Katrina Bowden is going from funny to scary in "Nurse 3D," a movie Lionsgate bills as a "psycho-sexual 3D thriller," the studio announced Tuesday.

Paz De La Huerta ("Boardwalk Empire") stars as Abby Russell, "a beautiful dedicated nurse with a sinister side, and a secret life's work in which she targets and punishes dishonest men."

So don't lie to her.

The film, according to Lionsgate, is inspired by the photography of the company's chief marketing officer, Tim Palen.

His photograph is "a style guide and character inspiration for all stages of filmmaking."

Palen is an award-winning photographer "who explored the intersection of caretaking and punishment in an ongoing series of fine art photographs of beautiful, fantastical nurses."

It was Palen who came up with the idea of using two severed fingers to form the Roman numeral II in "Saw II. He designed the posters for "Saw" and for "Hostel."

His book, "Guts," is a collection of photographs, posters, and other images from six horror films.

In a written statement, Lionsgate's president of production, Mike Paseornek, said that in Palen's "nurse" photographs, he "clearly scratched the surface of a really great concept -- the idea of a film noir depiction of a beautiful nurse who uses her sexuality to very severe ends."

Douglas Aarniokoski, the first assistant director in Robert Rodriguez's 2001 "Spy Kids" and second unit director in his visually compelling 2003 "Once Upon a Time in Mexico," is directing. Aarniokoski also was second unit director of the 2007 "Resident Evil: Extinction."

So all that seems like a departure for Bowden, who's just finishing up the "American Pie" movie "American Reunion," and is best known for her role as Cerie in "30 Rock."

She has some horror -- or horrorish -- experience in the 2010 film "Tucker and Dale vs Evil," but "Nurse" is a whole different league. She and Huerta are clearly the stars of this movie, which gives Bowden a chance to play a darker role.

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