Movie: We Summon The Darkness (2019)
Streaming on Tubi
Spoilers ahead
Synopsis: In 1988, three young women set out for a metal show. During this time, the news is overwhelmed with reports of Satanic murders all across the nation. The girls arrive at the show, connect with three guys, and after the show they head back to the home of one of the girls. The night quickly takes a dangerous turn when they find themselves fighting to survive the night.
Review: It rode the line between comedy and horror, but didn’t do a good job of either. While the premise of the movie was fairly unique and interesting, the characters were very one dimensional, the script was lacking, and there were only very brief moments of lighting and sound pulling me in. Overall, a snoozer for me. But probably a great, low tension, low gore movie to get introduced into scary movies!
Next stop: spoiler town
It felt like the script and acting never committed. It almost appears like Val and Alexis are more excited about murder itself than they are convinced of it being an act of worship. But they don’t really lean into that enough and instead toe the line between ‘it’s for god’ and ‘I just have bloodlust’ which makes neither concept feel fleshed out. When Beverly turns on the girls to try to stop the murders, her character lacks any emotional response to having to stop her church friends by committing her own violent acts against them. Additionally, I’m left unsatisfied by not getting information on why she was attending this murder if she wasn’t brainwashed. The only character that I felt was fully grasped by the actor was Kovacs, but his character went from drunk horn dog to dying. When the Pastor, Johnny Knoxville, comes on the scene is when I was the most creeped out. He owns the scenes with his quiet menace. I’m glad I watched this movie but I’m so incredibly disappointed by how poorly executed this plot was. I hope it gets remade in the style of John Waters, really camp it up and make it a cult classic.
