Maybe Archie Coomes has been watching too many horror movies. All of a sudden, the most ordinary things have taken on a sinister edge: a penny on a doormat.

A man in a brown suit under a streetlamp. The persistent sound of an axe chopping in the middle of the night. He keeps telling himself that this is Seaham, a sleepy seaside town where nothing ever happens.

Or at least nothing did, until his dad’s construction company opened up the cliff beneath the old – some say cursed – Langdon place. Soon, though, he and his friends can’t deny it: more and more of the adults in town are acting strangely. An ancient, long-buried evil has been unleashed upon the community, and it’s up to the kids to stop it before it’s too late .