SUMMONING SYLVIA LGBTQ Horror Comedy Film Review – Warning! Are You Ready to Die Laughing? 🤣

The Horror Collective has released its North American theatrical and TVOD release of a daredevil LGBTQ horror comedy smothered in layers of cinematic derring-do. Written and directed by Wesley Taylor (Smash, The Spongebob Musical, it’s soon to recur on Hulu’s “Only Murders in the Building”) and Alex Wyse (Marvel’s IRON FISH, soon to join Broadway’s Good Night, Oscar).

It hit theaters nationwide March 31, 2023 and is scheduled for Cable VOD and Digital HD, four days from now: April 7, 2023.

The title sequence opening scenes set off an immediate adrenaline rush – straight, no chaser – for this reviewer. It rocked him. It rolled him. It caused him to be mesmerized and to feel as if he was being beamed right up into the screen in a blink of an eye.

Courtesy of The Horror Collective

That dynamic surge of excitement is sustained throughout SUMMONING SYLVIA, auguring rave reviews for a whacko-double-wow movie about a bachelors party in a haunted house with a legend that 100 years ago a murderously kinky mom butchered her son with a hefty meat cleaver and buried him beneath the house before a “righteous” lynch mob dispatched kinky mom in a fit of vigilante injustice.

Directors Alex Wyse and Wesley Taylor and their filmmaking troupe draw on snazzy cinematography, swank ensemble performances of a flawless cast, a wily plot infused with rapid-fire glib dialogue and storyline twists and turns galore that can spend the minds of audiences. Each scene, and this is no exaggeration, seems to have been shot as if it was the only scene to be and, therefore, the filmmakers wanted it to be picture perfect.

{Thus this hint which isn’t meant to be a spoiler. Regarding SUMMONING SYLVIA, expectations based on the way that things seem to be portrayed in the film as if written in stone do not necessarily match the way things turn out. Whew!}

Picture courtesy of TV Horror Collective

Quartet, left to right, Troy Iwata (Reggie), Noah Ricketts (Kevin), Travis Coles (Larry), and Frankie Grande (Nico). Courtesy of The Horror Collective

So:

Larry, played by Travis Coles, is in a hostage like situation. He’s been “kidnapped” by friends for a bachelor weekend getaway celebration at a house that is suppose to be haunted. The revelers frolic, cavort and shimmy their way through the corridors of the house. They are not amateurs when it comes to dealing with the occult and the supernatural.

They show up with an Ouija board, a book of spells and experiential knowledge. They are veteran necromancers, paranormal sleuths more than ready to deal with a 100-year legend about a murderous, hatchet wielding mom who bloodily dispatched her son.

Nevertheless, as the infectious fun intensifies, the conscious of a guilt-ridden Larry haunts him. Instead of galavanting in a haunted house party, he was supposed to spend the weekend bonding with his future brother-in-law, Harrison, played by Nicholas Logan. The thought of doing that caused him procrastinate and procrastinate.

Picture of Larry, played by Travis Coles, courtesy of The Horror Collective

After engaging in lengthy cellphone negotiations about his alleged oversight with his lover, Jamie, played by Michael Urie, Larry invites him and the straight-laced, heterosexual Harrison to join the party, assuring both that his friends are waiting for them with open arms.

He lies, of course.

Later, as they eventually hold the séance to summon Sylvia (played by Veanne Cox), all hell breaks out.

Larry, played by Travis Coles. Picture courtesy The Horror Collective

Picture of Sylvia, played by Veanne Cox, comes courtesy of The Horror Collective.

Cast (in credits order)


	Travis Coles	…	Larry
	Frankie Grande	…	Nico
	Troy Iwata	…	Reggie
	Noah J. Ricketts	…	Kevin
	Nicholas Logan	…	Harrison
	Michael Urie	…	Jamie
	Veanne Cox	…	Sylvia
	Camden Garcia	…	Phillip
	Sean Grandillo	…	P.B.
	Nick Martinez	…	Simon
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
	Daniel Barboza	…	Angry Mob Member #1