Bexley-hailing filmmaker Mumtaz Yildirimlar's ouija-board horror Quanna is a gory homage to cult slasher classics, writes Kerry Ann Eustice

Some of the movie world’s most famous and prolific directors launched their careers in the bloody veins of the horror genre. We’re talking blockbuster-guaranteed names such as Sam ‘Spiderman’ Raimi and Peter ‘Lord of the Rings’ Jackson.

And while Quanna, a low-budget shocker from new blood director Mumtaz Yildirimlar, doesn’t quite have the full- on-gore or cult-classic appeal of the aforementioned masters’ early work, it does show promise.

Following the well-trodden horror path, Quanna (creepily inspired by a real-life experience had by its director) explores the fear and paranoia playing with gateways to the unknown — in the form of ouija boards and mediums — can have.

Like Scream, it revisits the genre’s tried and tested scare conventions — creaky floorboards, shadowy figures, whodunnit suspense — and, although it’s hard to tell if this is homage or a lack of ideas, there are some effective scares here.

With the exception of the guyliner-sporting lead, Kester Hodgson, you don’t really care what happens to this cast but Yildirimlar just about pulls it back with the seance scenes, which are atmospheric and paranoid. He does a bold job with the grisly conclusion too, proving how fearless he is.