Lock yourself in a basement car park and smack yourself in the face for two hours: it's probably more enjoyable than P2. A cute gimmick - city girl Rachel Nichols is trapped in a parking lot, at the whim of Wes Bentley's nutty security guard - is undone by witless direction, flat dialogue and ropey acting, particularly from Bentley, who has drifted a long way from his breakthrough role in American Beauty.
Nichols (who will be seen in 2009's action extravaganza GI Joe) has spirit and charisma and just about retains her self-respect, despite being mostly required to breathlessly run around in skimpy underwear - signalling just who P2 is aimed at: hormone-drenched, teenage gore-hounds. Which is fine - but even the most hard-core and desperate of genre fans are advised to wait for the DVD release. And possibly watch with some alcohol to hand.
"P2 CRASHES AND BURNS"
There is one inventive, daftly enjoyable sequence, involving a fire-hose, a lift and gallons of water - but you suspect that's merely an excuse to ensure poor Nichols has to wear damp, clingy clothes. Wes Craven's Red Eye was a more effective, if equally silly, claustrophobic woman-in-peril picture (with Rachel McAdams trapped on plane), while co-writer and producer Alexandre Aja's High Tension is the gripping, scary horror thriller this desperately wants - and fails - to be. Not a total, total write off, but P2 still crashes and burns.
P2 is out in the UK on 2nd May 2008.