Great Film overall

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Don't Believe the Hype

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

In the opening scene, Nathan (Scott Whyte) finds himself thrust into the middle of a Steven King novel. He was the jury foreman of a trial that convicted Evan Lucas (Dylan Vox) of murder. Now it appears Lucas is back as the jurors die one by one with a supernatural element involved. Laura Price (Ashley Scott) is juror number 5 and has started to track the deaths once weird things start to happen to her.Laura gets the eager help of detective Michael Lyons (Bailey Chase) and a minor role for Cuba Gooding Jr. no matter how big they slap his face on the cover. After an hour of low grade horror the film shift gears to a low grade detective case. The film felt like Steven King wrote a film for the Lifetime network and then died before he could finish leaving it up to network writers to complete. It was a horror film that has been done before and better.Parental Guide: No f-bombs, sex, or nudity. Implied sex. Ashley Scott in undergarments.

This one starts like your typical ghost story. Someone dies at the beginning, a mystic presence is involved and then we move on. We learn a little more about the situation here, who's involved, about our 2 main characters as Cuba Gooding Jr. even tho he holds the poster, makes short appearances, and the ghost. OK, we have a ghost, but it will be like NOTHING you expect, it's more of a police movie and it doesn't work as good as anyone would think. Because through this film, the supernatural just faydes away little by little till we are left with nothing more than bang bang, this is my riffle, this is my gun.So there you have, a truly short inside of what you'll find here. Action police story meets a ghost, the ghost leaves, the cops remain, and confusion reigns!Overall, I give this a 6, probably a little more than it deserves, but what the heck, I'm feeling generous today! I don't recommend it tho, it's not what you would think so: little Cuba Gooding Jr., little ghost story, and almost no horror. Cheers!

Writer/director Peter Sullivan's thriller SUMMONED feels like what you would get if Stephen King and John Grisham teamed up to write a story together. It's a legal mystery in the form of a ghost story, about the spirit of an infamous serial killer who has returned for revenge.Ashley Scott plays Laura, a former juror on the Midnight Murderer case, who is now living a quiet life in Marin County. But when the foreman of the jury, who also wrote a book about the case, supposedly commits suicide, she gets suspicious. After two more jurors are found dead, Laura becomes convinced it's murder... and worse, the jurors are being hunted in order of the juror numbers. Guess who's next in line? She teams up with a cop (Bailey Chase), who thinks that they're dealing with a copycat until a couple of creepy scenes lead her to believe that the perp is really the serial killer himself... having returned from the grave. His partner (Cuba Gooding Jr) was an investigator on the original case and together, they make a startling discovery that will throw the whole trial into question. You may see some things coming, but this evocative thriller has enough surprises to keep you guessing.The performances are strong. Ashley Scott is amazing as the troubled lead who is still dealing with the death of her child, Bailey Chase is solid as a skeptical detective who needs some convincing on the supernatural front, and Cuba Gooding Jr. is good as the veteran cop with a secret. And, refreshingly, he's not the killer.Summoned is cut from the same cloth as movies like THE RING, and there's also some similarity to the underrated EXORCIST III. In fact, there's a decent scare in this movie very similar to a scene from that film. Most of the gore is off screen, but director Sullivan still knows how to make the audience uncomfortable and build a creepy mood. Recommended.

Part horror movie, part mystery, "Summoned" is a ghost story about a serial killer who was executed years ago and has come back to haunt the victims who convicted him. Despite the fact that it's about a serial killer, it's more like "The Ring", where its about the tone and little jump scares than it is about killing or gore. In fact, there's very little violence in it at all. But it's still very creepy. The character development is good, and Ashley Scott does an amazing job as a former juror whose life was ruined by the case. The movie is full of twists and turns around every corner which keeps everything entertaining and fast moving. There's a big twist towards the end that catches you off guard and makes the story even more tragic. Mixing the legal and horror genres is something I've never seen before, and the result is really fresh. Cuba Gooding Jr has a small but important role and he ends up playing a much bigger part than the movie hints at early on. Overall, if you like movies like "The Ring" or "The Grudge," I would definitely recommend this movie.