We Summon the Darkness

Directed by Marc Meyers, We Summon the Darkness follows friends Alexis (Alexandra Daddario), Val (Maddie Hasson), and Beverly (Amy Forsyth) as they meet and befriend three guys (Keean Johnson’s Mark, Logan Miller’s Kovacs, and Austin Swift’s Ivan) en route to a heavy-metal concert – with violence ensuing after the characters find themselves under attack by sinister forces. Filmmaker Meyers, armed with Alan Trezza’s screenplay, does an effective job of initially drawing the viewer into the increasingly erratic proceedings, as the movie kicks off with an impressively (and unexpectedly) compelling opening stretch that establishes the affable characters and appealing late ’80s atmosphere – with, in terms of the former, Meyers’ eliciting agreeable, engaging work from his various performers. And although the picture’s watchable vibe is enhanced by an admittedly unexpected twist at around the half-hour mark, We Summon the Darkness eventually progresses into a comparatively lackluster midsection that slowly-but-surely drains the viewer’s interest and attention – as the narrative adopts a stagnant, stagy feel that’s exacerbated by a claustrophobic second half transpiring almost entirely within the confines of a single location. The degree to which the film subsequently fizzles out is fairly distressing, to put it mildly, and it is, in the end, impossible to label We Summon the Darkness as anything less than a palpable misfire that squanders its strong first act.

** out of ****