The Diabolical

Comparisons are bound to be made between Alistair Legrand's haunted house thriller and Nicholas McCarthy's The Pact (2012), and not just because they share a producer in Ross M Dinerstein. Because there's a canny twist (even if it's somewhat contrived here), which forces the audience to view the terrors plaguing a single mother (Ali Larter) and her children from a new angle. Despite facing foreclosure, Larter resists the threats of a tech company representative (Patrick Fischler) and copes with the anxiety of a social worker (Merrin Dungey) over her daughter's anger-management issues. But her primary concern is that her kids' veins turn black when they try to leave the property, and her fears are scarcely allayed when her boyfriend (Arjun Gupta) confesses his involvement in a teleportation experiment. The performances are capable, the paranormal effects flashily effective, but although the plot becomes needlessly busy, Legrand fails to generate palpable terror and the ending feels rather rushed.