To paraphrase HP Lovecraft, terror comes from the anticipation of intense fear, while horror is what happens when such promises are delivered upon. Writer-director Bryan Bertino’s debut demonstrates a true talent for staging the former; this based-on-true-events potboiler about a couple being stalked shreds your central nervous system with an impressively professional poise. After blatantly lifting the baritone intro from original 1974 shocker The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Bertino sets the scene: James (Speedman) and Kristen (Tyler) are spending the night in his parents’ remote country house. Cue odd noises, cut phone lines and the sudden appearance of a hulking masked figure (his introduction, done with complete silence, is a peerless example of suspense through economy). Soon, two more killers show up. And then the screaming starts. Bertino understands the effectiveness of withholding release while ratcheting up the tension, and the way he patiently engineers this nightmarish ordeal is gloriously gruelling. It’s the horror part that he hasn’t yet mastered; once escape options are eliminated, the film reverts to the stock vocabulary of slasher flicks and merely becomes Funny Games with a straight face. Bertino’s cat-and-mouse chase is genuinely terrifying. If the director learns how to make what happens once the mouse is caught just as interesting, he’ll have a long, prosperous future ahead of him.

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