'SEE NO EVIL.' Horror: A madman stalks several young criminals assigned to refurbish a creepy old hotel. Directed by Gregory Dark (1:27). Rated R: Gruesome violence, language, sexuality, drug use. At area theaters.

In the press notes for "See No Evil," the film's star, a mammoth professional wrestler named Kane, declares that "there are a lot of similarities" between himself and his character. Which is interesting, because Kane plays a sexually stunted psychopath whose best friend is a razor-sharp meat hook. Unfortunately, his touching confession is the only notable aspect of an otherwise grueling experience.

Wisely kept from critics before its release, this half-hearted horror flick is meant to be a showcase for Kane, and to be fair, he does an excellent job wielding an ax while glowering madly. But while he works up a sweat, the script - by WWE writer Dan Madigan - is so tediously lazy, you end up feeling kind of sorry for the big lug.

It's harder to scare up sympathy for his victims, who exist solely to be destroyed. A group of attitudinal delinquents, these future fatalities are required to turn a sinister old hotel into a homeless shelter. There's the geeky hacker, the snobby shoplifter, the ... well, why bother? It's not as if you're going to get to know most of them, anyway.

With Kane's madman living in theattic, the characters barely have a chance to pick up their mops before they're racing down corridors or hiding in inconveniently creaky closets.

Grim, bloody and relentless, without even a spark of fun or intelligence, "Evil" is barely good enough for late-night cable. As for being worth your hard-earned money and a trip to the multiplex, well, the title says it all.