The wholly inept Blair Witch gang might have put found-footage demon-hunting on the map, but it was Oren Peli’s Paranormal Activity (2007) and it’s seven sequels that brought in the techie pros with their EMF detectors and Lasergrip Infrared thermometers. The same year, Jaum Balagueró and Paco Plaza’s REC (remade stateside by John Erick Dowdle as Quarantine the following year), ubiquitized the night-vision camera and its heat-detecting green monotones that turn eyes into empty holes of light. Spawned from the inevitable merging of the above-mentioned gear-heads and phosphorous light, Robert Livings and Randy Nundall Jr.’s Infrared is yet another ill-advised foray into the dark to poke around for spirits under the official pretense of legitimate investigation (This stuff better pay well).

A young paranormal investigator named Wes (Jesse Janzen), enjoins his estranged, psychically gifted sister Izzy (Leah Finity) to meet his tiny crew at a recently abandoned school with the unfortunate reputation of being haunted. Izzy’s a psychic bloodhound who knows when she’s in the wrong place at the wrong time. From the gate, she senses that maybe this isn’t such a hot idea after all (is it ever?) Wes paints the job as an act of altruism, a chance for Izzy to “set that dark realm free.” It might sound good on paper, but hasn’t a quarter-century of bear-poking, demon-rankling found footage long-proven that these things never go as planned?

The first fifteen minutes play out as one of the longer sub-narratives of 2012’s V/H/S and its worthy first sequel. As Wes, Izzy, and the two-man film crew stand outside the school, it feels like it’s only a matter of minutes before the money-shot will manifest in one of those predictable but always-effective green-light jump-scares. But let’s slow down; for now the top priority is getting into that school.

Enter the slick, hyper-enthused Geoff (Greg Sestero), who purchased the school with his wife—one of its former teachers—when it closed. While he gives the crew the run of the place, his interest appears to lie more with appearing on Wes’s ghost-hunting reality show than in a legitimate spirit or haunting. He’s one laid-back dude alright, but there is one thing: stay out of the basement. Like we’ve never heard that one before.

The school’s interior can’t match the claustrophobic corridors, abandoned hydrotherapy baths, and stench of rotting Thorazine that run through the labyrinthine corridors of the abandoned asylums in 2001’s Session 9 or 2008’s Deadgirl, but the place has deteriorated surprisingly fast. Mint-green paint hangs off walls in flimsy patches like skin. Water stains spread Rorschach blots on the ceilings. And Geoff really does mean business when it comes to sticking to the upper floors.

While predictable, Livings and Nundall Jr. have managed an admirable entry into a well- worn sub-genre that will delight fans of the paranormal. Though there are no big surprises here, it goes down smooth and easy. When the gang finally do make it to the basement, Geoff goes ballistic: “That looks like shit!” He indicates the screen monitor. “It’s all green!” Here’s hoping that the paranormal genre is only a toe-in-the-water for this promising directing duo who, with Infrared, prove that they’re capable of tackling far more original subject matter.

6 out of 10