A psychiatrist becomes obsessed with one of her young patients, who she later discovers is linked to an ancient curse.

The spirit of the Stuart Gordon H P Lovecraft horror movie lives on in Joe Lynch’s (Wrong Turn 2) gory body swap meets erotic thriller. Written by Dennis Paoli (From Beyond, Re-Animator, Dagon, The Evil Clergyman), executive produced by Brian Yuzna (Re-Animator 2, Beyond Re-Animator) and co-starring Barbara Crampton (From Beyond, Re-Animator), it certainly has appropriate talent behind it.

Very loosely based on 1933’s The Thing on the Doorstep, this gender-switched version has Crampton as psychiatrist Daniella Upton, who is dealing with friend and colleague Elizabeth Derby (Heather Graham), currently incarcerated in a padded cell at Miskatonic Medical School, Arkham, Massachusetts.

Derby has murdered a man who she claims contained an evil spirit jump that can jump between bodies, but this is the sort of film where no one stays dead for long, and a lot of the fun comes from working out just where the spirit is hiding. Graham and Crampton have a whale of a time playing possessed versions of themselves, aided here by Judah Lewis and Bruce Davison.

The first half of the movie plays up the tropes of a straight-to-video erotic thriller, with soft focus, billowing curtains and cheesy saxophone on the soundtrack. And then it kicks in to full-on body swap mode and no throat is safe from slitting in a display of gooey practical visual effects. There’s not much new here, but as a knowing throwback to a different style of low budget film making, it achieves what it sets out to do.

Verdict: Camp and familiar, it’s not Re-Animator or From Beyond-quality Lovecraft, but it’s still a great 100 minutes of sticky fun. 7/10

Nick Joy