There’s little that’s new in Bryan Bertino’s Texas spooker, but an emotionally literate script and clever direction give it an edge

The Dark and the Wicked is a nastily effective, lo-fi, psychological haunted house horror about a malevolent force that takes up residence in a remote Texas farmhouse (shot at director Bryan Bertino’s family home). There is possibly not a single scary moment here that will be new to horror fans, but Bertino directs with such technical flair that I yelped at most of them – and half-missed the others, eyes squeezed tight shut.

Louise (Marin Ireland) is on a visit back to the farm where her bedridden dad (Michael Zagst) is dying. Her brother, Michael (Michael Abbott Jr), is here too, a hulking lunk in a lumberjack shirt who seems emotionally avoidant, rarely making eye contact. Everything about the farm feels creepy as hell: the sheep bleating in the barn,...