A group of students are told of ghostly goings on in a small town, so they jump in their van and head off to an abandoned mine. To help then on their travels, one of them owns a Great Dane, who can also talk. OK, so that last bit isn't true, but Scooby's omission is the only thing stopping this from being a European live action version of the classic children's animation. It certainly would have made more sense if they kept the dog in it.

After a taking part in an experiment with some fellow students, Angela (Amaia Salamanca) is approached afterwards by her teacher and asked if she is interested in some other research. He tells her of a town called Susurro where a doctor went a little bit loco and started a killing spree. A rumour exists that his ghost still haunts the area; would she go and check it out? As she doesn't believe in ghosts, she agrees, as long as she gets extra credit for doing so.

She manages to rope in four other students who are up for going on a ghostbusting trip. As she has no means of getting the equipment to the town, she asks her sister Diana (Alba Ribas), with whom she has a somewhat frosty relationship, if she can borrow her van. Out of politeness she also invites her along, and Diana agrees. And so the six of them take off for the deserted town in search of ghoulish goings on. What they don't anticipate however is that is exactly what they find – or rather, it finds them.

So this is what passes as a chest exam on the NHS now?

Spain has been a hotbed of all things horror lately, as it has produced a fair number of ghoulish titles. This one sadly, isn't one of its best.

Debut director Serge Vizcaino clearly had a lot to contend with, particularly utilising all the scares in 3D, and the task obviously got the better of him. For starters, nothing remotely scary happens in the first half of the film, and with it coming in at just shy of 90 minutes, that doesn't leave a lot of time left.

And when the action (and the term is used extremely loosely) does eventually turn up, it does so somewhat begrudgingly. Most horror films like to keep something up their sleeves, but unfortunately Paranormal Xperience is a completely sleeveless affair. Its set pieces are tiredly predictable and formulaic, with a main protagonist who is about as frightening as a womble.

The 3D stuff is obvious, but some of it has a commendable charm. One problem though is with the film's subtitles, that suffer from 3D ghosting (the only really scary thing about the film, ironically) that does cause a bit of distraction. And if you don't see the 3D coming, you'll definitely spot the film's twist, which is as twisty as a pancake.

The young cast do try their best with the material, but ultimately, this is an xperience you can afford to miss. If only those pesky kids stayed at home and did us all a favour.