Omari Hardwick is struggling to break free in the horror feature Spell

Spell is the upcoming horror feature from director Mark Tonderai, who’s better known for his directing work on the small screen for shows like Locke & Key, Castle Rock, and Nightflyers. Well, they can’t all be winners. It’s written by Kurt Wimmer (Equilibrium – one of my favourite movies), and stars Omari Hardwick (Power) and Loretta Devine (Grey’s Anatomy).

The official plot synopsis is as follows:

While flying to his father’s funeral in rural Appalachia, an intense storm causes Marquis (Omari Hardwick) to lose control of the plane carrying him and his family.  He awakens wounded, alone and trapped in Ms. Eloise’s (Loretta Devine) attic, who claims she can nurse him back to health with the Boogity, a Hoodoo figure she has made from his blood and skin. Unable to call for help, Marquis desperately tries to outwit and break free from her dark magic and save his family from a sinister ritual before the rise of the blood moon.

Based on that it’s hard not to immediately draw a comparison to Stephen King’s Misery, which also saw a caregiver doing whatever it took to keep her patient under her control, and which won Kathy Bates a Best Actress Oscar for her role in the 1990 movie adaption. It’s also uniquely frustrating trying to google something called ‘Spell’. Anyway, let’s take a look:

On my highly technical trailer scoring scale (which only has three options – namely bad, okay, and good) this rates an “okay”. This looks like a pretty straightforward horror feature that will have some scares, not probably not many surprises – especially since the trailer laid out the entire movie quite clearly. It does look well-made though, and should prove a decent watch for fans of the genre.

What do you think?

Spell is due for release in selected US theatres and via digital and on-demand on 30 October. It also stars John Beasley, Lorraine Burroughs, and Andre Jacobs.

Last Updated: October 2, 2020