Looks like teen spirit

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 18/11/2024 (415 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba actress Summer Howell was embraced early in her career by the horror genre, starring opposite a certain homicidal doll in Don Mancini’s Winnipeg-lensed Curse of Chucky (2013) at the tender age of eight.

That role, and Mancini’s enthusiasm for her work — “Even then, it was obvious she was very talented, intelligent and delightful,” Mancini told the Free Press — facilitated her return to the genre again and again, appearing in a season of the cable series Channel Zero, Shawn Linden’s harrowing 2020 thriller Hunter Hunter, and the 2023 possession thriller All Fun and Games.

She has also ventured outside the genre, starring in the dramatic Disney movie Clouds opposite Sabrina Carpenter, and in last year’s fact-based TV drama, playing the title role in Abducted by My Teacher: The Elizabeth Thomas Story.

But Howell has returned to horror, front and centre, in Spirit in the Blood, written and directed by Canadian director Carly Mae Borgstrom.

Howell plays Emerson Grimm, a sheltered teen who arrives in the seemingly hostile religious community where her father grew up. There, she learns of a “monster” that apparently killed a teen girl.

The socially awkward Emerson teams with fellow outcast Delilah (Sarah-Maxine Racicot) to work out a ritual that will protect them from the creature, empowering them in the face of a faltering patriarchy.

Howell, on a Zoom call from her home in St. Andrews, just north of Winnipeg, says the role was a long time coming to her.

“I auditioned for it when I was 15 in Montreal. I was filming Clouds at the time,” says Howell, now 20.

“I was just so in love with the character and I was very excited to play her. I just had the feeling that it was meant to be.”

It was, as it turned out, but she didn’t get the role until she was 18.

“They lost their funding for a while,” Howell says.

In 2022, Borgstrom finally called her to talk about the role.

“I remember shaking, I was so nervous, but I felt comfortable with her. I never had that kind of connection with someone,” Howell says.

“She sent the offer, and a few months later, I was in Toronto filming.”

For young actors, it is standard procedure to play younger than you actually are, but that could be difficult for a young woman who wants to put the awkward adolescent years behind her.

“I look a lot younger than I am, but I see it as a blessing I can play teenagers, hopefully, till I’m 30 or more, although it’s not like I want to be playing teenagers by then,” Howell says.

For the role of Emerson, Howell says she used her own experience to tap into her character’s emotional upheaval.

“As an actor, I loved working in horror. It’s just an exciting genre to be working in. You’re doing things that nobody else does every day.”– Summer Howell

“I looked 15, but I was 18, but I definitely needed those three years, just to grow as a person and develop my own story. I went through different friendships, the very raw emotions of it all and experienced that (turmoil) myself, and I really brought that to the movie,” she says.

While the film is marketed as a horror film, Howell says she might quibble with that label, calling it a coming-of-age thriller with horror elements.

Not that she doesn’t respect the genre.

“As an actor, I loved working in horror. It’s just an exciting genre to be working in. You’re doing things that nobody else does every day,” she says.

Another plus: Spirit in the Blood allows Howell to proudly show her work to her more squeamish friends and family.

“I have family members who are scared to watch my horror films,” she says. “This is the first time I’m telling them: ‘It’s not that scary. There’s not too much gore to it. It’s a lot about suspense, and what is happening to these girls.’”

Spirit in the Blood is available to buy or rent on streaming services such as Apple TV.

randall.king.arts@gmail.com