The Possession of Hannah Grace - Sky Cinema Premiere

Things go bump in the night for Shay Mitchell

A jittery ex-cop battles a possessed corpse that refuses to lie down in this unnerving chiller. 3/5 stars

Haunted by the death of her partner and battling addiction issues, Megan (Shay Mitchell) takes a job working the graveyard shift at a Boston hospital morgue.

Her first night sees delivery of the mutilated corpse of a teenage girl - a charred, hacked and twisted cadaver that won't stay put and somehow has the power to heal itself. Having already seen the eponymous Hannah go through an unsuccessful exorcism in the opening scene, we know her body is demonically possessed...

This supernatural horror thriller has elements that are all too familiar to the genre - including a supporting cast of friends and colleagues whose only purpose is to provide potential victims.

However, Dutch-born, US-based director Diederik van Rooijen manages to overcome his film's rote script to create some genuinely unnerving chills and thrills. The clinical setting proves surprisingly threatening - watch out for the hospital's motion-activated lights - and the sound design is similarly unsettling.

Most effectively menacing of all, though, is contortionist/dancer Kirby Johnson's uncanny performance as the corpse that refuses to lie down.

CATEGORIES

A film critic for over 25 years, Jason admits the job can occasionally be glamorous – sitting on a film festival jury in Portugal; hanging out with Baz Luhrmann at the Chateau Marmont; chatting with Sigourney Weaver about The Archers – but he mostly spends his time in darkened rooms watching films. He’s also written theatre and opera reviews, two guide books on Rome, and competed in a race for Yachting World, whose great wheeze it was to send a seasick film critic to write about his time on the ocean waves. But Jason is happiest on dry land with a classic screwball comedy or Hitchcock thriller.