The Summoned had its world premiere at Overlook Film Festival, and currently doesn't have a wide release date.
Mark Meir’s The Summoned is a modern take on old-school horror storytelling about deals made with the devil. It’s reminiscent in tone and playfulness to something Brian Yuzna or Stuart Gordon would have produced in the ‘80s — you can immediately tell who Barbara Crampton or Jeffrey Combs would play. That’s a compliment, given how we still talk about Re-Animator and Society. Not to claim The Summoned will be as worshiped as either cult classic — it won’t — but there’s still plenty of entertainment to be found in Meir’s wildly character-driven story about unholy pacts, self-help follies, and sinners pretending to be saints.
J. Quinton Johnson stars as a hopeful musician Elijah, the secret boyfriend of megastar performer Lyn (Emma Fitzpatrick). The duo attend a self-help gathering at a mansion deep in the middle of nowhere, with real-world Tony Stark type named Joe (Salvador Chacon) and flirtatious celebrity Tara (Angela Gulner). Over the course of the film, the host, Frost (Frederick Stuart), dares the attendees to explore their past regressions and embrace change — which is where the games begin. Everyone’s charisma becomes a weapon, as screenwriter Yuri Baranovsky satirically uses the self-help retreat story as a cover for selfish evils that make Elijah a target in multiple ways.
The Faustian influences that power The Summoned aren’t subtle, as Baranovsky works religion into Frost’s speeches early. Frederick Stuart oozes all the off-center charisma Jeffrey Combs brought to sophisticated gamesmen who mess with characters through psychological torments. Elijah enters the group therapy scenario as a meek partner, and is pushed by Frost to confront Lyn about his feelings of being hidden from the public. Every fireside conversation, or private session away from Lyn drives a wedge between lovers that starts driving Elijah crazy. Meir’s vision as director keeps pushing forward into Elijah’s spiral as the wheels come off, finding sick enjoyment in one man’s paranoia as the healing getaway turns into something unexpectedly dreadful.
The Summoned relies on performances to elevate levels of psychosis, once we learn more about Tara’s intentions behind seducing Elijah or Jose’s offer to invest millions in Elijah. Angela Gulner seems to be having a ball as she plays the livestreaming seductress who gives herself to blood-soaked tendencies. Once appearances drop and The Summoned reveals its satanic nature, it’s Gulner who stands out while making “F*ck Marry Kill” jokes and waving an axe. Everyone has their moments, whether that’s Emma Fitzpatrick’s attic monologue while twirling a knife or Salvador Chacon’s comical frustrations over the amount of work he’s forced to complete, but it’s Gulner who stands a little taller in her wicked ways. Should her character be on a VHS cover for The Summoned, she’d be smiling back at you while dripping red — and that’d be the reason you rented The Summoned from Blockbuster that night.
Meir’s approach to horror is tricky because this is a moralistic tale of offered souls, so he finds ways to insert nightmare hallucinations that terrorize Elijah at night. The Summoned is violent and deadly, but not exactly a haunted house tale with traditional horror imagery — these montages of gravediggers and talking corpses help sell harder genre elements. Meir’s tone is more funny than frightening, which makes The Summoned a pleasant midnighter that seems influenced by Sam Raimi the way cameras zoom on speeding cars or whip as women quickly raise rifle sights to their eyes. These are the more successful moments of The Summoned, since Elijah’s premonitions or whatever he’s seeing can be confusing and jarring spliced between narrative movement. I appreciate the way Meir wants to mess with his audience’s heads, but it’s not always the cleanest storytelling — the wheels come off for damn sure, and that also means it's a wobbly ride at times.
from IGN Reviews https://ift.tt/478VITs
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