Honeybeads Blog

One common denominator in most of the recent releases in Asian horror is the slow pace of these films. Seance takes this to a whole new level. Slow-paced Asian horror films like The Eye and A Tale of Two Sisters work because the plot and characters are engrossing. Seance has neither and the end result is a very boring movie.

The premise of the film is quite rediculous and centers around a hardly credible set of coicidences surrounding the kidnapping of a young girl. The main characters are a medium who sees dead people, Junko and her husband, Sato. Junko is an unhappy medium (pardon the pun) bored with her going-nowhere life and her husband is some sort of sound technician. While out recording sounds in a wooded area, the kidnapped girl climbs into one of Sato's equipment cases. Sato locks and loads his case, unaware of the girl now trapped inside. Now, the police consult a medium for help in solving the kidnapping of said young girl. A few days pass and Junko finally realizes that the kidnapped girl is in thier garage still locked in a case. This is where the movie goes from bad to worse as Junko sees this discovery as an opportunity to make a name for herself as the seer who cracked the big case. The rest of the movie is a series of compounde "bad ideas" by Junko and hubby to make her plan work while hiding the truth from cops at the same time.

As a viewer, I was perplexed by the characters incredibly bad decisions and was totally unsympathetic toward this couple who brought thier miseries onto themselves. The performances of these two are the flattest, dullest characters I've ever seen. They make no facial expressions and mumble thier lines throughout the film. The film does manage to develop some atmosphere in a few scenes and has three or four pretty creepy moments, but it's not worth sitting through the 90% of the film that drags with little purpose.

Brian's Bottom Line: If you like boring movies with brain-dead characters, Seance is for you!