Sometimes when we finish watching a Blu-ray Disc or DVD, my wife will turn to me and say, “Well, that was a nothing movie.” Of course, the idea of a “nothing movie” is absurd. In order to be considered a movie, a movie must contain something, such as actors, sets, locations, sounds, etc. However, I think that we all know what she’s talking about when she says this. You’ve no doubt seen a movie which clearly existed, but did so little that it was merely a suggestion of a film. Séance: The Summoning definitely falls into this category.

Séance: The Summoning introduces us to four friends. Marcus (Chris Olivero) works as a security guard at the city morgue. Joey (Bobby Campo) is in a band. Eva (Nanzeen Contractor) practices Santeria. Sara (Devon Ogden) is a devout Christian. This odd group of pals decides to visit the morgue where Bobby works in order to make a video of a supernatural ritual. (I watched the beginning of the movie twice and I was never sure if they simply wanted to video the event or if it was to be part of a movie which they were making.) They arrive at the building and do some exploring. They then prepare for the ritual and Eva begins her part. However, Joey gets very agitated and stops. It’s at this point that Eva realizes that Joey has psychic powers as well. They begin the ritual again, but once again, Joey stops it. However, as a spirit had already been called forth, it enters Joey’s body and possesses him. Now violent and dangerous, Eva, Sara, and Marcus must find a way to contain Joey and remove the demon from his body.

For the time-being, let’s think of Séance: The Summoning as a minimalist film. The four actors/characters mentioned above are the only ones which appear in the film. Save for an exterior shot of their van entering the morgue gates and a quick shot of the group entering a door, the entire movie takes place inside of the morgue. The movie is broken into three stages; exploring the building, the ritual, and the bulk of the film which has Joey tied to a chair while the others try and figure out what to do. As Joey remains in one place, the second half of the movie simply consists of Eva and Sara running around the building looking for a way out or a way to help Joey.

So, story aside, Séance: The Summoning offers up a lot of action, right? Not really. If you consider people running up and down hallways action, then you’re in luck. If you are a little more discerning, then you may find the movie a bit dull. I can’t say that I’ve seen many films where two factions square off while one party is tied to a chair, but these don’t make for the most exciting fight scenes. The movie does contain some gore, but it’s oddly executed -- one scene involves a character doing something very stupid and the other....well, I’m not sure why it happened, but it was bloody.

The one thing which is obvious about Séance: The Summoning is that it comes across with a pro-Christianity message in the second half. This neither helps nor hurts the overall quality of the movie, but the story (what little that there is) almost grinds to a halt a few times to have the characters discuss why Christianity is the way to go...although they keep calling the Bible a “prayer book”. (The Exorcist may be the most pro religion movie ever made, but it didn’t feel like propaganda.) Typically when a movie gets in your face like this, there is some sort of indication from the box or trailer that it’s coming, but not in this instance.

In the end, Séance: The Summoning is a weird movie. The director, who also wrote the script, is a veteran (his other movies look bad too, but the point here is that he has made other movies). The actors aren’t newcomers and three of them have extensive resumes. So, why are they participating in something which looks like it was cobbled together as a film-class projects? Well, I always try to find the silver lining, so if you like your movies really simple, with few characters and no plot points to get in the way, then Séance: The Summoning is for you.

Séance: The Summoning is not a found-footage movie, so at least it has they going for it on DVD courtesy of Lionsgate. The film has been letterboxed at 1.78:1 and the transfer has been enhanced for 16 x 9 TVs. The image is sharp and clear, showing on overt grain and no defects from the source material. Again, despite the shallow nature of the movie, it does look nice. The corridors are dark, but never overly dark and we can always see what is happening. The colors look fine. Artifacting is kept to a minimum and the image is never overly soft. The DVD carries a Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track which provides clear dialogue and sound effects. As the movie takes places inside of a building, the track does a pretty good job of having significant noises come from the front and rear channels. These effects show good separation and average detail. The subwoofer effects during the “shock” scenes are nicely done as well.

The Séance: The Summoning DVD contains only two extras. "Behind the Scenes of Séance: The Summoning” (22 minutes) gets off to a rocky start as “summoning” is spelled “sumoning” throughout. From there, we get comments from Writer/Director Alex Wright who talks about the ideas behind the film. Other members of the creative team chime in as well. The piece contains comments from the actors who talk about their characters. The featurette looks at aspects of the production and contains some on-set footage. We also get a look at the gore effects. The only other extra is a TRAILER for the film. It should also be noted that nothing like the DVD cover art occurs in the movie.