As the great Sheriff Leigh Brackett once said, “It’s Halloween. I guess everyone’s entitled to one good scare.” It’s a good line, sure. But one good scare? And only at Halloween? Talk about stingy!

But for all its "shrieking dialogue and pounding sound", it turns out to be a "superb" and "amazingly subtle" film. The story at the heart of this "gut-punch debut" may be ordinary, said Clarisse ...