Ahead of its US release on Friday, its trailers have been serving up a bloodcurdling blend of slash, splatter, jump scares, terrified teenagers and a havoc-wreaking ghoul at the center of it all.
But it departs from the average run-of-the-mill ghost story in one significant way -- the gender of its director, Stacy Title.
Women flock to horror movies -- in greater numbers than men, according to various box office surveys -- yet until recently a female director was as rare a sight in the genre as a working cellar light or a cell phone with a signal.
Over the last few years, however, a small but exhilarating new wave of critically-acclaimed breakout hits made by women have subverted expectations about what high quality horror should look like.
From Jennifer Kent's "The Babadook" to "A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night," directed by Ana Lily Amirpour, women are elevating the genre beyond the scope of the traditional male-directed slasher.
The worldwide film industry has churned out many thousands of horror movies since Frenchman Georges Melies directed "Le Manoir Du Diable" ("The Devil's Castle") in 1896.
Yet the gender balance remains so out of whack that most user-generated lists of horror films directed by women since the early 20th century on the Internet Movie Database mention fewer than 100.
