Alexandra Sokoloff, The Harrowing

The Harrowing

Alexandra Sokoloff

St. Martin's, Aug 2006, $21.95

ISBN: 0312357486

Most of the Baird College population has gone home or on vacation for the extended Thanksgiving weekend. Five students decide to remain on the campus. Lonely freshman Robin expected to be alone, but finds Patrick the football player, Lisa the sex siren, Cain the musician and Martin the consummate nerdy student also staying at the dorm.

Drunk and stoned the quintet play with an ouija board to pass time. However, they are shocked when it seems some essence from beyond responds. The five some assumes they have reached a long dead former student (it is a dorm), but will soon learn that they have awakened an ancient evil demon, who has caused havoc and death in the past in this very building. The five know they must team up to dispatch the malevolence attacking them as separate means certain death while banding together probably means death.

If the above reads like a teen horror flick, you have the essence of a pleasant thriller. The five students have different personalities to the point that in some ways they are classic stereotypes from the separate to slash films. Fans of light-hearted young adult horror romps will appreciate this fun movie; make that teen terror tale.

Harriet Klausner