SUMMONED BRINGS SENSE OF URGENCY

Hope LaVelle in Summoned

When we spoke to director Victoria Angell recently during the Blood in the Snow Canadian Film Festival here on FERNTV, there was a sense of urgency about her that we were able to pick up in our interview and by watching her short film Summoned.  Most indie filmmakers would tell you that money is always the challenge that they face when making a film but director Victoria Angell worked on what she had to make Summoned one hell of a creepy horror film.   Already having the support and mentorship of Karen Lam who is a big name in Vancouver’s genre world and who Victoria has produced several of her shorts for, Summoned was set to rise up to the top of the heap when it comes to short horror films.  After being shot in the summer of 2014 on a low budget and an intense post-production sequence, Summoned has screened at many film festivals as a result.

Summoned stars Hope LaVelle who is in an abusive situation and summons a demon to protect her but unfortunately she gets more than what she has bargained for.  Hope LaVelle is a stunt woman herself and was perfect for this role because there where scenes where Victoria wanted practical stunts.  The audience tends to forget some of those scenes in horror films where people are flying to the ceiling, or are thrown into the wall and dragged all over the floor that there is an art to stunts and that everyone is trying their best to make those scenes believable.  It took several times to get the right shot sequence of Hope LaVelle being thrown into the wall even with the help of stunt coordinator Maja Aro.   It also took time for Hope to get to that sad emotional state in order to summon a demon in the story.  Again it is that sense of urgency that needs to be put into short horror films to make it stand out from the rest.  In this case, Victoria Angell has already summoned that sense of urgency and it has worked for this film Summoned and will work again in her future films.  Please click on our interview below with director Victoria Angell.

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