The Quiet Ones

This slow-burning terror tale from the 21st-century incarnation of Hammer Films recalls science-versus-occult shockers The Haunting, The Exorcist and The Legend of Hell House. In 1974, young cameraman Sam Claflin joins Oxford professor Jared Harris and his student acolytes at an out-of-the-way rural mansion to try to record the unspeakable force that resides within suicidal teenager Olivia Cooke. But is it a poltergeist, demonic possession or something else that ails the girl? And will Claflin's feelings for her influence the outcome? The post-Blair Witch glut of found-footage films - Paranormal Activity, especially - means a bit of this chiller's thunder has been stolen, but some heart-stopping moments and potent performances, particularly from Cooke, more than compensate for any overfamiliarity with the plot. If you like your scary stories jumpy and bumpy rather than bloody and gory, then this haunting Hammer horror will be right up your (dark) alley.