From the moment 1982’s Poltergeist opens with the familiar notes of the Star-Spangled Banner, the film strives to hit audiences where they feel most secure. It is a home invasion in the most literal sense, the comforts of American suburbia themselves becoming objects of fear: the tree a child climbs, the toys they play with, the pit on its way to becoming a swimming pool and even, of course, the television. It establishes a content, almost idyllic, family life and then pulls it apart, even questioning the morality of the decisions that made it possible. It’s intelligent, entertaining and unsettling.

Gil Kenan’s remake takes a different approach. Coming at a time when it’s easier to relate to protagonists who are struggling than ones who are settled, we instead meet a couple who are both out of work, moving with their children into a house none of them particularly want to live in. Not only that, but there is an immediate sense of unease about the place: their nervous son, Griffin (Kyle Catlett), is terrified by his new attic bedroom and youngest daughter, Madison (Kennedi Clements), is talking to unseen spirits before her parents have even put in an offer.

This lack of calm starting point allows a pleasingly tight runtime, seeing us straight into the action, but it also leaves matters feeling hollow; what separates this from myriad other haunted house films? At some points, there are fleeting implications about status and being ungrateful with your lot. In others it seems like the film may play on our dependence on technology, imposing power masts silhouetted against a stormy sky – but then they’re gone. As a result of this thematic void, Kenan’s largely adequate reimagining suffers not only by comparison to its predecessor, but also the number of recent films that have borrowed from it. Much of James Wan’s output, particularly Insidious, already fits the remit of “Poltergeist remake”: a family moves into a new home, a child is captured on the astral plane, investigators are called-in and a rescue mission is launched to the other side. As with almost everything, 3D is optional, but by no means required.

Yet Poltergeist isn’t bad, just recognisable, and there are certainly saving graces. The playful chemistry between Mum (Rosemarie DeWitt) and Dad (Sam Rockwell) is consistently enjoyable, particularly Rockwell’s handling of his character’s exasperated “so this is my life now” response to the haunting. Similarly, some of the visuals are genuinely arresting – light bulbs casting shadows from another world generate chills and a terrifying sequence involving an electric drill substitutes well for the first film’s horrifying bathroom scene. But, for the most part, this is well-trodden ground: the best lines are from the original, the paranormal expert with a TV show (a refreshingly restrained Jared Harris) is lifted straight from Fright Night, and a spiritual realm filled with digitally rendered zombie hands just doesn’t satisfy.

Perhaps the biggest shame for the UK market though, is that the film has regrettably been stricken with a 15-rating. A remarkable truth about Tobe Hooper and Steven Spielberg’s original was that, after appeal, the pair somehow managed to attain US release as a PG (presumably because they wanted to torture children). In the case of this remake, however, it feels like a 12A would actually have been apt. Some uses of language aside, nothing in Kenan’s film is overwhelmingly adult – and that’s a good thing. A darkly comic story of family terror, this Poltergeist functions best when it draws upon directors like Joe Dante, its characters’ dry reactions in the face of horror just a few tweaks away from something you might see in Gremlins or The Hole. Instead this is a haunting without a home, with too few surprises to scare and not enough entertainment to endure.