Director: Rob Savage
Writers: Gemma Hurley, Rob Savage
Stars: Haley Bishop, Jemma Moore, Emma Louise Webb
Run Time: 57 Minutes
Synopsis
Haley starts a Zoom call with Jemma, and they have some technical problems; lag and audio feedback goes crazy. Before long, there are six people in the chat. They talk for a bit about personal nonsense, and then they play with face swapping and overlays; the call seems very realistic with the tech and small talk.
Teddy has a music box that creeps him out; it used to scare him as a child. They bring in Seylan, who is a medium. They’re going to do a seance, and they’ve each brought a “focal object.” She explains that since they’re doing this over Zoom that they might be a little less protected than they would be in a circle holding hands. Teddy drops out and hangs up.
The seance begins. There’s a knock on Seylan’s door, and she says it’s a package delivery. She comes back and they start for real. Seylan drops off the call, and the others continue without her.
Jemma screams that someone is touching on her neck. Someone named Jack from school is there with her; he was nice to her once, but he hanged himself. The others start getting creeped out. She smiles and admits that she made the whole thing up.
They all start yelling at each other, and then they see Haley get dragged across the room on her chair. She goes to investigate and we watch her walk through her house. Caroline hears noises in the room behind her as well. She pulls down the ladder and goes up to the attic. We get a brief glimpse of legs hanging in view of the camera, but then it’s gone. Things start happening to all of them.
They call Seylan back by phone, whose Internet has gotten flaky. She says they’ve disrespected the spirits, and they’ve summoned a “false spirit.” It could be anything. They do what Selan suggests, and they think it’s all over.
Of course, it’s not over. One by one, bad things start happening to each of them, all on-camera. Teddy pops back in briefly, but it goes after him as well. Soon, there’s only Jemma left. Will she be the final girl and escape the spirit?
Commentary
The Zoom gimmick is a good idea. They can use cheap cameras and bad sound, and it all just added to the authenticity of it all. The scene with the facial recognition of the ghost is really brilliant. The seance procedure is all explained by Seylan, and it seems like what a real seance might be like, not that I’ve ever been in one.
Once things start happening, it is very intense and suspenseful. There’s not a lot of wasted filler, and the whole thing is under an hour. I like that they didn’t feel the need to add unnecessary padding to fill out 90 minutes. I really liked it.