I'm no great fan of horror, but I had seen several of the director's short films, including the 2 minute video that led to this one, so I got a trial on the horror channel just to watch this. I've also only used Zoom once, and rarely use video during conference calls, so in that sense I am not quite target audience for this. Despite this it worked very well. The plot sees a group of friends all stuck in their various homes, using Zoom to get together and do a virtual séance for a bit of fun. Sticking with the Zoom format in a sort of 'found-footage' approach for the modern age, it follows the séance as it 'goes wrong'.
At a tight 60 minutes running time, the film doesn't waste a lot of time, but opens nicely so that we are in familiar territory - the technical issues, the glitches, the slightly forced air of 'fun', the people who put in too much effort, and the people who are showing off a bit too obviously. Whether you find that engaging or annoying, it is certainly convincing. From here we move into the bangs and odd occurrences, and things escalate quickly. The cast do a lot of good work in convincing of their fear - and given that mostly we are focused on faces looking at screens, it is an important factor. Mostly the scares are jump scares, but the consistency of them does create its own mood and tension. It is very much a genre piece, with Blair Witch, (Rec.), and endless other horrors in its construct - rather than seem derivative though, it manages to feel like it is drawing on the past to inform the current; it may not date well, but certainly for the current time the use of lockdown, isolations, Zoom chats etc, it does fit and works well.
Best watched like you're on the call - on a laptop in a darkened room.
