Actor Bill Paxton (Aliens, Titanic) makes his directorial debut with this haunting tale about a family torn apart by religious fanaticism and madness. Texan Fenton Meiks (Matthew McConaughey) tells FBI agent Doyle (Powers Boothe) that he can identify the serial killer he is looking for - an axe murderer known as "God's Hand" - and relates, in flashback, his own horrifying family history. Raised by a loving widower (played by Paxton), Fenton and his brother are awakened one night by their father who informs them that God has chosen the family for a mission: to rid the world of demons that disguise themselves as human beings. Using the "less is more" maxim - no gore, just powerful imagery, a chilling "Southern Gothic" atmosphere and shattering sound effects - Paxton's assured, if morbidly bleak, creepshow really gets under the skin.

A mysterious man arrives at the offices of an FBI agent and recounts his childhood: how his religious fanatic father received visions telling him to kill people who were in fact "demons."