HALLOWEEN has come early.

Ghost Stories is indeed spooky for the main thrust of its 98 minutes.

Three chilling supernatural tales are told with some heart-thumping moments and scary effects and a fair smattering of black humour.

I first saw this work by writers Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman (here co-directors) when it was premiered as a successful stage play at the Liverpool Playhouse in 2007.

Nyman is from The League of Gentleman and Dyson has worked with Derren Brown so expect the unexpected.

Now it is given the cinematic treatment and ably expands on the stage trickery of the original live drama.

In the theatre it came with the 'comfort' announcement that nurses were on site should anyone be of a 'nervous disposition.'

I, at first. felt it was tongue-in-cheek but some people were genuinely scared wit-less.

Throughout the film one question comes back to haunt our main character a skeptic psychic investigator called Dr Phillip Goodman played by Nyman.

He questions an after-life?

The celebrity TV ghost hunter then proceeds to delve into a trio of spine-chillers at the request of a sinister old man that have been deemed inexplicable.

One concerns a night watchman (Paul Whitehouse) who is looking after an old warehouse - once a mental institution. Things go more than bump in the night.

In another, a nervy young man gets stranded in a forest coming back from a party at the dead of night when his car breaks down and he can't get a mobile signal.

Look behind you is phrase that comes to mind.

And the third sees Martin Freeman as a self-made businessman and dad-to-be who encounters a poltergeist.

Or does he?

All the tales take place at 3.45am.

A coincidence? Cue eerie music.

There is clear inspiration from horror The Twilight Zone and other celebrations of stories involving the unknown.

Yet this is wonderful entertainment and dare I say it ... fun.

A roller coaster of a ghost train ride.

There is a splendid twist in the ending which has Hitchcockian influences stamped all over it.

Cleverly creepy **** 

Opens today