Vincent Price is right for Geoffrey Rush

I HOPE Geoffrey Rush fans, of whom I'm one, won't mind my saying he reminds me more and more of Vincent Price.

Cary Grant in the Hitchcock classic North By Northwest.

I HOPE Geoffrey Rush fans, of whom I'm one, won't mind my saying he reminds me more and more of Vincent Price, the suave leading man with a mellifluous voice who made a name for himself in 1950s horror movies.

Rush hasn't yet ventured into that dubious territory, despite his creepy appearance in The Best Offer, but he'd be a natural to star in a remake of House of Wax (Wednesday, 10.30pm, Fox Classics), a masterpiece of the horror genre and one of the first films to be shot in 3-D. (A lame remake actually appeared in 2005, of which I'll say no more.)

In Andre de Toth's 1953 film, Price plays a wax sculptor horribly disfigured in a fire that destroys his museum. Presumed dead, he returns to open a new museum whose incredibly lifelike figures turn out to be, well, I shouldn't say. Brilliantly horrific and suspenseful, House of Wax was itself a remake of The Mystery of the Wax Museum, a long-lost 1933 film shot in a primitive version of Technicolor and directed by Michael Curtiz, who went on to make Casablanca. There must be a lesson here somewhere.

Altogether it's a good week for horror addicts. The Omen (Thursday, 4.05pm, M Thriller/Crime), directed by Richard Donner, was a spin-off from The Exorcist. It's a satanic shocker in which Gregory Peck plays Robert Thorn, a respected American diplomat whose wife (Lee Remick) gives birth to a stillborn child. Without her knowledge, a living baby whose mother has died in childbirth is substituted for the dead child and reared in the Thorn household. Big mistake.

The film was a huge hit and spawned two sequels, but I was much more scared by Wolf Creek (Thursday, 7pm, M Thriller/Crime), Greg Mclean's brilliantly effective shocker and a contender for the most frightening film made in this country. John Jarratt is unforgettable as genial psycho Mick Taylor, who terrorises a couple of English backpackers and their Australian friend (Nathan Phillips) after their car breaks down on a lonely outback highway. A sequel is on its way.

The Eye (Tuesday, 3.10pm, M Action/Adventure) is a Hollywood remake of a 2003 Chinese-language film, this one set in LA. Jessica Alba is a blind concert pianist whose sight has been restored by a corneal transplant, enabling her not only to play the piano but to see strange visions and nasty apparitions, which may or may not be real. It's a polished thriller, though the last 20 minutes, which might have been lifted from a Die Hard movie, do much to shatter the eerie and delicate mood.

If it's a really great thriller you're looking for, I can do no more than recommend North by Northwest (Sunday, 8.50pm, TCM), quintessential escapist Hitchcock with Cary Grant, chock-full of suspense, mystery, action, black humour and romance, not to mention its famous crop-dusting sequence and the climax on Mount Rushmore.

CRITIC'S CHOICE

Wolf Creek (R18+)
4.5 stars
Thursday, 7pm, M Thriller/Crime

House of Wax (M)
4 stars
Wednesday, 10.30pm, Fox Classics

North by Northwest (M)
4.5 stars
Sunday, 8.50pm, TCM