Alice and Zoe are both suffering at the hands of the Peach clan, physically and mentally, and the line between fantasy and reality becomes even more blurred.

If episode two of this third season of Channel Zero amped up the weird factor, this instalment exists to upset. From self-cannibalism (I assume there’s a word for that) to an unexpected murder that results in the biggest pool of claret, this is extreme territory.

For once, Rutger Hauer’s Papa Peach is not the most disturbing element, even if he turns up playing at a surreal keyboard and uninvited in a bathroom. The truly skin-crawling moments are those that freak out your sensibilities – the trio of diminutive, deformed Smart Mouth toddlers at play, the floating head with the puffy cheeks. It feels like it’s been ripped from a trippy dream and we can do is sit back and watch the car crash in slow motion.

The scenes in the soon-to-be-abandoned hospital are a horror standard, the flickering lights in deserted corridors all part of the living nightmare that the sisters are enduring. We find out a little more about their mother’s condition, but all eyes are now on the girls as Zoe is led up the stairs to the mysterious, floating white door to another place and Alice prepares to follow her down the rabbit hole.

Verdict: Uneasy and uncomfortable viewing, the viscera and terror score new highs for this troubling viewing – but you just can’t stop watching. 8/10

Nick Joy