Dark Castle Entertainment, HanWay Films and Ingenious Media have partnered on horror film “Seance,” directed by Simon Barrett and starring Suki Waterhouse.
Set in an all-girls boarding school haunted by a vengeful spirit, Waterhouse (“Assassination Nation,” “The Bad Batch”) plays Camille, a young woman who arrives at the Fairfield Academy following one of the student’s untimely and violent death.
Dark Castle, HanWay and Ingenious are jointly producing together with Addictive Picture’s John Schoenfelder, Russell Ackerman (“Hold The Dark,” “Cargo” and upcoming “Fonzo”) and with Tomas Deckaj. Alex Mace is producing and Hal Sadoff will executive produce for Dark Castle. The film is fully funded by Dark Castle, HanWay and Ingenious. Dark Castle and HanWay have retained worldwide rights and will commence sales at the upcoming American Film Market.
“Seance” is based on a screenplay by Barrett and marks the third collaboration between the filmmaker and HanWay, who have also worked closely on Barrett’s films “The Guest” and “You’re Next,” both directed by Adam Wingard, who will serve as executive producer on “Seance.”
The film is in pre-production and will begin to shoot on location in Canada in November. Heads of department include cinematographer Karim Hussain (“Random Acts of Violence,” “Seven in Heaven,” “Mohawk”) and production designer Marlena Feehery (“The Iron Orchard,” “Bright,” “The Archer”).
Camille (Waterhouse) is the new girl at the prestigious Fairfield Academy for Girls, drawn into the mystery surrounding Kerrie, a student who died following a seance summoning the legendary Fairfield Ghost. Camille befriends Kerrie’s clique. When they invite her to their next seance, she initially believes that she is being pranked, but then the girls start being killed off one by one.
The Fairfield Ghost has come to take its revenge and Camille must turn detective and solve the mystery, or suffer the same fate.
Hal Sadoff, CEO at Dark Castle, commented: “We are thrilled to be working with Simon Barrett and to partner with HanWay and Ingenious on this exciting and clever horror tale. Suki Waterhouse is the perfect actor to bring this scary story to life.”
HanWay vice chairman Peter Watson said: “You can literally hear the audience screaming when you read the script. ‘Seance’ is the perfect film to start a collaboration with Dark Castle, our partners in all this spooky mayhem!”
Waterhouse is represented by CAA, Untitled Entertainment, Independent Talent Group in the U.K., and attorneys Karl Austen and Michael Auerbach of Jackoway Tyerman Wertheimer, and Barrett is represented by Stuart Manashil at NOVO Entertainment and Todd Rubenstein at Morris Yorn.