Summoning Sylvia
It’s not the standard bachelor party Larry night have envisaged, “kidnapped” by his trio of friends Reggie, Kevin and ringleader Nico without the knowledge or consent of his fiancé Jamie and taken away to a rented house in the nice part of the city for a weekend of cocktails and practicing harmonies and scales for their upcoming drag performance, punctuated with an inevitable séance when it is revealed the house is haunted.
The tablecloth laid, the candles lit, Nico donning his requisite cloak as the centre of attention and the book of spells opened, hands are held but at the first knock the quartet shriek and unravel, but rather the summoning Sylvia Lawrence, former occupant of the house who allegedly murdered her son Phillip, it is Jamie’s brother Harrison, returned from deployment in Kuwait and without a showtune in his heart but bringing troubles of his own.
Written and directed by Wesley Taylor and Alex Wyse, Summoning Sylvia stars Travis Coles, Troy Iwata, Noah J Ricketts and Frankie Grande are Larry, Reggie, Kevin and Nico with Michael Urie as distant but supportive Jamie and Nicholas Logan as present in body but absent in mind Harrison, suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and uncomfortable being the straight peg forced into a queer hole, while Veanna Cox hangs over proceedings as the spirit of Sylvia.
Derided as a widow, a mad woman, a murderer, does she see them, does she hear them, does she influence them? Larry does his best to play the good boyfriend, offering to put his needs aside to watch over the newly arrived fifth wheel but Harrison’s erratic behaviour doesn’t make for smooth sailing, wisely refusing to drink either cocktails or a more manly beer as he is aware of how alcohol triggers but not comfortable mingling with the others with whom he feels he has nothing in common and who have made him pointedly unwelcome.
Larry putting himself in second place on what is supposed to be his weekend, Nico actively chooses to be hurt rather than accept the compromise to his colour-coded schedule with good grace, causing further trouble by provoking the already uncomfortable soldier with his inability to moderate his aggressively outrageous and confrontational antics, while Reggie remains blind to Kevin’s attempts to get closer to him, while unseen Sylvia glares with disapproval as she sharpens her meat cleaver and relives her own tragedy.
A comedy horror of the mistakes of the past and the hold they have over the present, of the fear of reaching out for help and the hesitance of offering it, Summoning Sylvia is full of surprises but beneath the surface, the caustic bitchy survival instinct of Nico and the wounds deep within Harrison that need more than stitches to heal, it is about friends and found family, the ensemble put through the grinder before seeing the light, and a refreshing rarity which offers the token straight guy as the uncomfortable outsider who despite his trauma is still determined to be the good guy even if he isn’t sure how.
Summoning Sylvia is available on Shudder US and AMC now
