So a group of college students perform a seance to communicate with the ghost of a young girl and accidentally open a spectral door for a malevolent spirit to come in. Doesn't sound like much, does it? Imagine my happy surprise when Seance turned out to be a creepy and compelling horror film.

I'm not saying Seance hits all the right buttons or earns itself a spot in the horror hall of fame, but this is by no means a bad or disappointing viewing experience. There's obviously no pleasing the critics who described this movie as dull, unimaginative and cheesy. Painful to watch? These critics couldn't be talking about the film I just saw. I'll grant you that there are some cliches in play here -- the peeping tom security guy, the nerdy loner at the end of the hall, even the whole scenario of the ghostly little girl and the goofy seance. On the other hand, not one of these horny coeds dies having sex, there is only the barest modicum of nudity, the plot never devolves into a brainless slasher film, and the story colors far outside the lines of any paint-by-numbers script I'm aware of.

They say the little ghost girl isn't creepy enough. I suppose they would rather have a Japanese kid with layers of mascara around her eyes or horns on her head or something. Don't most ghosts look like they looked before they died? Just because the body's rotting in some grave doesn't mean the dead person's spirit has to have maggots crawling out of her eyes.

OK, let me stop defending this film long enough to briefly describe it. Cute coed Lauren (Kandis Erickson) believes that her dorm room is haunted by the ghost of a little girl, but the fact that the bathroom sink turns on by itself and tubes of toothpaste tend to arrange themselves in a circle on the bathroom floor three times a week doesn't seem to bother her roommates Alison (Chauntal Lewis) and Melina (Tori White). However, Lauren soon learns that Grant (Joel Geist), the weird and reclusive guy down the hall, has also seen the little girl -- he has even identified her as a little girl that fell down the elevator shaft of the building 40 years earlier.

Just for a lark, Alison's boyfriend Diego (A.J. Lamas) suggests they perform a seance to try and communicate with the alleged ghost. That turns out to be a very bad idea, as the spirit they succeed in calling is not the little girl.

This all takes place over the Thanksgiving holidays, when there are only six people in a 20-story dorm locked up tighter than Jack Benny's wallet. I think this virtually empty behemoth of a building adds much to the atmosphere, as does the periodic appearance of the ghost child. Unfortunately, the special effects for the other ghost's appearances and disappearances are rather amateurish. Another problem is the fact that the gang basically make up their own spirit-invoking rules as they go along.

The ending isn't exactly unpredictable, either, but the path the story took to that ending did pick up some tension and suspense along the way. Seance isn't going to make you jump out of your seat by any means, but it does sustain a level of disquiet in the background and is capable of invoking a few moments of creepiness. The acting is much better than you'll find in most low-budget horror movies, and the few gory scenes are presented quite well indeed. I hope horror fans will ignore the critics and give this film a chance.