House of wax
Year of release : 2005
Run time : 1h53m
Genre : Horror / Slasher
Cast : Jared Padalecki, Elisha Cuthbert, Paris Hilton, Brian Van Holt, Chad Michael Murray
The movie is a remake of the 1953 movie of the same name, which was also a remake of the 1933 movie “Mystery of the wax museum” which was based on the 1932 short story “The wax works” by Charles S. Belden.
The movie opens in 1974, with a woman who is making a wax mask for her son who is eating. Her other son who is in a violent rage is brought to the table by his father, and tied to the chair by the both of them.
In present day, a group of friends are going to a football game. Carly is talking to her friend Paige about her future as an internship for InStyle magazine. Carly’s boyfriend, Wade, is asking her why did her delinquent twin brother, Nick, had to come with them, as the man doesn’t like him.
Blake finds a shortcut, and they get lost, so they stop for the night. Carly uses this opportunity to talk to Paige about how Paige might be pregnant, and she should tell Blake, although she doesn’t think his parents will let him marry her.
They set camp, and the boys play football, playing music. Wade hates Carly for reasons she doesn’t even know (he thinks she told the police he stole a car and he ended up in jail), and she wonders why did he even come with them as no one invited him.
Nick’s friend keeps on filming them although they are against it, and it seems he likes Carly.
A car stops near their camp, and whoever is in the car just stays inside, with the lights on.
Blake and Nick are being rude about it, as if the man invaded their property, while the girls say that maybe it’s his private property, and Nick throws a bottle at the man’s car, breaking his light. The man leaves, and they think that’s that.
That same night, while they sleep, someone takes their camera and films them.
They wake up at 2 o’clock in the afternoon, and Wade realizes he can’t start the car as his fan belt is torn.
Going into the forest, to go to the bathroom, the girls smell the awful scent they smelled the night before, and Carly wants to see what it is. She falls right into a dump site of dead deer. She screams and the boys come running to help her.
After they do, a man comes to dump dead deer into the dump site, and he tells them Bo has a gas station Wade could buy a fan belt from. He even offers them a ride which Wade accepts.
Carly wants to go with Wade, and when they see there’s a lake in front of the road, they want out of the car. The man lets them out.
The others left for the game and are stuck in traffic, so they decide to come back.
Carly and Wade find the town, but it seems deserted. They go to church, and there seems to be a funeral.They interrupt it, and Bo comes out asking them to give him half an hour to bury his loved one.
Carly and Wade visit the House of Wax, which has the Closed sign on it, but they don’t recognize anyone. Carly freaks out when she sees a scary looking figure through the mirror, outside the window.
They go back to the gas station, and Wade decides to take a fan belt (although they had all the sizes except for the one he needed) leaving the money on the counter, since it’s been 45 minutes, and Bo didn’t show up.
Bo shows up, and he says he has the size he needs at his house. When Wade asks to use the restroom, he also says the gas station one is out of order, but he can use the one at the house.
Wade goes inside, while Carly waits in Bo’s car, who offered to give them a ride.
After going to the bathroom, Wade looks around the house, and Carly gets out of the car seeing how long it takes, and sees the car has one of the lights broken, realizing it’s the man from the night before, at the camp site. The lights go out in the house, and someone hunts Wade, stabbing him, then taking him to a place go put him in wax!
I personally enjoyed the movie (I even have it on original video tape), although I do not like slasher movies in which serial k1llers just k1ll people for the fun of it, and no reason whatsoever.
Nick was annoying, being an arsehole to everyone, from Carly, to Wade, random beggars on the street, and the man who stops his car on the field they set their camp on. He steps up when he goes looking for Carly and Wade, and hears her screaming from the basement of the gas station.
Bo keeps on trying to get them all inside his house.
I did love the wax creations which looked amazing.
I liked how the movie was filmed.
The movie was produced by Joel Silver (The Matrix) and Robert Zemeckis (directed Back to the Future, Death Becomes Her, Forrest Gump).
20 tons of wax was used in the making of the sets. Sculptors along mold makers and technicians, built more than a 100 figures for 7 months before the movie began shooting.
Because the movie has so many twins siblings, I feel compelled to write the movie was written by twin brothers Chad Hayes and Carey W. Hayes.
The acting was good.
Jared Padalecki and Paris Hilton also share the screen in Jared’s tv series, Supernatural, in episode 5 “Fallen Idols” of season 5.
The visual effects were great.
The music was good. Most of the artists on the soundtrack were rock.
The movie grossed only a little over 70 million dollars at the box office, against a budget of 40 million dollars.
The movie received ratings under 41 from the critics of platforms like Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes, against an audience score under 6.2.
IMDB rated it a 5.5. Cinema Score audiences graded it a C+.
Rating : Could have been a contender !