Paolo never dials in his performance. He makes a meal of the morsel and the film is more dimensional because of it.
Ghost in the Machine
A mark of a great film vs. a good film can be whether or not the people in your film are characters or caricatures. There are some roles where period pieces are played with tongue firmly in cheek. Each actor truly put in the work from sentence structure and cadence to understanding the relationship dynamics of the day. Kerr sought out to deliver a thriller and she worked hard to that goal and I think she succeeded.
Due in part to her own skill and prowess and two other factors. The music and the cinematographer. The music is chosen with intention and plays to every heartstring depending on the scene. It can instill a sense of dread, or a sense of relief. I believe the Musical Director is Ryan Gottshall and he should be commended. Johanna Coelho did the Cinematography. You’ll know her work from shows like The Rookie (2018), and The Pitt (2025) and you’ll understand the power of what she’s able to do with the camera.
Though some electric lights existed during the time frame in the film, it’s implied that the house everyone is staying in is one that hasn’t been modernized. This means the dark and stormy night should appear to be illuminated by candlelight, roaring fires and the ambient moon. This is hard to do on its own, but when you add in spaces that need to be pitch black, but just show the silhouette of a figure, or a darkness that gives way to a bright warms, it gives the viewer an appreciation for the effort put in. Everything was crisp and clear and this matched along with the underwater moments made for beautiful shots that defied the film’s indie budget.
Overall, Seance is a strong offering from Kerr. The best horror films don’t just scare you, but they make you consider what else they have to say. And Seance isn’t done delivering its message.
Seance has a limited US Theatrical release starting Thursday, 10/2 and will be available on North American VOD Friday, 11/13.