Britain has a long history of horror movie productions, with the heyday for such movies being the period of the late 1950s to 1980. Hammer, Amicus and Tigon combined produced the vast majority of British horror movies during this period and helped to keep the industry alive in the 1970s when American investment dried up. Two excellent independent directors, Pete Walker and Norman J. Warren, succeeded them in the mid-1970s and continued their excellent work.<br /><br />Some viewers of movies from the British horror heyday get the false impression that they were all about vampires, monsters and witchcraft. Well, I admit there were plenty of examples of this type of movie but they were plenty of other types that fall well outside this category. Take for example, Hammer's DR. JEKYLL AND SISTER HYDE or the Amicus anthologies or Pete Walker's FRIGHTMARE. Or what about a movie that was not produced by any of the sources I mentioned - THE LEGEND OF HELL HOUSE.<br /><br />Since the 1980s, there have been very few British horror movies worth mentioning. The British movie industry has tried unsuccessfully for nearly 30 years to mimic the style and content of infinitely superior American movies rather than staying to its true roots.<br /><br />LONG TIME DEAD is one such unsuccessful example - funded in part with taxpayers' money through the UK Film Council. British people have the right to be angered their hard-earned cash has been put towards such a travesty as this without them having any say in the matter.<br /><br />The plot of this movie sounds really great on paper - a group of students having an all-night party start messing around with a Ouija board and unleash an evil Djinn. One-by-one they are murdered in gruesome ways, leaving the survivors to solve the mystery.<br /><br />Those who say this movie is a throwback to the heyday of British horror are simply wrong. The movie is very clearly inspired by superior recent American teenage movies such as I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER and URBAN LEGEND to name just two. There are even a few nods to modern minor classics such as SCREAM and one stylish nod to THE EVIL DEAD.<br /><br />Unfortunately the final result of this movie is something less akin to the decent movies mentioned and more in common with lame cheap straight-to-DVD movies such as THE CHOKE and ONE OF THEM. As in those two movies, characters disappear for long periods of time without explanation. And when any are killed, their friends soon forget about them.<br /><br />As one would expect with this type of movie, the acting is unilaterally awful, ranging from no acting to overacting. Joe Absolom was more interesting to watch as Matthew Rose in the British soap, EASTENDERS. He was a good choice of actor to have in this movie but his talent is completely wasted.<br /><br />The dialogue in LONG TIME DEAD is truly terrible. I was reminded of another British horror movie made around the same time called CRADLE OF FEAR. However, CRADLE OF FEAR was much funnier and enjoyable on the "so bad it's good" level thanks to some overacting on the part of lead actors, some weirdo characters who were interesting to watch and cheesy special effects.<br /><br />The score for this movie has nothing at all to do with the horror theme and sounds just like a random pop song of the kind Hollywood choose to tag on to the end of their movies. It is not worthy of a British horror movie. Listen to the scores of movies from Britain's horror heyday and make the comparison.<br /><br />Perhaps the worst crime of all in this movie is the sheer tedium. There are long periods of time when nothing is happening. Characters are wandering around checking out places but there is no suspense, no tension. There are only the clichéd jump scares that became worn 20 years ago.<br /><br />The movie does have a few good points. The killing scenes are well-executed, leaving the most gory effects to the imagination and there is at least some attempt at a decent build-up to them. It is only for this reason that I give the movie a rating of 2 rather than 1.<br /><br />Overall, I do not recommend this movie at all. American viewers would do better to stick to their own movies, they are far superior. Those wanting to see a proper British horror movie should do themselves a favour by seeking one out from the 1950s, 1960s or 1970s when we had proper talent in this field.