Rent The Dead Room (2015)

Good claustrophobic horror with a disappointing ending. - The Dead Room review by NP

Three paranormal investigators explore an abandoned house: older, occasionally prickly Scott (Jeffrey Thomas), easy going Liam (Jed Brophy) and noticeably underplayed Holly (Laura Peterson). Holly is keen on wearing shorts and thigh-length socks – when she changes into more standard jeans, her acting seems to come to life!

Director and co-writer Jason Stutter goes for a slow burning atmosphere, where the regularity of gentle scares becomes increasingly creepy, and the familiarity of the excellent haunted house set/location allows us to anticipate that things are going to get scary even before they do. There’s a reasonably effective twist too, but once that has been revealed, the action steps up and things aren’t quite as successful. For a leisurely moving horror, the pay-off is disappointingly brief and non-conclusive, although on second viewing, I enjoyed it more, knowing what was to come.

This isn’t the only story where the journey is more interesting than the destination, but it’s a shame that a carefully layered story should feature a finale that casts a comparatively lacklustre shadow over it all. My score is 7 out of 10.