Long Time Dead review

Sick of Brit flicks trying to rip-off Tarantino gangster-fests? Well, here's one that wants to be Wes Craven, serving up a half-arsed tale of young ravers meddling with the dead via an ouija board.

It's a bad idea for two big reasons - - one being that Britain has a perfectly adequate horror heritage that doesn't need soiling, the other that Craven's recent output has had all the entertainment value of a pickaxe to the head. Plus, while setting the clock back to the pre-irony age is a welcome touch, Long Time Dead trades in standard stalk `n' slash clichés, mixes in a fire demon and lets the script write itself. Not good.

The cast do their best with the cipher-quality characters (the hero, the plucky girl, the weird one etc.), the CG effects are half-decent and there's the odd twist, but it's strictly seen-it-all-before stuff. With films like The Devil's Backbone and The Others out there, best save your money for the less derivative cine-chillers.