Summon a Fiend
2018 · 15m · USA
Directed by Eleanor Cho
Genres: comedy, fantasy, horror
Tones: darkly comic, tender, whimsical
A lonely little girl discovers a magical spell book in a library and tries to summon a friend — but misreads the incantation and conjures a ferocious demon named Dantalion instead. The unlikely pair form an unexpected bond as the demon tries to help her find companionship.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Everyone expects this premise to be a cute kid's film or a straight horror parody, and Cho completely refuses to pick a lane — instead she commits to the tenderness, which is the genuinely weird move here, and it works precisely because she won't wink at the audience about it.
The film sits comfortably in a lineage of dark fairytales and creature-companion narratives (think Labyrinth's DNA mixed with contemporary indie sensibility), but what distinguishes it is the restraint in the editing — Cho trusts the performance and the strange juxtaposition to carry the emotional weight rather than cutting for easy laughs.
The real lift happens in how Cho shoots Dantalion's eyes during moments of genuine concern for the girl — a single choice of tenderness in an objectively monstrous design — and suddenly the entire film's thesis about lonely people recognizing each other clicks into place on a budget that clearly forced her to make every frame count.
Festivals
- Transatlantyk Film Festival 2018
- LA Asian Pacific Film Festival 2018
- Cleveland International Film Festival 2019
- Boston Asian American Film Festival 2018
- NFFTY 2018
- Film Pittsburgh 2019