London Road (15)

four stars

Dir: Rufus Norris

With: Olivia Colman, Tom Hardy

A MUSICAL about the real-life serial killing of young women in Ipswich in 2006? Sounds like a dreadful idea, but then London Road has been confounding critics since it became a stage hit in London. Using the verbatim theatre technique, which turns real interviews into dialogue and lyrics, this Rufus Norris-directed piece explores what it was like for the residents of the titular road as the media and police descended. Extraordinary theatre becomes unforgettable cinema.

The Look Of Silence (15)

four stars

Dir: Joshua Oppenheimer

Runtime: 103 minutes

FOLLOWING his Oscar-nominated documentary The Act Of Killing (2012), Joshua Oppenheimer revisits the military-led murders which took place in Indonesia in 1965-66. This time it is Adi, an optician who lost a brother in the upheaval, who is our guide into the heart of a supremely grim chapter in the country's history. The same banality of evil is on display as Adi meets the killers, ostensibly to fit them for spectacles, and is still as shocking.

Glasgow Film Theatre, June 12-18. June 14 live satellite Q&A with director Joshua Oppenheimer, hosted by Louis Theroux, at GFT, Cineworld Glasgow and DCA.

Insidious: Chapter 3 (15)

2 stars

Dir: Leigh Whannell

With: Lin Shaye, Stefanie Scott

Runtime: 97mins

THE law of diminishing returns bedevils this latest entry into the Insidious franchise, a once enjoyable but now horrifically generic exercise in scaremongering. Opting for a prequel approach, Leigh Whannell's film shows how gifted psychic Elise Rainer (Lin Shaye, reprising her role from the first two instalments) reluctantly agrees to help a teenage girl (Stefanie Scott) who has unwittingly summoned a demon while attempting to contact the ghost of her late mother. Aside from the odd jump, this third film becomes an increasingly tedious and nonsensical plod through dark corridors and rooms. Chapter 3 feels like the franchise cash-in it really is. Rob Carnevale