The legendary director returns to form with his first film for five years, an ambitious and doom-laden chiller.

Dark and charged, the story follows book hunter Dean Corso (Depp), who travels from New York to the dank alleyways of Spain, where he is followed by a strangely attractive young woman (Emmanuelle Seigner, Polanski's wife).

He has been hired by the mysterious Boris Balkan (Langella) to obtain a 17th century text, supposedly written by Satan, which gives the reader the power to summon the dark lord himself.

Dean learns the hard way that the unknown ought to be left alone and that the only thing more terrifying than searching for the Devil... is finding him.

There are shades of The Name Of The Rose in this shadowy and intelligent tale, as well as some of the devilish puzzle-solving familiar to fans of Polanski's earlier work Rosemary's Baby.

Dominic Bloch