THE SEMINAR – SYNOPSIS
A spine-tingling thriller, THE SEMINAR enfolds the viewer in an atmosphere of eerie, uncanny suspense. The film preys upon our primal fear that our nightmares could break through our subconscious and become real the moment we realize that we all live alongside our shadow. Some shadows, however, are much darker than others …
Isabelle is a self-confident, ambitious and successful journalist whose life is suddenly – and inexplicably – drained of its brightness and optimism when her boyfriend Patrick proposes marriage. Although they are in a loving relationship, his proposal triggers in her a recurring nightmare in which she is haunted by a faceless woman. In an effort to help his fiancée, Patrick takes her to a weekend psychotherapeutic group seminar deep in the mountains. While Isabelle is sceptical about the therapist, Thomas, and his methods, she is nothing less than terrified when she encounters the woman from her dreams during the first therapy session, called a “constellation,” in which the participants take on various roles in order to depict and play out their anxieties. Concerned, Patrick suggests that they leave immediately. However, Isabelle insists that she wants to uncover the background of Thomas’s system and discover the source of this nightmare woman. Isabelle’s obvious psychic powers do not escape the therapist, who feels drawn to the intense young woman. His assistant Diana, however, a medium herself, feels increasingly disturbed and threatened by Isabelle’s powerful presence. When one of the participants is found dead, Diana warns the others that they have opened a Pandora’s box of terror. Patrick also undergoes a radical transformation and soon finds himself torn between his love for Isabelle and his erotic attraction to Diana. When another member of the group dies under mysterious circumstances, Diana is quick to blame Isabelle for the deaths. Fearing that Patrick could become the next victim, Isabelle finally submits to her own “constellation” in an effort to unravel the secret that lies deep within her. Meanwhile, the faceless woman from Isabelle’s dreams has finally become human and starts pulling her deeper and deeper into an abyss of horror …
