The struggling British film industry commits another blunder with this highly predictable horror film, produced with part funding from the French who now probably regret their decision. I can't say that this film will do much for cultural relations as it is really a major disappointment from the beginning. I had been meaning to catch this at the cinema and never did, now I know why. The lame and clichéd antics never for one single second add up to anything other than overwhelming boredom and the overall result is that you are left feeling that you've seen it all before, and if you're anything of a horror fan like me then you will have. First off the film attempts to appeal to the teen audience with a group of foul-mouthed youngsters having sex, taking drugs and doing all of the other things that teenagers supposedly do. Sadly the cast is a largely uninteresting bunch with only one or two half decent actors in there. The rest just woodenly say their lines without any conviction and make no impact at all.Most of the faces are unfamiliar with only a couple of exceptions to hook in something of an audience. First we have Joe Absolom, a guy who had a role on popular British soap EASTENDERS a few years back; but I don't remember his acting being this bad back then! Absolom is given a fairly dramatic character to contend with but his efforts are hardly noteworthy. Now, remember how old British B-films back in the '60s and '70s used to have imported American stars to appeal to the American audience? They've done the same thing here with the appearance of former child star Lukas Haas (WITNESS), now a gangly twentysomething who enjoys playing with a video camera (for no other reason than to recall THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT). Although Haas gives only an adequate performance he still turns out to be the best actor in the film.The stupid plot concerns the oh-so-predictable antics surrounding a ouija board séance that gets out of hand. An unseen djinn is summoned and proceeds to wreak havoc by…killing off the teenagers one by one. A good opportunity for some imaginative deaths and gore, you might think? Sadly not. The deaths are skimmed over, major characters disappear only to later be found in elevator shafts, etc. The idea of an ancient djinn as a monster has already been done in the superior WISHMASTER and besides which the budget doesn't stretch to any special effects (other than some cheap snake eye morphing stuff), so instead one of the teens gets possessed and we're left trying to figure out which one.Although this film is shot well, the direction is poor (first-timer Marcus Adams really needs to try harder and stop messing around) and the editing is hopeless, just random scenes strung together in a sequence with no idea of time frame or anything. My favourite bit is a suspenseful moment where Lukas Haas is trapped in a dark house with the monster, but it's quickly and predictably over and the film once again goes downhill from there. The finale is yet another of those tired "twist ending" clichés we all know and hate. Only sadists need apply for this uninteresting talkathon.

Looking for some fun, a group of Londoners play with a Ouija Board and soon afterward find themselves being and stalked and killed by a malevolent spirit and must try to find a way of stopping the rampage before they all are killed.This here was quite an enjoyable effort. Among the better aspects here are the absolutely tense and thrilling stalking scenes here, which give this one a really great atmosphere in some tense scenes. The beginning séance here is pretty chilling as the growling realization of something in the room with them resulting in the surreal stalking on the roof and kill above the club, the tense stalking in the boar wondering who's around them and a rather exciting sequence where the y break into a neighbors' loft only to come across the connection to previous incidents throughout here that they have to successfully avoid the tenant to make it out safely are all rather exciting, while the bathroom stall attack as well gives this some rather exciting times. Even more fun is the final half here, as there's a really enjoyable attack in their flat where the two witnessing their tapes are convinced someone's there and must try to get out without being discovered, another thrilling Ouija board sequence that leads into the chase around the warehouse that's fun and quite creepy y and bringing up the really exciting finale where the reveal of the possessed individual brawling through the area while offering the blazing resolution that's full of action here and plays off some nice gags that make for a great time overall here. There's also the rather enjoyable way in which this one goes along with the mangled bodies around with the burn marks on their bodies that's quite gruesome and brutal, giving this some great points here over its flaws. The biggest issues here is that like most of that vintage-era United Kingdom efforts there's such a dreary pace here, even on the suspense or action scenes, to stretch this out quite far than it really should. The summoning and its aftermath take forever to get through, and there's quite a long period of time here where they go over the fates of everyone involved which really gets this on a rather bland, overall boring pace within this. The only other factor here against this one is the really easy way of the group towards the explanations offered, buying into this one pretty easily done with absolutely lame research which makes how they would know quite problematic and just a little silly. Beyond these issues, there's a lot to like here.Rated R: Graphic Language, Graphic Language and drug use.

Saw this when it was released and I didn't think all that much of it. Thought it was quite poor. I hadn't seen it since, until now and I didn't find it as bad as I last remembered. However there are no pretensions that it's your typical run-of-the-mill, forgettable little post-scream British horror flick outing. Almost like a dark supernatural slasher, as a evil entity (Djinn - fire spirit) possesses a human body and goes about killing the college friends who were involved in summoning it through a Ouija board. That who it possess is kept hidden until the film's climax, as red herrings are thrown up and back-stories are revealed. The main problem I had with it were the characters themselves… quite an unlikeable, bland and indistinguishable bunch of players. Surprisingly the ones which might have seem important in some shape to carry it (the few sympathetic turns with some sensibility) were killed off early and this actually made it unpredictable it what order they would dwindle down to. The typical traits are there; false build ups, reckless decisions, surprising revelations to keep the story moving, roaming shadows, distracting noises, characters finding out the truth to only be killed, ghastly shocks with flowing blood, the killer POV shots and a cheap lasting jolt to close up shop. Director / co-writer Marcus Adams' escalates some suspenseful frights and paces it well enough, but still its slick and flashy techniques are systematically vanilla. Special effects are efficient (sped up visuals and CGI) and the simmering score heightens the danger with its heart-racing cues. The performances are okay focusing on a hip young British cast (Hass' the exception) with the ladies (Marsha Thomason, Lara Bellmount and Melanie Gutteridge) standing head over heals over the boys (Lukas Hass, Ale Newman, Joe Absolom, James Hillier and Mel Raido).

This movie seems to owe a huge debt to Final Destination, in that the film is primarily about horrible fate hunting down a group of teens one-by-one.I found the characters even more cardboard-cutout than those in F.D. Main difference is that here the threat is personified, but the boogity stays so undeveloped that this is a weakness. The father should have been developed quite a bit more, and the landlord could have been a very interesting pivot point for the story, instead of serving merely as a red herring or distraction.The fact that the ending was actually an ending, rather than a Hollywood sequel-tease was nice, however.Watchable, but only just. If, however, you go all weak-kneed over mush-moufed British accents, you might like it more than I did.