By JILLIAN KRISTINA
Starring Krystal Millie Valdes, Ernesto Reyes, Jesse Tayeh and Isabelle Muthiah
Directed by Jon Garcia
Written by Zach Carter and Jon Garcia
Dark Star Pictures/Lake Productions
“Remember, we’re doing this because we have to. It’s fire season, and during fire season we fight fires, or there’s no work. We need this. It’s just acres.”
As two wildfire firefighters decide to take matters into their own hands during a slow season, they’re unaware of the eyes behind the trees. They’re unaware of the ears their words just fell upon.
“It’s just acres.”
As soon as the words fall flat, those attached to those eyes and ears come to show the couple just what these acres mean to them.
“Mother holds her secrets close. So close, they never leave this forest.”
Carla (Krystal Millie Valdes) and Dean (Ernesto Reyes) arrive at a rural cabin nestled deep in the woods, with the intention of starting a new life. Carla, pregnant with their first child, is a therapist looking to focus on her private practice, while Dean, a former history teacher turned historical fiction author, is looking for a remote setting to write his next book. Although more expensive than they had budgeted for, the cabin is the perfect setting to escape city life and begin to put down lasting roots. But what (or who) Carla and Dean don’t know yet are their neighbors, the Mountain People. This collective worships the Spirit of the forest, and the Spirit is about to show everyone exactly what it wants.
In Zach Carter and Jon Garcia’s SUMMONING THE SPIRIT, the story of the legendary Sasquatch, or Spirit, permeates the wooded landscape. In some paranormal circles, Bigfoot is hypothesized to be an actual ghost, which would explain its ability to appear and disappear without a trace so rapidly. Here, the creature (Sean Sisson) is presented as both a hulking, growling, very physical and very homicidal cryptid and a spiritual entity, revered, worshiped and even ritualized with sacrifices.
After suffering a traumatizing loss, Carla and Dean seem to become lost themselves; Dean struggles to summon the words for his next novel, while Carla, desperate for connection, reels in loneliness and despair. Cue Celeste (Isabelle Muthiah), a charismatic hitchhiker on her way to join the Mountain People, who persuades Carla to not only give her a ride but to visit the group herself. Celeste becomes the catalyst – the open door – to the mysterious, outrageous and often cringey practices of this chanting, dancing, barking delusional group. Carla has a big role to play within this cult, one that no one, not even the leader, Arlo (Jesse Tayeh), is aware of until the shocking, dismembered, blood-splattered climax.
SUMMONING THE SPIRIT attempts to shed light on the very real, very primal power of legend and the core desire to return to nature in whatever form that may take. The cult energy is layered thick with the expected camp and wavering delivery that only a group of isolated, mentally unstable hippies can produce. The Spirit continues on, roaming the woods in a new vessel, breathing fresh life and a fresh addition to the myth that continues to stir the minds and hearts of paranormal and cryptid investigators everywhere.
SUMMONING THE SPIRIT is available on digital and DVD.
