"There is a scourge on our society, my brothers and sisters. The evil that is heavy metal rock music is resolute, steadfast, and unwavering in its goal to corrupt our children's souls."
--Pastor John Henry Butler, We Summon the Darkness
Produced in part by its lead actress Alexandra Daddario, We Summon the Darkness offers a script that holds up cliches surrounding horror and metal music only to sidestep at least some of them, just as the horror title Until Dawn did in the video game world. In a year of restructured release dates for many major theatrical films, movie lovers have We Summon the Darkness as an option when it comes to watching new movies, though fans of Alexandra Daddario and small-scale filmmaking are certainly the ideal viewers.
Production Values
References to everything from Metroid to the music of the past century help reinforce the setting of the late 1980s, a setting that feeds the themes and character behaviors in the story. Alexandra Daddario's Alexis is one of the standout characters, as is Amy Forsyth's Beverly, both of which are given additional development late in the film that is missing in the case of other primary characters. That is not to say that the performances behind the two are lackluster. Even if the general performances in We Summon the Darkness aren't the pinnacle of complexity, realism, and existential honesty, they are far from terrible!
Story
Some spoilers are below!
In 1988 Indiana, three women drive to a metal concert, briefly listening to a radio message about a series of murders by what seems to be a cult. They return to a house belonging to the father of one of the women, bringing three young men they met at the concert. The three girls turn out to be pseudo-Christian, legalistic utilitarians as they talk to the boys. I will not spoil any of the major twists!
Intellectual Content
In no way is the depiction of the supposed Christian characters in We Summon the Darkness used as anything but a plot device. After all, no intelligent person would think that the Bible does anything but condemn murder, as it even prescribes execution for murder (Exodus 21:12-14)--and other capital offenses against persons like kidnapping (Exodus 21:16), rape (Deuteronomy 22:25-27), physical assault of one's parents (Exodus 21:15), and perjury in a capital case (Deuteronomy 19:16-21).
Similarly, no intelligent person truly thinks there is any logical or Biblical connection between murder, demonic cults, and metal or rock music. Even when songs from the genre occasionally refer to demonic concepts or feature macabre album covers, it may very well be ironic, used to play into the unfounded fears of legalistic Christians. Musical styles themselves have no inherent connection to certain lyrical themes to begin with, and creating, listening to, or enjoying metal music does not in any way exclude commitment to Christian ethics, which actually oppose legalistic additions to God's moral instructions (Deuteronomy 4:2).
Although it is certainly not a primary element in the story, one scene potentially illustrates (this may not have been exactly what was intended by the scriptwriter[s]) how even law enforcement officers dismiss male victims despite clear evidence that they have been oppressed by women. Male privilege is indeed a genuine social phenomenon in some contexts, but so is female privilege. Perhaps the officer treated the two abducted men as if they were part of Alexis' group of killers, but he still ignored evidence that they were victims of Alexis.
Conclusion
The subversion of tropes elevates We Summon the Darkness above the generic type of slasher movie that has been made so many times before. Not every twist is incredibly difficult to anticipate as the scenes unfold, but there is more to filmmaking quality than conceptual uniqueness and the ability to surprise audiences. This is a film that at least does more with tropes than simply reuse cliches. It doesn't hurt that it also at least touches upon the slanderous demonizing of an entire set of musical genres, something that has still survived into the present day from the 80s in some form.
Content:
1. Violence: A woman stabs a man in the neck, and another person has his arm cut by a knife. Several people are shot.
2. Profanity: Words like "damn," "shit," and "fuck" are used.
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