Boarding School  ★★★

A FEW failings stop Boarding School from being something of a hidden gem.

This 2018 horror film is atmospheric and inventive, but loses story momentum and cohesion part-way through.

When the unexpectedly jarring and bloody climax arrives, you can’t recall why characters are despatching certain others until it is re-explained.

It’s a shame because most of the film’s elements are very good.

The writer and director is Boaz Yakin who has a nicely varied filmography ranging from sports drama Remember The Titans to family drama Max and Jason Statham thriller Safe.

Yakin directs well here, particularly the moments requiring slow build-up of tension. There is a particularly good tracking sequence following one of the characters through the rambling, dark house that serves as a boarding school.

The predominantly young cast is led by Luke Prael as Jacob who is having self-identity and behavioural problems that lead his mother and step-father to move him to a small boarding school dedicated to dealing with problem youth.

The school ends up being more like a concentration camp run by a religious zealot, Dr Shearman, played with relish by Will Patton.

There are obvious links to Jacob’s obsession with his dead grandmother who was persecuted by the Nazis and appears to him in visions.

But when the story seems to be moving into Pan’s Labyrinth territory, it takes a u-turn into less inventive areas.

There a nice twist at the end and a definite sense of flair to the blood-letting, but still some confusion remains.

There is enough promise here for a specialist company like Blumhouse to throw more money Yakin’s way for another horror project.