This loose remake of the 1953 Vincent Price frightfest features a handful of clueless youths (Chad Michael Murray, Elisha Cuthbert and an extremely bored-looking Paris Hilton) who get stranded in a small town with an old wax museum and a high murder rate. Director Jaume Collet-Serra excels at establishing a consistent mood, so this works as a subtle provoking of primal fears – of getting lost, of depending on strangers for help, of the inherent creepiness of a human figure made out of wax – even once it devolves into gory mayhem.
