This knowing chiller has been called by the film-makers a "re-imagining" of the 1953 classic, but, except for its central premise, it has little in common with the Vincent Price movie. Instead, producers Joel Silver and Robert Zemeckis combine their commercial efficiency with the music video background of debut director Jaume Collet-Serra to deliver a formulaic yet surprisingly effective horror. All the genre clichés are present and correct as Elisha Cuthbert (TV's 24) and college pals (socialite Paris Hilton among them) fall prey to a sadistic killer in a remote town dominated by a mysterious wax museum. Though convention dictates they get picked off one by one, the enjoyment is in the imaginative and ultra-gory methods of dispatch. You'll squeal with either fright or dark laughter at how realistic everything looks, and, Plastic Hilton aside, even the acting is serviceable. The result is a throwaway project that's simply good fun.

A group of unwitting teens are stranded near a strange wax museum and soon must fight to survive and keep from becoming the next exhibit.