I had very low expectations heading into this. How could I not? Paris Hilton is in it, as if she needs to be overexposed any further. But, on the flip side, it does have Elisha Cuthbert, and that is a plus in my book. In any event, I was not expecting a good film and I said that what we got is a good movie, I'd be lying. I arrived at the theater, got my popcorn and soda and made my way to the screen, down the hallway and around the corner towards the larger screens reserved for new releases and blockbusters. I took my seat and waited not exactly sure I wanted to be there.
The film opens in 1974, we see parents tending to their two children, one behaving himself, the other struggling violently and needing to be strapped into his high chair. We never see their faces. It then cuts to the opening credits and shifts the time frame to present day, although most of the music played seems to be years old. It then kicks into full on horror movie cliche mode. A group of kids decide to take a back roads shortcut on their journey, stop along the way, are confronted by the town crazy and are become embroiled with some killer's crazy games. There is absolutely nothing new, nor terribly original here. This begs the question, why did I enjoy it?
Watching the first third or so, I was actually rather bored. There was a lot of Blair Witch Project style camera work,one of the guys was constantly shooting with a camcorder. We get a lot of footage from that point of view. But then the film kicked up a few gears, after a gooey surprise for star Elisha Cuthbert, two of our party members find themselves in an odd little town. There is a lot of creepiness generated throughout the apparently empty town. The only soul they meet is Bo, the owner of the only gas station in town. From here the action spirals out of control. If you've seen the trailer, you know that the wax figures are actually people covered in wax. With this discovery comes our first victim. I don't really want to go into much detail, as therein lies the fun of this type of film.
We hit full throttle, as the pack gets thinned and people are dispatched in a variety of suitably gruesome ways. My favorite, of course being Paris Hilton. Come on now, you didn't honestly think that she would survive a horror movie did you? She puts up a fight, but in the end, you can't beat a guy with a wax face. There are a number of horror cliches at work, such as if you have sex, or plan on it, you will die, the heroine will inexplicably run up stairs when she should be getting out of the building, among others. One of the endearign qalities, is that they don't act as if they are in a horror movie, it doesn't follow the post-Scream trend of having self-aware characters, it worked there, but got old fast, so this is nice change.
Article comments
1 - Harris Pilton
I thought that Paris Hilton's acting was phemon.. uh ... phanome ... uh... really good!! Whya are you being so hard on her? Anyway? If I were an up and coming movie producer (and Im not - I have no effiliaton with anyaone in the movie business)) I would caste her in the lead roll. She's my favorite acteress, way better than that Nicole bitch too. I will pay to see her movie over and over again.
--- Harris
2 - Chris Beaumont
That response made me laugh. She can't act, she is not an actress, neither is Nicole. Just couple of sad little attention starved rich girls that in the end, are really not worth my time.
I should say that her inexplicable fame is probably what led to her enjoyable death here.
3 - -E
See I think her death is one of the more tame ones in the film.
4 - Dennis Garcia
This movie sucks
5 - Chris Beaumont
Care to elaborate?
6 - Steve S
I look forward to this movie, but I always wait for DVD. I haven't been truly scared since watching the Abominable Dr. Phibes when I was young. I'd love to find the move that could scare me again.