Di Novi debut a dreadful dud

seems to think playing crazed means stretching your eyes wide and doing a lot of yelling while sporting perfectly straightened hair and an array of expensive-looking outfits.

Dawson, meanwhile, looks dazed and confused as the put-upon victim and the opening scene makes the fatal error of signposting key plot developments that could have delivered a shock or two later on.

It is one of several mistakes found in the sloppy script by David Leslie Johnson (Orphan, The Conjuring 2) and Christina Hodson, the latter of whom also wrote last year’s dreadful Shut In.

The pair turn their characters into walking clichés who make so many idiotic mistakes you half expect an announcement to pop up on screen telling you this is a public service video on how not to live your life.

Not once but twice do people leave their phones completely unattended in a public setting allowing someone – two guesses as to who – to come along and take advantage of the situation. I mean, come on; our phones are practically glued to our hands and pockets these days.

Di Novi’s debut limps along towards a ho-hum finale that, at the very least, does see a few fists fly before an unlikely end to Tessa’s rampage and a final scene that – shudder –would probably have led to a hastily filmed sequel back in the eighties.

Thankfully, that is highly unlikely to happen here – please, god! – as this trashy relic from a bygone era will be wiped from your mind shortly after leaving the cinema.