We Summon the Darkness – Film Review

In Marc Meyers‘ We Summon the Darkness, three best friends embark on a road trip to a heavy-metal show, where they bond with three aspiring musicians and head off to one of the girls’ country homes for an after-party.

It’s an extremely simplistic premise and one that will probably make you think “Why is this a horror movie? It sounds almost like it could be a comedy”, and you’d be exactly right. In fact while I was watching the film, about twenty minutes in, I was incredibly confused because it presented itself as a kind of teen comedy more than anything. But after those first twenty or so minutes are up, the film’s actual premise kicks in, and from that point on, it becomes a slasher.

But is this slasher any good? Eh, not really. It’s certainly not awful by any means but it does try way too hard at being tongue-in-cheek. Once you see where this movie is heading and what the filmmakers were going for, it’s clear that this type of story wouldn’t really work all that well if it was dramatic. This is one-hundred-percent a comedy slasher which I don’t mind, although I much prefer a straight-up slasher such as John Carpenter‘s classic 1978 film Halloween.

Interestingly enough, this movie reminded me a lot of 2017’s The Babysitter, almost too much like it to the point where I wonder if screenwriter Alan Trezza saw it and got heavily inspired by it and decided he wanted to make something similar. We Summon the Darkness has that cutesy teen girl slasher vibe to it and I totally don’t mind that, but this movie thinks its way more clever than it actually is.

Aside from the genuinely impressive twist in the first act that leads into the rest of the story to come, the film has no surprises in store for newcomers and veterans of the horror genre alike. It’s fairly obvious what’s going to end up happening in the end and none of the kills are memorable either. Speaking of kills, there really aren’t too many here, to begin with. There are only about three kills in the entire film and for a film that tries so hard to fit in with the horror genre, it mostly doesn’t feel like it works.

The dialogue isn’t too great either. Most of it feels like it was written by someone who doesn’t really watch a lot of horrors and oftentimes the characters will say things that no real human being would say. It’s not painstakingly cringe-worthy but a lot of it is quite bad. The performances, on the other hand, are actually fairly strong for the most part. Alexandra Daddario is almost too good at portraying an incredibly mysterious yet charming young woman who we don’t learn too much about until a bit later in the film. I haven’t seen Daddario in too many projects, but this definitely opened my eyes to her acting talent.

Amy Forsyth is by far the heart and soul of the film though, and whenever she has a really good scene going for her, she absolutely sells it. And who knew Taylor Swift‘s brother Austin could pull off such a convincing performance as a heavy metal fan? I certainly didn’t.

There are worse ways to spend your time than watching We Summon the Darkness, but it’s still a far too simplistic film with not enough actual horror elements involved, instead opting for a more teen-comedy approach.