Horror

Many industry pundits underestimated the prospects of "Texas Chainsaw 3D," the horror tale that finally knocked "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" from the top spot at the box office. Expected to gross about $16 million in its debut, the Leatherface sequel fared much better than predicted , selling an estimated $23 million of tickets. The film's commercial appeal wasn't the only part of "Texas Chainsaw" that people sold short. Producer Christa Campbell, a former pin-up girl and B-movie actress, said that Hollywood executives also assumed someone best known for her body couldn't have any moviemaking brains.

"Texas Chainsaw 3D" easily sliced through the competition at the box office this weekend - not that its rivals were particularly threatening. As the only new film to hit theaters nationwide, the reboot of the 1974 horror flick only had to contend with a handful of movies that have been out for weeks. Still, the low-budget movie did better than expected, collecting a robust $23 million during its opening weekend, according to an estimate from distributor Lionsgate. Heading into the weekend, pre-release audience polling suggested that "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" would claim No. 1 for the fourth consecutive weekend, while "Chainsaw" looked poised to finish second with around $16 million.

NEW YORK - As police continued searching Friday for a woman who witnesses say sent a man to his death by pushing him into an oncoming subway train in Queens, anxious New Yorkers spoke with a mix of shock, horror and nonchalance as they grappled with the second such death in a month along the city's massive transit system. Police identified the victim in Thursday night's incident as Sunando Sen, a 46-year-old Queens resident and native of India who worked at a printing business. Police said the woman - described as a heavyset Latina and approximately 5 feet 5 - fled after the pushing.

So terrifying is the 2004 tsunami as imagined in "The Impossible," its destructive force engulfing the screen with such violent menace, that the imagery alone elicits a rising dread so intense you may feel yourself gasping for breath. Spanish-born director J.A. Bayona must have been tempted to let the monstrous waves triggered by the Indian Ocean earthquake that devastated South East Asia and left hundreds of thousands dead overwhelm the dramatic story he tells. That never happens in this profoundly moving film inspired by the real-life experience of the Alvarez Belon family on that fateful December day. Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor star as Maria and Henry, on holiday with their three boys at a Thailand beach resort, and the film introduces gifted young Tom Holland as the couple's oldest son Lucas.

As this once-placid town struggled Saturday with the horror of 20 children and six adults gunned down at an elementary school, authorities said first-graders were shot as many as 11 times, some at close range. "This is a very devastating set of injuries," Connecticut Chief Medical Examiner Dr. H. Wayne Carver II said. "I've been at this for a third of a century and my sensibilities may not be the average man's, but this is probably the worst I have seen or the worst that I know of any of my colleagues having seen.

The film doesn't lie. When the UCLA basketball team broke down footage of its upset loss to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, "it was brutal," freshman Jordan Adams said Tuesday. "We didn't play hard," he added. "The film showed it all. " The Bruins fell, 70-68, Sunday after leading the Mustangs by 18 points in the second half. The loss dropped UCLA (4-2) out of the Associated Press poll. The Bruins had been ranked No. 11. Before the season, opponents such as San Luis Obispo would have been considered cupcake wins for a talented UCLA team that featured the nation's top recruiting class.

The Expendables 2 Lionsgate, $29.95; Blu-ray, $39.99 Available on VOD beginning Nov. 20 Doubling down on what worked just fine two years ago, this sequel brings back Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger, and adds Chuck Norris and Jean-Claude Van Damme to the roster of action veterans paying homage to the big, dumb guns-and-bombs flicks of the 1980s. The plot this time has the team of mercenaries losing one of their own and exacting revenge, but "plot" isn't really the point of either of the "Expendables" movies; the idea is to show buff, beloved old stars, swapping quips and bullets while running in slow-motion ahead of explosions.

"American Horror Story" will get another chapter. FX announced Thursday it has renewed the drama for a third season. The anthology series, from "Glee" sires Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuck, is currently in its second installment, "American Horror Story: Asylum," which has pulled in strong numbers for the network. Wednesday's episode brought in 2.65 million viewers. When DVR numbers are factored in, the series has been averaging about 5 million viewers so far this season. The third chapter will consist of 13 episodes and air next fall.

An account of collaborationist Paris' World War II capture of more than 13,000 French Jews for deportation, Rose Boche's film "La Rafle" (The Roundup) aims for historical drama both procedural and soapy, with mixed results. France's shameful effort to appease the Nazis is told mostly from the perspective of a young Jewish boy (Hugo Leverdez) named Jo, who is based on the accounts of a real-life survivor. Jo's family ignores the warning signs until the dead-of-night gendarme raids, the planning of which by indifferent Vichy officials Boche occasionally shows with particularly wound-opening contempt.

Mark Z. Danielewski knows his way around a horror story - and in the case of his famous novel "House of Leaves" it's a labyrinthine, mind-melting way through a haunted house. After taking on the American road trip in "Only Revolutions" he revisits spookier fare in "The Fifty Year Sword," where a Pandora's box unleashes terror on a family of Texas orphans. Skylight Books, 1818 N. Vermont Ave., L.A. 7:30 p.m. Thu. http://www.skylightbooks.com.