This is the test of any 3D film. I took my glasses off for two minutes during a quiet dialogue scene. The image was a blurry, double-exposed mess—which, fittingly, looked like how a ghost might see the world. But the real magic is that Haunted 3D is engineered so that the 3D is necessary for the plot to make sense. Without the depth perception, you miss visual clues: a shadow detaching from a wall, a doorframe that’s slightly closer than it was a second ago.

We’ve all been burned before. The promise of a 3D horror movie usually goes something like this: a few half-hearted shots of a knife jabbing toward the camera, a ghost floating in flat, grey space, and the inevitable moment where you take off the glasses and realize the only thing truly terrifying was the $5 upcharge.

4 out of 5 ghostly fingerprints on the lens.

For years, we’ve been told 3D is dead. Haunted 3D resurrects it as a weapon. See it in a theater with a crowd. Bring a friend to hold. And whatever you do, don’t sit in the front row—that’s where the ghost sits.