[REVIEW:] SUMMONING SYLVIA DELIGHTS WITH SHARP WIT AND HEARTENING STORY
What’s scarier than your homophobic soon-to-be-brother-in-law showing up at your unapologetically queer bachelor party? How about said party taking place in a supposedly haunted murder house? That’s the premise of Summoning Sylvia, a quick-paced horror comedy written and directed by Wesley Taylor and Alex Wyse that manages to be both delightfully silly and disarmingly clever.
The film centers around a group of friends — over-the-top Nico (Frankie Grande), flirty Kevin (Noah J. Ricketts), and by-the-book Reggie (Troy Iwata) — who kidnap groom Larry (Travis Coles) for a surprise bachelor party at a rented house. Unfortunately, Larry had previously promised partner Jamie (Michael Urie) that he’d spend time with Jamie’s brother, Harrison (Nicholas Logan), a square-jawed military grunt who isn’t particularly fond of gay people.
Desperate to appease everyone, Larry impulsively invites Harrison to stay with them for the weekend. Before he’s even arrived, however, things take an eerie turn as Larry’s friends reveal the house’s dark secret: previous owner Sylvia (Veanne Cox) reportedly butchered her son, Phillip (Camden Garcia), with a cleaver and buried him on the property before being executed by an angry mob. Eager to spill the tea on the murder, the group cracks open Nico’s “book of spells” and settles around a table for a seance.
As a horror comedy, Summoning Sylvia certainly leans harder into the comedic elements of its script, but that’s part of its strength. Rather than going down the typical haunted house route that audiences have come to expect from such films, it instead generates tension by exploring the dangers that can come from leaping to conclusions based on preconceived notions. There are bumps in the night and plenty of gay shrieking, but Summoning Sylvia is trying less to scare and more to entertain.
The film’s biggest asset is its cast, who have such natural chemistry that the audience is quickly invited into their inner circle. The banter between the four friends is as sharp as Sylvia’s cleaver and endlessly entertaining, which makes the arrival of gruff Harrison such an effective shock to the system.
Taylor and Wyse’s script does a nice job of showing how hard and heart-breaking code-switching can be as Larry wipes off his eyeshadow and practices his “straight” talk after hours of carefree dancing and kiki-ing with his friends. While the film is joyously excessive, Coles still manages to inject small subtleties into his performance. We see Larry’s self-confidence falter as his safe space is violated by a hostile force. He shifts from the fierce mother of the house into a meek shell of himself, and his journey throughout the film is compelling to watch.
But it’s Harrison who undergoes the biggest arc in Summoning Sylvia, and the filmmakers deserve kudos for not writing a one-dimensional strawman bigot. The titular Sylvia, too, is given more depth than she appears to have at first glance. There’s some dramatic weight that was left on the table as the film unspools the mystery behind the slaying, but the story still satisfies, with the ending sure to leave a smile on your face.
Summoning Sylvia is a treat for queer genre fans. For a low-budget film, it’s slick and well edited, and at just 74 minutes, it makes for a snappy watch. It’s the kind of movie that will be nigh incomprehensible (or just plain infuriating) to some straight people. But to the audience it’s made for, it’s one you’ll want to summon again to show to friends.
