Summoners

Screened at 2022’s Brooklyn Horror Film Festival, Summoners is one of the simplest and yet most impressively crafted of this year’s tumult of witch-themed films. It’s a simple story about a young woman visiting her home town and getting caught up in her high school best friend’s problems, but it’s beautifully acted and its gentle pacing allows for the construction of a richly detailed world.

That young woman is Jess, played by co-writer Christine Nyland, whom viewers may remember from her brief but expressive performance in 2019’s The Garden Left Behind. She arrives one day out of the blue, surprising her father (the ever-reliable Larry Fessenden) and is delighted to bump into Alana (McLean Peterson) for the first time in around a decade. When they were young they used to engage in a bit of light witchcraft together, and there’s a hint that they may have got results, though Jess has since dismissed it as mere hallucination under the influence of drugs. It doesn’t take her long to recover something of her old faith, though, as Alana prevails upon her to engage in a very particular ritual. Jess is cautious; she prepares diligently; but she is not prepared for the possibility that Alana hasn’t told her everything she needs to know.

With a sub-plot related to the death of Jess’ mother and an affair she had with a neighbour when terminally ill, the film revolves around themes of guilt, shame, and the need for somebody to shoulder responsibility. Within this framework it looks at the Medieval concept of the sin eater, a person who elects to suffer on behalf of others (traditionally for a fee), and speculates on the anger which the spirit of such a person might feel in its damned state. Ghostly effects are simply but effectively delivered and director Terence Krey (who also co-writes) wisely trusts the actors to convey fear in a way which carries viewers along.

Of particular note here is the chemistry between Nyland and Fessenden, which gives their characters’ relationship real depth and warmth, encouraging us to invest in them both. Peterson has what is in some ways a more difficult role, with a sharp emotional adjustment partway through as we are reminded of the flip side of small town dynamics. Madeline Grey DeFreece rounds out the principal cast as the neighbour’s daughter, a little gauche but definitely one of the better adjusted characters. There’s also a fantastic feline performance in the film which Krey captures perfectly.

Some genre fans will probably be disappointed by this film because it doesn’t deliver much in the way of violence or gore and special effects are kept to a minimum. The focus on the psychological and conceptual really plays to the strengths of cast and crew, however, and the story is delivered with skill and confidence. The supernatural horror, stemming as it does from a desire for control, is balanced by acknowledgement of real world horrors over which we have no control at all, and the film explores the need to find somewhere to lay blame, whether on oneself or someone else, as well as the liberating effect of being willing to let it go.