Six young people are on their way to the Big Game when they camp near a seemingly abandoned town dominated by a gigantic wax museum that seems to be actually built of wax. Carly (Cuthbert) and her ex-con brother (Murray) are accompanied by Carly's boyfriend (Padalecki), another couple (Hilton and Ri'chard) and their goofy friend (Abrahams). But something's not right in this town, which seems to have only one inhabitant (Van Holt). And then the visitors start disappearing one by one.

Every stereotypical element of the genre is here, from random sex (see Paris run from the killer in her lacy undies!) to dumb decisions (no, I'll wait inside the freaky wax museum while you see what's happening outside!) to a supernaturally strong baddie. But the filmmakers are having fun with these cliches, using them effectively to show why each one is so enduring. This reliance on overused plot elements seriously undermines the scare factor, so they indulge in seriously gory deaths instead. Not nearly as suspenseful, but seriously unsettling.

The cast is surprisingly good, with Cuthbert and Murray, especially, giving it their all and creating just a tiny bit of subtext for their characters. Hilton proves that she can be convincing on screen (who knew?), and Van Holt has just the right faded beauty to be a very creepy screen presence. It helps that the plot takes quite a while to get going; the script spends about 20 minutes setting up the characters and situation before anything freaky happens. This does make the film feel rather long, but never mind. Essentially it's just a mindless popcorn movie that keeps us squirming in our seats for a couple of hours. And it does that rather well.

themes, violence, gore, language

18.May.05