Disclaimer: I’m a blind film critic. They knew.

If I could give advice to all indies looking for coverage, get your requests in before November. Once the final two months of the year hit, giving these little indies that can some coverage gets increasingly harder as studios want you to consider everything they’ve ever done. I did commit to seance, but for every Seance, there are five other films I just don’t have time for.I’m actually rather happy with my choice, since seance was pretty great.

we throw the word Hitchcockian around a bit much, but there’s certainly a feeling of that here, or perhaps some good old fashioned Poe as we work through the plot. Vivian Kerr reached out to me, and she’s pulling triple duty here as writer, director, and one of the four stars. She has smartly crafted an isolated, if not claustrophobic suspense set in a Victorian manor, which feels totally achievable on an indie budget without suffering at all. the nuance is in the script, and the give and take between the characters. We have two couples, one who lives there, and another just visiting. There are some ties, and reasons why people are there, but buried right smack dab in the middle is this seance. Some directors would use the seance to go off the rails and turn the film into a bloody mess, but that is not what this film is about.

Early on, we learn that the family living in the house has experienced a recent loss, and the wife believes she’s being haunted by the ghost of her daughter. In an effort to appease her, her husband placates her with this seance, something her guests seem willing to do. From there, the mystery begins to unfold. And, this is spoiler free… as much as possible. the twists are what make the game worth playing, after all.

i only recognized one of the four actors, Connor Paolo, who was on Gossip Girl and revenge. He’s the least necessary of the four, and his character arc is bizarre. he’s saddled with having this new wife, who is suggested to be older than him, and they haven’t really pursued a life in the bedroom, if you get my meaning. That’s his whole thing, and you’d think there’s some great big mystery behind his lack of desire for sex, but there really isn’t. It truly just feels like they needed this couple to have something of their own, and by showing this motherhood parallel, with one woman wanting a child, and the other having lost one, I guess that is the payoff? I do question if we couldn’t have gotten there with a less silly comment on how they keep trying, but it just hasn’t happened yet. The question of fertility.

Also, admittedly the film is called Seance, but it is brought up perhaps a lot sooner than I would have written. we’re still getting to know these characters. It’s bold to ask strangers to join you on a seance when you really are also still getting to know them.

As the film is dialogue driven, I really didn’t feel like I missed much. there is a bit of a scuffle in the final act, which was really the biggest scene I would have wanted described. But by no means did that reshape the film. It is essentially a one location film set in a limited time frame. You’d get a description of the characters, who likely wear the same outfit the whole time, as well as the house. Sometimes, we miss a lot with the lack of description, other times not so much.

I don’t know what the future has in store for Seance, or Vivian Kerr. it is a solid film, but I feel like its distribution chances are low, meaning it will rely on word of mouth. Kerr, if not given more money to do larger projects, seems to understand the right balance to make a low budget film feel full, without sacrificing anything.

No table tipping necessary,Seance is a well crafted gothic suspense that would make Edgar Allen Poe take note.

Fresh: Final Grade: 7.7/10