ANYONE who has seen hotel heiress Paris Hilton turn her nose up at any sign of work in US reality series The Simple Life or witnessed her simpering over her Gucci-clad rat-like dog at photo calls, will probably get a warm feeling inside when they see the manner of her demise in House of Wax.

This latest horror update from Dark Castle Entertainment the production company behind House on Haunted Hill and Thir13en Ghosts is a remake of sorts of the 1953 horror classic which introduced Vincent Price as a talented sculptor who creates a wax museum with eerily lifelike displays.

All that has been retained, though, in first-time director Jaume Collet-Serra's film is the central conceit that the dummies are real people encased in wax. But the campy, crusty charms of the original are jettisoned in favour of plenty of aerobicised teen flesh and gory slasher-film shocks.

Though there is plenty of the film which steals as nonchalantly as a hoodie-wearing youth in Bluewater there's the dead skin masked baddie from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, the creepy rednecks of Deliverance and Wrong Turn and the scantily-clad women running away and screaming of...well, just about every horror film ever made but there are some original touches.

Collet-Serra lets the action build very slowly. The first half-hour begins like a standard teen road movie with a group of college students taking a trip to see a football game.

The first in a line of stupid moves, which raises doubts about whether any of the students will ever have the smarts to graduate college, sees them decide to camp overnight in some woods.

When one of their vehicles is discovered to have a mechanical fault, Carly (Elisha Cuthbert of real-time TV series 24 fame and if you thought she was always in peril then you won't believe what happens to her here) and her boyfriend Wade (Jared Padalecki) decide to explore the local town for help, while the others, including Hilton and Carly's brother Nick (Chad Michael Murray) go on to the game.

Centrepiece of the seemingly deserted town is The House of Wax, which really lives up to its name by not only containing plenty of dummies but actually having its whole art moderne structure made out of wax.

Soon the couple meet disturbed lone town occupants Bo and Vincent who want them as the museum's latest exhibits. What is surprising is just how violent the film becomes and the director does not hold back from detailing and lingering over the torturous fate metered out to the hapless youths.

There is a dark, almost callous heart to the chills that follow with poor Wade kept alive under his wax casing and screamer Carly getting her lips super-glued together. This film does not hold back with the shocks.

The film also manages some nice thematic touches with sibling rivalry of the museum's twins echoed in the good twin, evil twin relationship of Carey and Nick and the screening of Whatever Happened To Baby Jane which runs on a loop at the local wax cinema. There is even a scene of a garishly made-up Bette Davis from the film, looking more like a waxwork herself than any of the museum's exhibits.

Hilton plays a precious young woman whose only interests appear to be sex and having fun and, having plenty to draw on there, she is not that bad. It is obvious though that she had the day off from drama school when they had their "running away seminar".

Considering that in the film she is being chased by a growling masked man armed with two gleaming knives she tries to escape with all the vim of a teenager doing the hoovering.

There may have been so much wax around that some seems to have got in the ears of the scriptwriter as the dialogue is clunky and uninspired throughout but there are genuine scares here. The wax figurines would give anyone the creeps and the fate of the youths taps into some primal fears that will stay with you long after you've left the cinema.

If you want an entertaining horror movie which guarantees some screams there are few films around that can hold a candle to House of Wax.

Mark Edwards