A disembodied spirit out of Jewish folklore is to be the subject of a new horror film.

Spiderman director Sam Raimi is to produce “Dibbuk Box”, which will tell the story of a family cursed when they open a mysterious haunted box.

The film, starring Jeffrey Dean Morgan of Grey’s Anatomy fame, is set to be released in time for Halloween.

Traditionally spelt with a Y, a dybbuk is said to be a malicious spirit that escapes from the soul of a deceased person and attaches itself to that of a living person in order to complete something left unfinished.

A dybbuk last appeared on screen in the opening scene of the Coen brothers’ film A Serious Man.

It also made it on to the internet in 2009, when a renowned Israeli master of kabbalah attempted to exorcise a dybbuk from a Brazilian man during a Skype session.