Solstice

One of the things parents have to struggle with is keeping objectionable and upsetting material away from their young children. As you might guess, my parents were way too busy. If you have a pre-teen who wants to watch a horror movie, might I suggest Solstice. Other than some drinking, there’s nearly nothing to object to in the movie (it’s the most violence-free horror movie I’ve ever seen), and there wouldn’t be anything to disturb your little darlings. Although they’ll be so bored future addiction to crack will be almost inevitable, there’s a price to everything.

Megan and her friends go to her parents’ lakehouse for a week away from school (I think it’s supposed to be high school, although they look like college upper-classmen at best. This is Megan’s first outing since her twin sister killed herself, and she is trying to get over it, hence the outing with her friends, two nondescript girls and two completely obnoxious guys. The leader of the group, Mark, is that character I’ve discussed before, The Person Too Irritating To Exist In Real Life. Usually, this character is justified by being the one who owns the house/island/jet, but here, there’s no reason for the other four to not strangle him and throw his body in the bayou. They don’t, which is the biggest mystery of the movie.

Once there, Megan begins to believe she is haunted by her dead sister Sophie. With the aid of Nick, the studly Cajun who works at the gas station (and who is about to leave for Loyola on an academic scholarship, satisfying the rule in movies that no young character can appear ordinary), the group performs a séance or something to communicate with dead Sophie. You’d think this would be the beginning of the film, but it doesn’t happen until the one hour mark. The séance goes wrong, as evidenced by bubbles in the lake. Nothing much else happens, although the not terribly interesting mystery in the movie is revealed, and it eventually ends.

The cast is good, and the movie is professionally made, but it is a snoozefest. This is a remake of the Danish movie Midsommer, which may or may not have been better.
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