One client, disturbed mechanic Buddy (Giovanni Ribisi), turns to Annie in his struggle to come to terms with a troubled childhood.

Annie advises another, a battered wife, to leave her evil husband Donnie (Keanu Reeves) - sending him into a violent rage against Annie, her "devil worship" and, terrifyingly, her kids.

When she meets the high school principal's flirty fiancee, Jessica, Annie has a vision of her standing in a pool of blood. Within days she disappears and, when the police draw a blank, her distraught partner calls on Annie to help out.

Haunted by gruesome flashbacks of Jessica's death, Anne leads the sheriff to her body, dumped in a pond on Donnie's land. Her testimony helps put her vicious foe, who admits to an affair with the dead girl, behind bars.

But when the visions continue, Anne realises the killer is still on the loose and endangers herself by digging deeper... and revealing her fears to the people we know to be suspects.

With Evil Dead and Darkman under his belt, cult director Sam Raimi is adept at the supernatural thriller.

And in The Gift, co-written by Billy Bob Thornton, he has created the ultimate scary movie, with Cate Blanchett shining as the reluctant, frightened psychic who is the soul of the town.

Watch out for Raimi's classic yellow Oldsmobile car, which always appears in his films.

Suzanne Locke