We Summon the Darkness

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There was a movie rapidly released to VOD on April 10th, skipping theaters by, and making history as the first, absolute "skip-the-line" movie. This means that it's the first movie that was supposed to come out in theaters, and the producers said "nuts to that, let's give the kids what they want for Easter weekend, and release it for families to watch while their stuck in their houses because of some asshole virus. We WILL get paid!"

That movie, of course, is 'Trolls: Wold Tour', which I had no interest in, but it gets my respect for hopefully starting a whole thing now where MAYBE we can finally just start paying to watch theatrical releases at home instead of suffering through yet another horrendous popcorn muncher, chatterbox, or cell phone jerk. But while 'Trolls 2' is no doubt entertaining families across the globe this weekend, a little Indie film has been lurking in the background, and I figured it would entertain me much more.

The film, in question, is 'We Summon the Darkness'. It features three young women on a road trip to a heavy metal concert; Alexis (Alexandra Daddarrio) is the lead, Val (Maddie Hasson) is the overtly sexual one, and Bev (Amy Forsyth) is the hesitant one, but still has a rough exterior and seems to enjoy Ring Pops. They meet three guys at the concert, after an incident involving the ladies crashing into a milkshake that the guys toss at them, unknowingly - Mark, Kovacs and Ivan (Keean Johnson, Logan Miller and Austin Swift, respectively)

After this, the film takes on a sort of role-reversal technique that you actually kinda see coming from a mile away. Of course, the trailer does kind of give it away, but nevertheless, the film takes some pretty predictable turns. But kudos to it for being a cuationary tale, of sorts, that suggests that women can be just as dangerous as men. The only problem is that the film sort of relishes in its darkness, thinking it's more fun that it actually is. For me, it ends up being a bit of a blend between 'The Craft' (which is actually good) and 'Spring Breakers' (which was something I walked out of). On top of that, it gets pretty preachy, and you can tell from the get-go who's gonna make it, and who isn't.

But barring all of the bad, and getting into what's good about it, I can say that it's still kinda fun for what it is, and for the slasher hounds out there, this does have some pretty nifty gore here and there - although the kills aren't entirely creative, either. For the most part, this just felt like an important message wrapped up in a cautionary tale. But even with that said, those movies do exist, so this doesn't get many points in the way of originality. You want your mind blown in really weird ways with the same message, try 'Teeth'. Or, if you like the classics, 'Fatal Attraction'. 90's fan? 'The Crush'. Something in this realm? 'The Craft'.

Anyway, it's watchable for the average horror fan, but I still think there are better titles out there with similar messages. I feel like this could have been a lot more fun than it ended up being, and could have done without the complicated backdrop of a Satanic cult 'cause the twist to all of this is kinda weird and confusing to me... but maybe that's just me.

2/5

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