We Summon the Darkness

"another film I saw at this year’s Fantastic Fest that didn’t bring a whole lot to the table in terms of visuals, but whose script was nimble and surprising enough to make it work."

"Meyers refuses to treat the slasher movie as a cheeky debased genre. What happens going forward may be insane, but he stages it with a cunning visual-dramatic logic, allowing neither perpetrators nor victims to cut corners."

"If most of what follows becomes a tad more routine, not quite hitting all the marks, there's still plenty to keep genre fans engaged thanks to well-drawn characters, a steady stream of bloodletting, sly humor and the inconvenient arrival of a couple of unintended victims."

"We Summon the Darkness is fine throughout; but it peaks in its first third, when nothing much is happening beyond some very good actors recreating the small-town rock ’n’ roll lifestyle of the recent past."

"Like many a film before it, We Summon the Darkness spends such a long time trying to subvert a concept that it neglects everything that might have been appealing even in a straightforward take on its premise."

"The proceedings are not entirely unamusing in their lurid way, but they’re also not nearly as clever as the filmmakers believed or hoped they would be."

"...steadily upends conventional prejudices (& cinematic clichés) concerning gender, class and religion - even if, after a relatively early reveal of the Big Twist, there is nowhere left to go beyond standard cat-and-mouse manoeuvres and chaotic farce."

"A throwback horror comedy that offers up just enough surprises and a pair of scene-stealing performances by Hasson and Daddario that will make you throw up a pair of devil horns and hail Satan."