To say that this spin-off from The Conjuring is a slow-burner does not even begin to cover how dull and tedious most of it is to watch. There are only so many times you can hear floorboards creak, see doors close themselves and lights flicker, to the extent that you wish our anodyne couple at the centre of it all would just call in some competent tradespeople to fix things rather than the kindly but gullible old priest. Alfree Woodard, as expected, provides a quiet and restrained dignity to her role as the bookstore owner who befriends the couple, but Annabelle Wallis and Ward Horton are simply restrained and make little impact. After a lively opening, there is some fun to be had ticking off the genre greats - Poltergeist, The Omen, Rosemary's Baby, The Amityville Horror and so on - but there is little else to keep interest as it grinds its way to the join-the-dots-to-the-original ending.
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