Totem is a 2017 American supernatural horror film directed by Marcel Sarmiento (The Wildness; V/H/S Viral; The ABCs of Death; Deadgirl) from a screenplay co-written with Evan Dickson. Kerris Dorsey, Ahna O’Reilly and James Tupper star.
Plot:
A teenage girl has to resort to extreme measures to protect her family from a supernatural entity…
Reviews:
“There is something to be said for a film that can take rehashed scares that have largely become inside jokes amongst horror fans (loud thump, something falls off the wall, lady in white suddenly appears) and can create something entertaining with them. Totem will not blow your mind, but it will make you cringe in disgust for a couple moments.” Bloody Disgusting
“Totem can be summed up by saying it’s ironically appropriate for the Amazon Video poster art to simply be white text on a plain black background. Only a generic label like this could accurately reflect the film’s store brand flavor of disappointing blandness.” Culture Crypt
“Totem starts out as a very potent horror story. Unfortunately, it ends up taking several bad turns.” Heaven of Horror
“Sure some of the haunted house happenings are kind of cliched at times and there seems to be a lot of carnage going on in a small house that isn’t noticed by others just a room away, but the unique and demented way Totem ends up makes up for all of that.” ML Miller Writes
” …the mainstream mediocrity of the first two-thirds of Totem overshadows the final shocks and the sucker-punch of the unexpected socially transgressive twist so important to the movie’s resolution. This, in turn, substantially mitigates the movie’s overall effectiveness…” A Wasted Life
Release:
Totem was released on Cinemax and VOD platforms on October 31, 2017. Blumhouse released the film internationally from November 3, 2017, onwards.
Main cast:
Kerris Dorsey … Kellie – Girl vs. Monster; R.L. Stine’s The Haunting Hour
Ahna O’Reilly … Robin – Sleepwalker; The Vampire Diaries; Succubus: Hell-Bent; Dinocroc
James Tupper … James – Beneath Us; Nothing Left to Fear
Braeden Lemasters … Todd
Lawrence Pressman … Bernard
Lia McHugh … Abby
Jocelyn Ayanna … Joan Lang
Evan Dickson … Track Coach
Aja Bair … Overeager Student
Andrew Spieler … Science Teacher
Allison Caetano … Lexy
Clips:
YouTube reviews:
