As one of the few major horror films to be made on these shores since Clive Barker鈥檚 1987 "Hellraiser", you'd be forgiven for thinking that "Long Time Dead" might actually be quite good.
With a cast that includes Joe Absolom from , Lukas Haas from "Mars Attacks!", and some decent CGI effects, you might even think that it's a contender for the first decent horror film of the year... but you'd be wrong.
When a group of dim-witted students foolishly muck about with a Ouija board and inadvertently summon a rather nasty demon, the scene is set for a series of brutal killings as the gang is picked off one by one. And don't they deserve it - wandering around like gormless idiots. None of these guys have the first idea about the rules of a horror film. Forget shouting advice at the screen, you'll be cheering as each and every one of these numbskulls gets sliced 'n' diced.
Fortunately, first-time helmer Marcus Adams knows a little more about the horror genre than his characters, and manages to breathe some good shocks into several of the major scenes. Best of these is the external shot of the students' house, where we watch as the demon stalks the luckless occupant - as the monster goes up the stairs the lights on each floor switch off one by one.
These few good scares combined with a back-story about 70s Satanists and some atmospheric urban locations result in an undeniably silly, but passably entertaining, British horror flick.