Séance is a age old tradition of communicating with the dead sprits through a medium. New Jersey based filmmaker Arun has taken this as a subject for his short film “Seance“. So when a young man tries to unravel his future by consulting a Seance practitioner, he gets more than he bargained for. The story is simple - but very well told. It was a great overall effort.

Few comments:

1. BGM Score by Steve Mazzaro was fabulous.
2. That single scary moment was well shot, and great silent buildup.
3. Tom Cappadona as a spiritual medium was spot on.
4. Production values by Stan Harris was as good as it gets for an ultra low budget short film. It gave a nice creepy ambience to the whole short.
5. The lighting being switched on/off during the proceedings was a bit distracting.
6. A few lines of dialogue could have been rewritten (”Let me GO…NOW“)
7. Casting - As I said the old actor was spot on - but I only wonder how would a native american or some abroginee actor would have performed in this role of spritual medium. The reason being, black magic, voodoo, seance etc are more culturally interviened with those cultures.
8. When the medium sees his lost wife(?) spirit inside the young man - a subconsious reach to touch the young man, seeing him as his wife…before checking himself - thus breaking his stance would have injected some backstory into the short 6minutes (longing).
9. Another cliched suggestion - but one cannot ignore the creepy ambience sound of distant background rain creates (no not thunder).
10. The story’s main revealing plot was a bit timid - victor? to that we say, so what? we didnt get to see the emotional connection between the young man and his love for his girlfriend. To prop that part up: the story could have asked the actor to at least have her picture in his wallet, and hand it over to the medium while asking the question. For more dramatic effect, a tatooed name on his hands “Patrica” or something…

great job Arun!