With every instalment a franchise needs to be injected with fresh blood. And in horror genre you need an extra dose of gore as well. Director Leigh Wannhell takes a step back for this prequel and lets the story, howsoever sketchy it is, and the characters breathe before unravelling the tricks of CGI. The charming young Quinn (Stefanie Scott) wants to contact her dead mother. But before she gets the expert help in the form of a tough psychic Elise (Lin Shaye) she inadvertently evokes an evil spirit, who makes her suffer.
Quinn breaks her legs in an accident and when she is bed-ridden she is spooked by the spirits. She can’t move making the target audience suffer with Quinn.
Wannhell takes time to build the story and creates characters in flesh and blood, a rarity in horror genre. Scott makes us pull for Quinn and Mulroney chips in as the frustrated father.
And as we begin to feel that Wannhell might not turn the creaking doors this time, the director shifts gears with a series of chilling effects, some of which are worthy of unsettling even the veterans of horror fan club.
The chapter doesn’t teach us anything new but it has serviceable characters and scares to keep the teenagers occupied.
