The Djinn are the perfect creatures for a horror movie (and were used fairly successfully in the first Wishmaster movie), but this British horror flick stumbles with the ball and comes across as mostly standard.

Opening in 1979 Morocco where a ouija board demon is unleashed this starts fairly intriguing, but soon we're thrown into modern day where a batch of twenty somethings at a party decide to rig-up a makeshift board (using scraps of paper, a drinking glass, and a table made out of crates and a sheet of glass) only to bring back the demon from the intro who proceeds to kill them off one-by-one. It turns out one of them may be possessed and when they do finally get around to putting a face to it it's totally predictable.

Directed with kinetic energy by Marcus Adams and adequately acted, this isn't a complete wash and all the expected scare scenes are there; it's just that the whole thing feels much too by-the-book, the deaths mostly take place off camera (there is one rather cool neck snapping though), and we never feel a real sense of menace about the Djinn since it's rarely seen.

Throw in a fairly weak finale (with a twist ending you can see coming miles away) and you have this bearable, but pretty passable, import.

The best moment here has one victim trapped in a closet and when the person possessed looks in through a slat their eyes change - it's almost creepy. (Chris Hartley, 12/13/04)

Directed By: Marcus Adams.
Written By: Eitan Arrusi, Daniel Bronzite, Chris Baker, Andy Day.

Starring: Joe Absolom, Lara Belmont, Melanie Gutteridge, Lukas Haas.