William Castle, the veteran B-movie horrormeister and mastermind behind the 1960 original, earned a bit of a reputation for the ruses he used to terrify his customers.

For the first 13 Ghosts, punters were encouraged to buy special viewing glasses to see the on-screen spirits that were invisible to the naked eye.

This stunt was in addition to the luminous plastic skeleton dangled over audiences during The House on Haunted Hill and the 'fright breaks' placed in the middle of Homicidal to permit cowards to flee the theatre.

The special glasses make a return to Steve Beck's remake - but this time it's the cast who don them, to see which of the particular nasty is sneaking up on them in this tale of trapped souls.

Widowed teacher Arthur Kriticos (Tony Shalhoub) and his two children Kathy (Shannon Elizabeth) and Bobby (Alec Roberts) find themselves in the house of their mysteriously deceased Uncle Cyrus (F Murray Abraham).

They are joined by nanny Maggie (Rah Digga) and Rafkin (Matthew Lillard), a psychic who isn't letting on what he knows about the house in which they find themselves trapped.

He doesn't tell them about the ghost of the Angry Princess, who has the look of topless model Jordan (but also a worrying slasher habit).

Nor does he mention The Jackal, whose razor-sharp nails can rip through flesh.

And he doesn't let on about the house itself - a chilling combination of a vengeful Swiss clock, a homocidal greenhouse and a medieval rack with a mind of its own.

This is unadulterated hokum...the characters are one-dimensional, the plot has been followed a thousand times before and the ending won't come as much of a shock.

However, for a good 60 minutes you'll be peeking through your fingers as Beck takes you on a rollercoaster of a ride through the corridors, ducts and hidden rooms Chez Kriticos.

For the house is the real star here. British production designer Sean Hargreaves, who cut his teeth on Se7en, has eschewed the original gloomy haunted house for something far more disturbing.

More than three miles of etched glass buckle, crack and slam shut around the house's victims, and you'll barely be able to look as yet another ghoul with attitude is given its freedom at the flick of a switch.

Tim Evans