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Spirit Trap (2005)

Director: David Smith

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From Time Out London

A handful of students are naively chuffed to find themselves assigned to a run-down north London manor house where imposing staircase, creepy cellar, locked attic and blood-drenched history come as standard. Then nice guy Nick (Sam Troughton) has a rummage inside a mysterious old clock and things start to go bump in the night for him, troubled, sensitive Jenny (Billie Piper), distant, vampish Tina (Russian R&B singer Alsou), wide-boy dealer Tom (Luke Mably) and his arsey girlfriend Adele (Emma Catherwood). Despite restricting its action to this bijou version of the archetypal old, dark house, ‘Spirit Trap’ – which is more ghost yarn than slasher flick – struggles to achieve real claustrophobia. Former commercials director David Smith offers some eerily lit interiors and there are effective (if derivative) moments of perception-warping paradox or conscience-pricking visitation; there are even some Hideo Nakata-style waterworks. But the script’s lumbering pace, yawn-making backstory and cloth-eared dialogue prove too great an obstacle: credit to Troughton for managing to mumble Nick’s admission that he’s ‘not very good at small talk’ with a straight face.

Author: BW 2005-08-09 12:36:26

Time Out London Issue 1825: August 10-17, 2005