If you have a child, don’t send them off to a school. Horror movies have shown me this.

The Edelvine Academy for Girls is where this takes place, and, as you’d figure, there’s a clique of mean girls led by Alice (Inanna Sarkis) that includes Yvonne (Stephanie Sy), Rosalind (Djouliet Amara), Bethany (Madisen Beaty), and Lenora (Jade Michael). One night, they prank Kerrie (Megan Best) by leading her to believe the urban legend of the Edelvine Ghost is real and that she’s being haunted. She’s so frightened that she runs to her room, falls out the window and soon dies.

Camille Meadows (Suki Waterhouse) is the new girl, staying in Kerrie’s room. One of the girls, Helina (Ella-Rae Smith), shows her to her room,  but they run into the mean girls. A fight breaks out, and everyone is given detention in the library by headmistress Mrs. Landry (Marina Stephenson Kerr), who lives in the school with her son Trevor (Seamus Patterson).

During one of these punishments, the girls hold a seance to reach Kerrie. They get some force, one that tells them that they will all be killed, starting with Lenora, who dies that night. Everyone thinks she just ran away, stealing several of their things, until they find a cross of blood on her bed. This cross is similar to the one that Alicia Kane wore. That’s who the Edelvine Ghost is said to be. 

The deaths continue with Rosalind dying in the shower, Bethant finding a masked figure and another seance, where Rosalind’s spirit claims that Camille is the murderer. Soon, Yvonne is murdered, and Camille and Alice are knocked out by the masked person and taken.

And now, spoilers…

Bethany and Trevor are the masked figures who kill the mean girls and Kerrie after Bethany steals an essay from her and wins a significant scholarship. They’re both murderous and full of lies, as Bethany faked the seance and Trevor may have created the urban legend when he killed Alicia, his babysitter. Bethany is going to kill Alice, frame Camille, and then kill Helina as well, but that’s when Carrie reveals she’s not who she said she was. She’s really one of Kerrie’s friends, here to get revenge. Kerrie’s ghost leads Helina to Camille and Alice, leading to Bethany being stabbed in the neck and Trevor’s head being graphically crushed. Camille leaves the school, waving goodbye to Heilna and Kerry’s ghost.

Seance was directed and written by Simon Barrett, who usually works with director Adam Wingard. Together, they made The Guest, You’re Next and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. This is a movie that plays with genre and is a decent watch; it’s low-budget but never low-concept.