When I popped The Dead Room Blu-ray into my player the menu did not inspire much. The menu screen is the same artwork on the cover of the case of a girl bent backwards in that very generic exorcism pose. We see this all the time and I’m just kind of tired of it. Fortunately the movie is at least a little better than the cover art suggests.

Three paranormal investigators – Liam (Jed Brophy), Scott (Jeffrey Thomas) and Holly (Laura Petersen) – show up at a farmhouse out in the countryside. It actually takes a little while to figure out what is going on and who these people are because the movie just starts. There’s no type of background of any kind. These three just show up to this house and begin to check it out. As they explore the house we learn they’re investigating a potential supernatural disturbance and begin to set up equipment.

At first the trio finds nothing. They can tell the family left in a hurry – they didn’t even pack up anything for their baby – but that’s about it. Liam and Scott’s gidgets and gadgets don’t detect anything and Laura does not feel a presence anywhere in the house. The assumption is that they’re just going to encounter creaky pipes or something of that nature but they set cameras up throughout the house just in case.

That night at 3:00 AM they’re awoken by a loud bang as the back door slams open. Laura now feels a presence and Liam is convinced something is there as well. Scott, the most skeptical of the three, thinks it’s just wind. He needs more evidence to be convinced.

The next night they all plan to be up and ready around 3:00 AM to see if whatever came the night before returns. Sure enough as soon as the clock strikes three the back door slams open. Before long they realize that not only is there some sort of supernatural being in the house, but it can interact with the physical world and it wants them gone.

For the most part The Dead Room is pretty basic. We’ve seen these spooky house stories with ghost hunters on the scene a hundred times over at this point, but you don’t always need to re-invent the wheel to be entertaining. The film has a short runtime, coming in at less than 80 minutes, and uses the time wisely to build the suspense. Thanks to some wonderful sound design The Dead Room delivers a handful of jump scares while keeping you on edge as you wait to see what it’s building to. That’s where the film really missed out on doing something great.

The last ten minutes of the movie hint at something really cool. The action picks up and we move from having a presence we cannot see to an actual creature out for blood. And it’s a cool, creepy looking creature too! But then the movie just kind of ends. You think you’re finally going to get some real story as to what’s going on but then it’s over. Sure, there’s some tidbits that attempt to clear things up but ultimately it fails to deliver.

As far as the actual Blu-ray, there’s not much to it. I’ve already said I hate the artwork and the only special features are trailers for other IFC Midnight/Scream Factory films. I would have loved some type of interview or behind-the-scenes stuff with the film’s director Jason Stutter. I’m curious to know if they had bigger ideas that they maybe couldn’t get to because of budgetary reasons.

The Dead Room does a solid job building suspense, has excellent sound design and a handful of nice nods to The Evil Dead. Unfortunately the film ends when it finally starts to get going leaving a lot to be desired.

The Dead Room is now available on Blu-ray from Scream Factory.