After sharing the screen with Sabrina Carpenter, Canadian Summer H. Howell leads 'Spirit in the Blood'
"It felt great, like I was just unlocking a new part of myself," Howell said
After starring alongside Sabrina Carpenter in the 2020 movie Clouds, directed by Justin Baldoni, Summer H. Howell leads the thriller Spirit in the Blood. Directed and by written by Carly May Borgstrom, Howell plays Emerson who moves with her parents to the religious mountain town her father grew up in, where she starts seeing a monster responsible for the deaths of local teenage girls.
Being the new girl is school, Emerson has trouble making friends, except for Delilah (Sarah-Maxine Racicot), who's a social outcast at school as well. While Delilah is initially the only person who believes that Emerson saw this monster, many teen girls have to come together, harnessing their power by performing rituals in the woods, to protect themselves.
'I really saw myself in the character'
For Howell, who initially auditioned for the role when she was 15 (when she was filming Clouds), she felt a particularly close connection to Emerson.
"I really saw myself in the character Emerson, I think it said she was pale and a little underdeveloped for her age, and at the time I really related to that," Howell told Yahoo Canada. "I was just a kid and I was really excited for the character. I loved the script. Without giving too much away, I get to be kind of a badass."
"Being 15 years old to 18 filming, I had three years to develop and meet people, go through friendships that last, or don't last, and kind of just learn myself. So I definitely used a lot of info from real life and feelings and all of that to put it into Emerson and into the movie."
Buy Spirit in the Blood on platforms like Apple TV for $14.99, or rent for $6.99
Howell added that she "loved" working with Borgstrom.
"Carly was fantastic, probably one of my favourite directors to date," Howell stressed. "I have a really strong friendship with her now, which is awesome."
"She's definitely an actor's director. She always wanted us to feel comfortable, especially knowing that we were younger girls on set, and ... she had our best interest in mind, and she let us have some freedom with the characters, while also guiding us and answering any questions we had."
'I'd never really done stuff like that with a group of girls'
The particularly paramount moments in the film come when these teen girls come together, but it's actually something Howell didn't have a lot of experience with as an actor.
"At first, I was a little nervous just working with girls my age in general, or kids my age, because I hadn't really done that before, at least not for a huge project like that," Howell said. "Those scenes were honestly my favourite scenes to film, anything where we're being crazy, or outside in nature, or dancing around, doing the rituals."
"It felt great, like I was just unlocking a new part of myself, because I'd never really done stuff like that with a group of girls. ... It was just so much good energy on set, always, especially with the group of girls."
Spirit in the Blood is now in select theatres and available to buy or rent on platforms like Apple TV