Spell is unlike anything you’ve seen before featuring actors who deliver performances that will have you speechless. In Spell, Omari Hardwick plays a tenacious, wealthy lawyer named Marquis T. Woods who wins at any costs, earning the admiration of his boss.
Now living upstate with his wife (Lorraine Burroughs) and self-absorbed teenage children (Kalifa Burton, Hannah Gonera) in the sort of modernized home that could be featured in Architectural Digest. But when Marquise receives word that his estranged father has died, he impulsively decides to fly his family on his private plane to attend the funeral in the rural Appalachian town where he grew up.
However, superstition rules the area even in the corners of an airstrip gas station sells gear for warding off conjurers.
Marquis’s tiny plane gets caught in a storm. He wakes up injured in an attic bed and is greeted by a woman named Eloise (Loretta Devine), who tells him there’s no phone. With Marquis locked in, she administers a variety of folk treatments, making a doll in his likeness. Does Marquis look down on this sinister hospitality from Eloise and her husband (John Beasley)? Has he forgotten he was raised steeped in superstitions like theirs?
Spell is filled with twists, mystery and intrigue that’ll keep you guessing until the very end. Despite its ode to the Hitchcock classic Misery, Spell is less about the woman who goes bump in the night and more about the cost of running from your past, the sins of the father and realizing falling under the spells of trying to fit into society is more dangerous than an old lady in a house.
Director Mark Tonderai is no stranger to crafting the perfect thriller. His breakthrough psychological movie, House at the End of the Street helped Jennifer Lawrence become one of the most talked about actresses.
The Koalition spoke to Tonderai about directing Spell, the research behind paying respect to voodoo, getting Loretta Devine to star in her first thriller, his love of music, how the film’s location inspired the look of Spell and more.
Spell is available now on digital platforms | Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video, Google Play, DirecTV, VUDU, Xfinity, FandangoNOW and more.
Check out our interview below.
