‘Séance’: Simon Barrett’s Directorial Debut Fails To Summon Up Anything With Life [Review]
Having already written many thrilling, contemporary indie horror hits, when inventive screenwriter Simon Barrett (“You’re Next,” “The Guest,” “V/H/S”) announced he was making his feature-length directorial debut with the all-girls prep school horror, “Séance”—about high school cliques, late-night rituals, pranks and calling dead spirits— one assumed the filmmaker could channel something exceptionally spooky. And or, in the process, create a chiller that could comment on the uncharitable nature of teenage girls, prestige school elitism, the exclusivity that runs through them, and the dog-eat-dog hierarchy of private coteries and fitting in.