Rising stars Rachel McAdams and Cillian Murphy are teamed with excellent results in Red-Eye, the tense new thriller from director Wes Craven.

McAdams, also currently seen in Wedding Crashers, and Murphy, who was impressive as The Scarecrow in Batman Begins have a mesmerizing chemistry as they shift roles and emotions, he from charming stranger to cold blooded killer, she from guarded but increasingly charmed object of flirtation to horror stricken but ultimately indomitable hostage.

With an impressive economy of strokes, McAdams' character Lisa Reisert is painted as a sympathetic woman of depth with more than a few emotional and physical scars. Murphy, as the terrorist-for-hire Jackson Rippner, is conversely a frighteningly blank slate, a conscienceless cipher not unlike the serial killer Ted Bundy, who can beguile in one moment and butcher in the next.

Red-Eye is not a supernatural horror film, as its effective but misleading original trailer suggested, but rather a taut, expertly crafted suspense drama involving a hired killer and an innocent girl who has the power to set up his very high-profile victim: the head of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Director Craven has created many classic horror films (A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Serpent and the Rainbow, Scream) and some very disappointing ones (Shocker, Vampire in Brooklyn). The success of Red-Eye completely redeems the dog of a werewolf movie that was his last film, Cursed.

Red-Eye is involving from beginning to end, in part because of Craven's assured direction and to an even greater degree because of the skills of his lead actors. Again and again, he shows his exceptionally gifted and good-looking actors in close-up, allowing their expressive faces to fascinate as they play out a dangerous game of cat and mouse.

Audiences will be happy they went along for the ride with Red-Eye.