Low expectations are the key to enjoying Wake Wood

A low-budget movie from the revamped Hammer Horror stable, Wake Wood may be a victim of its own success.

Critics are raving about the story of a Dublin family torn apart by grief, then offered a spooky lifeline when they move to the countryside. Yet David Keating's flesh-ripper owes way too much to superior films (Don't Look Now, The Wicker Man).

It also boasts several dodgy performances, TV-movie camerawork and plot twists that defy belief (the scriptwriters obviously know nothing about ovulation, for example).

They do seem to know a bit about farming - the bleak stuff - and coax a brilliant turn from Ella Connolly as a lugubrious child. Low expectations are the key to enjoying Wake Wood. You have been warned.

Wake Wood
Cert: 18