Quiet Ones, The (DQ)

Stars: Jared Harris, Sam Claflin, Eric Richards, Olivia Cooke, Rory Fleck-Byrne, Laurie Calvert

Director: John Pogue

Hammer Films may, like their most famous character, Count Dracula, have risen from the grave, but, on this evidence, they, in the words of Boris Karloff from Bride of Frankenstein, 'belong dead'.

This latest opus from the studio's 'revival' mixes the mad scientist genre with the demonology drama in a bewilderingly-plotted farrago about the prof's (Harris) attempts to help Jane, a possibly possessed girl (Cooke), who seems to have a demon/alter ego capable of doing very nasty things, not the least of which is creating fire.

Two Oxford students, the scallywag Abrams (Fleck-Byrne) and the nubile Krissie (Richards), plus a photographer, Brian (Claflin) record the sessions that follow, accompanying the prof when his funding is withdrawn (hardly surprising: what would Morse say?) and there is much coupling - Brian with the on/off lascivious Jane, pretty much everyone with Krissie - before things get predictably messy by the end.

Made without any of the flair that so distinguished the Hammer classics of yore, this is pretty much devoid of interest in today's horror climate. Older cinemagoers may know what I mean when I say's it's more Monogram in mood than traditional Hammer.

David Quinlan

UK/USA 2013. UK Distributor: Lionsgate (Exclusive/Hammer). Colour by Panalux.
95 minutes. Not widescreen. UK certificate: 15.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 1, Violence/Horror 1, Drugs 0, Swearing 1.

Review date: 06 Apr 2014