Nicole Downes Movies

An intrepid team of explorers gets trapped in a complex underground cave system when a tropical storm makes it impossible to escape the same way they entered in this claustrophobic adventure drama from director Alister Grierson and executive producer James Cameron. Inspired by actual events, Sanctum tells the tale of Frank McGuire (Richard Roxburgh), a master diver intent on being the first to explore the Esa-ala cave system in the South Pacific. Shortly after Frank descends into the caves with a team that includes his teenage son, Josh (Rhys Wakefield), and expedition bankroller Carl Hurley (Ioan Gruffudd), a massive storm collapses the entrance to the system, forcing the adventurers to plunge deeper into the darkness in search of an alternate exit. With supplies quickly dwindling and water levels rapidly rising, Frank and his team surmise that their best hope for survival is to follow an underground river thought to empty into the ocean. But given that few explorers have ever even dared set foot in the Esa-ala system, no one quite knows for sure whether they're racing toward freedom, or another dead end. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

A bunch of college students are stranded in a small town where suffering for art takes on a whole new meaning in this tale of terror. Carly (Elisha Cuthbert) and her boyfriend, Wade (Jared Padalecki), have hit the road with a handful of their friends to attend a championship college football game; tagging along with them are Carly's bratty friend Paige (Paris Hilton, Carly's trouble-making twin brother Nick (Chad Michael Murray), and Blake (Robert Ri'chard), Paige's latest boy toy. While camping out for the night, the gang makes the mistake of getting on the wrong side of a mysterious local redneck, and the next morning they discover that Wade's car no longer works. As the others continue on to the big game, Carly and Wade make their way into the closest town, Ambrose, and discover it's all but deserted, except for a local tourist attraction, the House of Wax. However, it isn't long before they find out why the wax sculptures at the museum look so freakishly real, and discover a pair of murderous brothers are keen on making them part of the next exhibit. House of Wax is an in-name-only remake of the well-remembered 1953 3-D horror outing starring Vincent Price, which was in turn based on the 1933 picture Mystery of the Wax Museum. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi