We Summon the Darkness
We Summon the Darkness | |
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Directed by | Marc Meyers |
Written by | Alan Trezza |
Produced by |
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Starring |
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Cinematography | Tarin Anderson |
Edited by |
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Music by | Timothy Williams |
Production companies |
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Distributed by | Saban Films |
Release dates |
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Running time | 91 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Box office | $168,473[1][2] |
We Summon the Darkness is a 2019 American horror thriller film directed by Marc Meyers and written by Alan Trezza. The film stars Alexandra Daddario, Keean Johnson, Maddie Hasson, Amy Forsyth, Logan Miller, Austin Swift, and Johnny Knoxville.[3]
The film premiered at Mammoth Film Festival on February 28, 2019, and was released in digital and on-demand in the United States on April 10, 2020, by Saban Films.
Plot
In Indiana, July 1988, Alexis Butler and her two friends Val and Bev are driving to a heavy metal show, when a milkshake is thrown from a blue van onto their windshield. Once they arrive at the concert, they find the same blue van, and Val throws a small firecracker into it, causing the three boys inside to climb out. Ivan owns the van and his buddies Kovacs and Mark, who is said to be leaving for Los Angeles soon, are interested in the girls. After the show, Alexis invites the boys to her father's empty mansion. Bev and Mark seem to like each other, yet Bev seems to almost avoid him. As they play a game of Never Have I Ever, the girls drug the boys' drinks and reveal they are going to murder them and make it look like a Satanic cult killing.
The Daughters of the Dawn, the church the girls are a part of, has murdered eighteen other people in the same way in order to create fear and send more people to their religion. Alexis is shown to be the most insane and stabs Ivan after he criticizes her religious belief in Christ, and he bleeds to death. Mark and Kovacs briefly escape, hiding in a pantry. Susan, Alexis's soon-to-be ex-stepmother, comes home to retrieve a passport and reveals she has called the police because she saw the strange blue van and the house lights on. Susan then discovers Ivan's body and Alexis stabs her to death.
A police officer arrives and becomes suspicious, so Alexis runs from him and back into the house where he chases her, gun raised. The officer finds the injured Kovacs and Mark who pleads for help, but Val sneaks up on him, takes his gun, and shoots him, killing him. As Alexis and Val fight over the gun, Bev appears, threatening her friends with an electric outboard trolling motor. Val and Alexis tell Bev they are doing the Lord's work, but Bev declares she will let Mark and Kovacs go.
Bev tries to help Mark and Kovacs, the latter who is bleeding out and will not last much longer unless he makes it to a hospital. Alexis has the car keys, so Mark goes after her to retrieve them. When Kovacs sees car lights, he goes outside struggling to walk to find John Henry Butler, Alexis's father and the pastor of the Daughters of the Dawn. Mark obtains the keys, but Alexis attacks him and they fight. Val attacks Bev and tries to kill her, but Bev lights Val on fire (her hair being full of hairspray). Butler attacks Kovacs off-screen and he makes it back into the house where Bev finds him. Just before Kovacs dies, he tells Bev to save Mark.
Butler shoots Mark as he is strangling Alexis. He then berates his daughter for doing a terrible job murdering and covering it up. He tells Alexis they have to make some sacrifices to get out of the predicament she has caused and attempts to strangle her to death when Bev comes up and knocks him out. Alexis is over-the-top crazy and Bev throws her out of a window in a dramatic and exaggerated fashion. Mark is still alive, and he drives away with Bev, only to find Alexis standing in the road. Off-camera, Bev runs Alexis over.
Butler is still alive and makes himself into a victim, claiming that Alexis was led astray and joined a Satanic cult. Bev and Mark leave town together.
Cast
- Alexandra Daddario as Alexis Butler
- Keean Johnson as Mark
- Maddie Hasson as Val
- Amy Forsyth as Beverly
- Logan Miller as Kovacs
- Austin Swift as Ivan
- Johnny Knoxville as John Henry Butler
- Allison McAtee as Susan
- Tanner Beard as Sheriff Dembrowski
- Stephanie Moroz as Female Reporter
- Harry Nelken as Crusty Cashier
Release
We Summon the Darkness was released in digital and on-demand on April 10, 2020.[4] It was released on Blu-ray and DVD on June 9, 2020 by Lionsgate Home Entertainment.[5] The film was released on Netflix on August 8, 2020.[6]
Reception
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 69% based on 64 reviews, with an average rating of 5.87/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "We Summon the Darkness makes the most of its rather pedestrian plot with palpable affection for genre formula, an appealing cast, and a sharp sense of humor."[7] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 55 out of 100, based on 14 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[8]
Owen Gleiberman of Variety magazine wrote: "We Summon the Darkness is a psycho thriller that pulls the bloody rug out from under you, and does it in a shivery sly way."[9]
Music
We Summon the Darkness: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack | |
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Soundtrack album by | |
Released | May 22, 2020 |
Genre | Soundtrack |
Length | 39:45 |
Label | Lakeshore |
On May 22, 2020, Lakeshore Records released the score soundtrack for the film composed by Timothy Williams.[10]
All tracks are written by Timothy Williams
No. | Title | Length |
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1. | "We Summon the Darkness" | 1:14 |
2. | "You Bitch" | 1:42 |
3. | "Window Toss" | 0:43 |
4. | "Drugged" | 1:33 |
5. | "When Will the Sun Rise?" | 2:18 |
6. | "Which One for the Knife?" | 2:14 |
7. | "Parents Away" | 1:00 |
8. | "Get Out!" | 2:05 |
9. | "Jaw Breaker" | 0:55 |
10. | "Cop Killer" | 2:39 |
11. | "Kitchen Courage" | 2:36 |
12. | "Flamed" | 4:17 |
13. | "Step Moms Home" | 2:42 |
14. | "It’s On" | 2:11 |
15. | "Wanna Have Fun?" | 1:15 |
16. | "Pantry Prisoner" | 2:30 |
17. | "Not My Fault" | 0:52 |
18. | "Naked" | 1:23 |
19. | "Lock Down" | 1:06 |
20. | "Escape Gone Wrong" | 1:30 |
21. | "Motorhead" | 1:06 |
22. | "Don’t Believe Everything" | 1:54 |
Total length: | 39:45 |
References
- ^ "We Summon the Darkness". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved August 14, 2020.
- ^ "We Summon the Darkness – Financial Information". The Numbers. Retrieved May 26, 2020.
- ^ Kit, Borys (September 5, 2018). "Alexandra Daddario, Keean Johnson to Star in Horror Thriller 'We Summon the Darkness' (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved September 22, 2019.
- ^ Burwick, Kevin (March 21, 2020). "We Summon the Darkness Trailer: A Heavy Metal Nightmare Starring Alexandra Daddario and Johnny Knoxville". MovieWeb. Retrieved March 22, 2020.
- ^ Miska, Brad (April 13, 2020). "'We Summon the Darkness' Brings the Metal to Blu-ray and DVD". Bloody Disgusting. Retrieved April 13, 2020.
- ^ Squires, John (July 22, 2020). "New Horror Coming to Netflix in August 2020 Includes 'We Summon the Darkness' and '1BR'". Bloody Disgusting. Retrieved July 23, 2020.
- ^ "We Summon the Darkness (2020)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved July 10, 2020.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ "We Summon the Darkness Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved April 14, 2020.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Gleiberman, Owen (9 April 2020). "'We Summon the Darkness': Film Review". Variety (magazine).
- ^ "'We Summon the Darkness' Soundtrack to Be Released". Film Music Reporter. Retrieved May 21, 2020.
External links
- 2019 films
- 2019 horror thriller films
- 2010s serial killer films
- 2010s teen horror films
- American films
- American horror thriller films
- American serial killer films
- American teen horror films
- English-language films
- Films about psychopaths
- Films about Satanism
- Films set in 1988
- Films set in Indiana
- Films shot in Winnipeg
- Heavy metal films
- Religious horror films
- Religious thriller films
- Saban Entertainment films
- Siege films
- Teen thriller films
- Films directed by Marc Meyers