Year of Release: 2019
Director: Marc Meyers
Starring: Alexandra Daddario, Keean Johnson, Maddie Hasson, Amy Forsyth, Logan Miller, Austin Swift, Johnny Knoxville, Allison McAtee, Tanner Beard
Genre: Horror
Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 1
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Synopsis and Review
After making a splash with "My Friend Dahmer", director Marc Meyers returned in 2019 with two films, "We Summon the Darkness" being the first one which premiered in February of that year, followed by "Human Capital", which had its premiere at the Toronto Film Festival of that year (and of the two, has the glossiest cast, featuring Liev Schreiber, Marisa Tomei, Peter Sarsgaard, Alex Wolff, Maya Hawke amongst others). "We Summon the Darkness" takes place in the late 80s and follows the story of three girlfriends, Alex, Val and Bev, who are on their way to a heavy metal concert. While on the road, they get hit with a milkshake from a blue van who is passing them by. Turns out the people in the van are three boys who are also going to the concert. They quickly establish a rapport and Alex invites them to her father's empty mansion nearby. Once they're at the mansion, and in order to break the ice, they start playing a game of "Never Have I Ever". The girls drug the boys' drinks, tie them up and reveal that they're actually going to murder them and make it look like a Satanic cult killing. Turns out they're part of "The Daughters of the Dawn" church, who has murdered a bunch of people recently in order to create fear and send more people to their religion. Alex stabs one of the boys, but the other two manage to escape into the nearby pantry. While Alex and Val are figuring out to best kill them, Bev suddenly realizes the seriousness of the situation, and just wants out (not to mention she likes one of the boys, Mark). Alex's soon to be ex-stepmother shows up unexpectedly, complicating matters for the girls, as does the sheriff whom she has called when she saw lights on at the mansion.
"We Summon the Darkness" has an interesting premise, leveraging the topic of religious paranoia to create a horror story, which sadly is rather anemic and not very horrific. All the characters that populate this narrative don't have much to them, aside from the basic outline that positions them in the narrative itself. The girls, or at least Alex and Val, are clearly invested in going through with the murders in order to be in good standing with Alex's father, the reverend, though it's never entirely clear why are they both that invested in doing such actions. The boys are even more thinly characterized, and their sole intent in the film is to be the victims and/or escape the predicament in which they find themselves in. It's a rather shallow premise for a film that could have benefited from a stronger directorial point of view, one that could leverage the whole religious paranoia/satanic hysteria/heavy metal topics into something more memorable and engaging. As it is, the film just adds some layers/challenges to the murders the girls are trying to accomplish, and there's not much more to it. The film lacks nuance, substance and stronger characters to make it impactful. The tone and environment created, are equally lackluster. The film ultimately lacks conviction in what is trying to convey. The overall cast is unmemorable, including Johnny Knoxville who doesn't get to do much. Ultimately it's just not a very interesting, memorable or particularly watchable film.
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