Don't make me call it Shocktober: vol. VIII

Returning home from a football game, a group of high-schoolers get detoured in a small town. Things seem normal enough, but who's the masked figure chasing the kids? And why will none of the locals help out? I mean, the town's full of them, right? Don't let the title fool you: this is really a remake of Tourist Trap. It's watchable enough, but you're better off checking out the original; same story, but far less conventional.

Though showing no signs whatsoever of what I consider to be Pino Donaggio's career best work, John Ottman's score works well on its own. In "Opening/Tantrum", the composer wastes no time, jumping right into things with a creepy organ melody. The cue proceeds with a dreamlike motif (representative of what the small town once was) of strings, voices, chimes and Ottman's trademark woodwind hits underscoring the flashback of a pair of baby boys.

"Ritual/Escape from Church" brings in strings, chanting male voices and bells, creating a lurching march, while "Sealed Lips" features some peculiar electronic effects amongst the orchestra.

"Story of the Town" and "They Look So Real" make for a nice respite to the terror, strings and winds bounding about. The latter cue, in particular, is marked by delicate statements of the dreamlike motif.

What was likely the main draw for the target audience was the casting of Paris Hilton as one of the victims. "Paris Gets It" (!) is one of the busier cues, utilizing aleatoric effects en route to the inevitable impaling.

As the film's literal house of wax goes a-melting down, "Bringing Down the House", in its building frenzy, features some sliding string effects for the collapsing house; a fine bit of mickey-mousing on Ottman's part.

With Ottman on the organ, "Endless Service" caps the album, its performance making a pretty nice bookend to the score...and, perhaps, the one real connection to the original source (save for the wax figures, of course).

The Varese Sarabande score album is available at Amazon.com for cheap.