A married couple gets their life turned upside down when a kidnapped girl hides in one of the boxes belonging to the husband while he’s out in nature recording sounds. The wife is psychic, and when they find the girl, she wants to try to get her 15 minutes in the spotlight, but then things turn into a mess. Women are the root of all problems we find in the world! Will she drag her husband down to hell because of her low self-esteem?
Seance is directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa. I watched this movie about 15 years ago or so, and I didn’t appreciate it that much. I think I hated it. I just couldn’t help it at that time. I hated everything, except for My Sassy Girl and Miki Nakatani. Oh yeah!
I liked Seance more this time, but it’s far from perfect. It’s a slow-burning movie where you end up hating the husband and wife. They are so selfish—especially the wife, who is disgusting and pathetic—and we hope she’ll get caught or that something terrible will happen to her. They hold on to the kidnapped girl because the wife wants to become famous, but the husband is a little rough when handling the girl whenever she causes problems or when someone comes to their house. With the way the husband is handling her, the script telegraphs that this won’t end well.
There aren’t that many characters in the movie; it has quite a small cast, which is fine since the main focus is on the husband and wife and their egotistical ways after they find the kidnapped girl.
The movie has those creepy moments that Kiyoshi Kurosawa is known for. It’s not a scary movie, but it has the atmosphere that fans of the director love.
The ending is pretty bad, and come to think of it, I’m writing this review one hour after watching the movie, and I can’t remember the last scene. So that ending must have sucked!
If you like Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Seance is worth a watch. It feels a little cheap at times because of the lower budget, though the actors are good, and it has its creepy moments. I wish the creepy scenes had more punch and memorable cinematography. Still, Kiyoshi Kurosawa is great at building suspense on a tight budget, and his sterile cinematography works here. But I won’t remember them the way I do scenes from a Darren Aronofsky movie.