HOUSE OF PURGATORY ** USA 2016 Dir: Tyler Christensen. 75 mins
Two high school couples manage to locate a haunted house attraction where cash is paid for every floor the participants can survive. Long the stuff of whispered urban legend, it turns out to be real, and home to a series of disorientating levels that force the protagonists to confront their personal demons in a suitably mind-fucking fashion.
This slickly made chiller has a pleasingly sinister turn from Brian Krause as the ominous gatekeeper but fails to deliver the required intensity. The character backstories are clichéd (domestic abuse, abortion guilt, etc) and the execution bland, making for an adolescent entry-level horror movie at best. The episodic plot hinges on the kind of twist ending that Amicus anthology movies were regularly showcasing around 50 years ago (the clue is in the title…).
Review by Steven West