Every few years, there’s a changeover in the horror genre from one popular breed of movie to another. Slashers, found-footage, zombie movies, they all have had their day in the sun, as it were, and now seems to be the era of ghost-curse movies. From The Babadook to Oculus to Mama to Sinister to the upcoming The Bye Bye Man, it seems liked creepy, spindly ghosts are the new IT-monster in horror. And sometimes those ghosts are witches, evidently, and the trailer for the new film Don’t Knock Twice sure makes a case for not going anywhere near creepy entryways.

Urban legends are always a great jumping-off point for this kind of horror, and Don’t Knock Twice creates a pretty cool one with the house of a woman accused of witchcraft and knocking on it unleashing her wrath. Katee Sackhoff plays the mother of a troubled teenage girl who has become embroiled in that selfsame legend. Evidently, this girl knocked, and that means the witch lady will be everywhere, around every corner, in every damn shadow.

The movie is directed by Caradog James, the man behind the fascinating 2013 sci-fi film The Machine (starring Legends of Tomorrow‘s Caity Lotz), and it’s looking like he’s populating his foray into horror with that most time-tested of visual scare techniques: things walking around in the background while our lead character is in the foreground. It’s like the splashing water on your face in front of a bathroom mirror. You know it’s going to lead to something scary, and you can see it coming a mile away, but damned it if isn’t effective every. single. time.

Don’t Knock Twice (which for the record is NOT a good title) will be released in theaters and on VOD on February 3.

Let us know your thoughts on the movie in the comments below!

Image: IFC Films

Kyle Anderson is the Associate Editor for Nerdist. He writes the weekly look at weird or obscure films in Schlock & Awe. Follow him on Twitter!