Poltergeist

This "things that go bump in the night" excursion is a decent, sharply written remake of Tobe Hooper's highly rated horror. As with the 1982 original (based on a rare Steven Spielberg story), the setting is an ordinary suburban home suddenly beset by something spooky, with the family's youngest child Madison (Kennedi Clements) garnering particularly unwanted attention. Sam Rockwell stars as the increasingly nerve-wracked dad who calls in Jared Harris's flamboyant TV ghost hunter when Madison is abducted by otherworldly entities. Monster House director Gil Kenan skilfully combines familiar scary-movie clichés with more original touches, including an innovative use of drone technology, and comes up with a better-than-average remake. It's high on atmosphere, low on tedium and the effects are unnervingly effective. And if the film doesn't quite tingle the spine like Hooper's did, then maybe that's because we're just harder to scare when every other horror flick seems to be a Paranormal Activity, Insidious or Sinister.