Osgood Perkins directs Ruth Wilson, Paula Prentiss and Bob Balaban in this very relaxed and pretentious arthouse chiller.

Hmmm… the kinda film you want to be better than it is. It looks handsome, the ensemble is diverting and the trap should work but it is never triggered. Preferring to be puzzling rather than gripping, deathly slow rather than seductive. I guess it takes more than occasional unseen hand pulling a phonecord to make a decent Shirley Jackson-esque horror. For a better stab at a shocker where nothing happens try The House of the Devil instead.

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