Peter’s so called ‘cruel’ antics are hidden behind off screen plots and backstory; his only visual cruelty is the dead animals nailed to the trees and the aftermath of violence against people. The reality of Peter’s character is that he’s a spoilt psychopath protected by mummy, and the disgruntled child servant did Italy a favour before he turned into a notorious serial killer – which is a shame, because that would have made for a better film.

Instead, we get the story of Archaeologist, Norman, and his deaf, teenage daughter Liz. Norman’s work takes him to Italy where he finds the makeshift gravestone of ‘Cruel Peter’; meanwhile, Liz uses a Bishop’s Sphere to try to communicate with her mother, who died in an accident years prior that also left Liz deaf; of course, instead of her actual mother, she contacts the wandering spirit of Peter’s mother who is still searching for her sons body.

Both Norman and Liz begin to see strange things, specifically a housemaid with her throat slit, and then there’s the sudden appearance of neighbour, Harriet, who is clearly the manifestation of Peter’s mother.

Peter possesses Liz and is lead away to the old family house by Harriet, who, back in her day, was a witch; she had slit the housemaid’s throat to contact Peter when he disappeared.

Norman learns, through his assistant Bianca, that Peter had slit his own father’s throat and his mother covered it up as suicide. Bianca convinces Norman to use the Sphere to contact the child servant of the family, and although he’s fully aware of what a Bishop’s Sphere is, he has no clue of the mechanics – yet still manages to summon the spirit he needed.

The child servant shows Norman that he’d had a change of heart – he was going back to Peter to release him when the earthquake hit and killed him, not too far from Peter’s own grave. Bianca’s aunt, the cliche old woman who knows everything, tells them they need to exorcise the gravesite in order to save Liz.

There’s some weird event at the grave while Bianca exorcises the grave; I’m not sure of they were skeletons or zombies, or skeleton zombies, but it’s short lived. The pair then go to the old home of Peter and find Liz; thinking the whole thing is over, they stay in Italy.

It’s never over though, is it? Somehow, Peter still resides in Liz and comes back to her two months later.

To be continued? I hope not.

Cruel Peter is a dull film with a few cheap jump scares, the only thing I can applaud is the alternative use of an alternative to a Ouija board – if only they’d delved deeper into its lore a little more, or into Peter’s history; was he born evil through Harriet’s occult ways? Was he made evil by his upbringing? Harriet’s character is under used, she had the potential to be something truly horrifying and they let her do very little.

1/5: I’d rather watch Shark Exorcist again.