Since they succumbed to the allure of Hollywood, French filmmakers Alexandre Aja and Gregory Levasseur have lost their way.

Their 2003 thriller Switchblade Romance (Haute Tension) was a tour de force of sickening suspense, with an unforgettable narrative sleight of hand that sent shivers down the spine.

It was an impressive calling card and America answered, recruiting the friends as writer-directors of a forgettable remake of Wes Craven's The Hills Have Eyes.

Now, Aja and Levasseur squander their talents on this derivative game of cat and mouse around a deserted car park, co-writing the flawed screenplay with first-time director Franck Khalfoun.

Regrettably, P2 (the level of the subterranean multi-storey car park where most of the film unfolds) is as vacant of creativity and invention as the poorly lit setting.

Moreover, the balance of power is weighted so heavily in favour of the mentally unhinged predator that we relinquish any concern for his victim.

Workaholic executive Angela (Nichols) stays behind late in the office on Christmas Eve, to the chagrin of her family who are waiting for her to return home with presents and various festive costumes and decorations.

When she finally leaves, Angela discovers that he car won't start, even with some tinkering under the bonnet from security guard Thomas (Bentley), who invites her to share his dinner in the guard station.

She foolishly rebuffs his clumsy advances and wakes, tied to a chair, staring into Thomas's soulless eyes.

At first, Angela tries to plead with the guard to set her free.

"I have plans," she tells him. "I guess some plans are meant to be broken," he responds coldly.

Then when tact and feminine charm fail to elicit a favourable response, she takes matters onto her own hands, using physical force to escape his clutches.

P2 is gratuitously violent, not least the horrific fate that befalls one of Angela's co-workers, who drunkenly gropes her at the office party - an indiscretion witnessed by voyeur Thomas on the building's array of CCTV cameras.

The promise of more wanton bloodshed hangs in the air, especially when Angela starts running around with a hefty metal axe.

Occasional ingenuity on the part of the security guard (flushing Angela out of her sanctuary in a stationary elevator) are offset by her stupidity.

The piece de resistance is Angela's decision to crawl into a confined space, where she will be at the mercy of Thomas's slavering Rottweiler.

Somehow, she manages to fend off the snarling beast, setting up her co-star with the laughable line: "Why would you do that: kill a defenceless animal?"

Bentley doesn't convince for a second as a crazed stalker - he doesn't have the acting chops - while Nichols gives us no reason to root for her stricken businesswoman as she proves that nothing conjures the festive spirit quite like roasting someone's chestnuts on an open fire.