The laugh-a-minute tone for this Gallic gore-fest is pretty much set when you see a shadowy figure engaged in a sex act with the decapitated head of young girl.

Sated, he tosses the bloodied bonce out the window of his beat-up van and trundles off to the next grim appointment.

His destination is a remote farmhouse owned by the parents of Alex (Maiwenn), who is spending the summer there revising with her best pal Marie (De France).

Shortly after her arrival, Marie peeks through the window to see newly-arrived van-man despatching Alex's dad by knocking off his head with a chest of drawers.

Terrified, she cowers in her room while the boiler-suited, hobnail-booted nutter roams the house slicing open Alex's mum and shooting her fleeing little brother in the back.

Now there are just the two girls left against an emotionless killing machine who adds an extra touch of menace by resembling the late Roy Kinnear.

Director Alexandre Aja harks back to the irony-free slashers of the late 1970s for inspiration and he can certainly jack the tension up as tight as cheese wire.

However, there is little light and shade - the pace becomes relentless rather than building up a general sense of dread and Aja gets nul points for giving us anything new.

So we get the obligatory scene of bloody murder witnessed through the louvre doors of a wardrobe (at least they can claim it's a French invention).

There's also a segment where a car is rammed by the killer van straight out of Jeepers Creepers which was, in turn, pinched from Spielberg's Duel.

Still, despite its obvious debt to the horror yarns of yesteryear, this delivers chills aplenty and certainly doesn't stint on the bloodletting.

The main gripe is one of those twists in the tale - which doesn't really stand up to scrutiny when you emerge from the cinema into the cold light of day.

Tim Evans.