In the small town of Stull, Kansas, a young pastor and his devout family come face-to-face with possible evil.

Pastor Dan and his wife Wendy thought Stull was the perfect place to raise their teenage daughter, and her younger sister.

Shortly after arriving in town, however, the family realise Stull sits atop one of the Seven Gates of Hell, and that the townspeople are determined to herald in a new age of darkness.......

Although it may seem on first impression that this is trying to hark back to weird, Gothic horror from the eighties with religious overtones, it's not, it's blatantly ripping off some of the lower budget, lesser seen movies from that era.

Most notable references are Children Of The Corn, and Deadly Blessing, two films where the townsfolk are not what they would seem. Go a little deeper, and you could also defence Salem's Lot, and even Lair Of The White Worm.

With all these homages, it's pretty difficult to have an original idea, and thanks to a really bloated, slow second act, you really begin to lose interest. It's as if the makers have the set up, and the finale, but spend the middle on a red herring romance, and lots of Basil Expositon.

But, even though again it's not original, the last act is pretty shocking, and almost makes up for the second act. The last act is sort of an amalgamation of the ending of Halloween, and strangely, the monster from the Moomins, when everyone had to stay inside.

Its a pretty sadistic third act, and it pulls no punches. The final scene is clever, but by the time you get there, you are more relieved knowing that the film is ending.

So it's not bad, it's just unoriginal, and leaves too many plot holes.

Dan (James Tupper), his wife Wendy (Anne Heche), and their three kids; Rebecca (Rebekah Brandes), Mary (Jennifer Stone), and Christopher (Carter Cabassa) move to the rural town of Stull, Kansas. Dan is the new pastor joining Pastor Kingsman (Clancy Brown). Noah (Ethan Peck) is taken with Rebecca and then strange things happen.

For the first half, there are some things happening. None of it is scary. They are not creepy. They are at best functional horror tropes. The biggest issue is that nothing happens for a long time. The little bits of something are really nothing. Brandes is a little old to play a teen. Nobody in the family is that compelling. The horror only starts after the midway point and it's too late by then. Despite having Clancy Brown, even the scary parts are nothing. This is really a nothing horror. There is a structural loop around the story which could have been interesting but there is nothing connected to the loop. It all starts with the lust at first sight. He's too creepy for that. The only possible good part is still a nothing.

Another typical Hollywood horror B-movie. This one riffs on the likes of CHILDREN OF THE CORN and THE WICKER MAN in the tale of a small town hiding a dark secret. A new and boring family move into the community, where they're soon assailed by mysterious events and characters harbouring dark secrets.

It's a long-winded and slow-paced story and one that doesn't offer up a whole lot of interest, it has to be said. NOTHING LEFT TO FEAR actually does better when focusing on the non-horror elements like characterisation and character interaction and falls down when it comes to the cheesy horror scenes, augmented with CGI ghostly faces as they are. It also relies too much on jump scares and clichéd, derivative moments for effect when really it should be offering something new.

The cast aren't too bad, although they are given little enough to work with. Anne Heche is unrecognisable from her early Hollywood roles in the likes of SIX DAYS, SEVEN NIGHTS; she plays the suburban mother here. Rebekah Brandes isn't too bad either, although as with Alexandra Daddario in Texas CHAINSAW 3D, she's given little to do other than wander around in a skin-tight t-shirt. Clancy Brown is the best thing in it, but he doesn't have enough screen time.