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Movie Review - House of Wax (2005)
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(What this rating means)
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| Director: |
Jaume Serra |
| Starring: |
Elisha Cuthbert, Chad Michael Murray, Paris Hilton, Jared Padalecki, Jon Abrahams, Robert Ri'chard,
Brian Van Holt, and Damon Herriman |
| Rated: |
R (for horror violence, sexual content, and some language) |
| Length: |
105 minutes |
| Genre: |
Horror/Thriller |
| Tagline: |
Prey. Slay. Display. |
| Studio: |
Warner Bros. |
| Website: |
House of Wax |
| Release: |
May 6, 2005 |
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PLOT
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Six friends hit the road to go to a big college football game. Rather than pulling an all-nighter, they decide to
camp out until morning. A truck pulls up and idles awhile before driving off, leaving the group a bit spooked. The
morning finds the practically new fan belt in Wade's super-cool Dodge Charger mysteriously broken. Carly (Cuthbert)
and Wade (Padalecki) decide to take a local hick up on his offer to drive them to the nearest tiny town of Ambrose,
home to the eerie Trudy's House of Wax, where the figures are more lifelike than they realize. The killing begins
as the history of the town is revealed. Brutal injury and painful death scenes ensue.
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STEPH'S TAKE
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Something must be terribly wrong with me. I seem to have been the only one in our group to have come away liking
this movie. During the show, Johnny's sister Amber wrote in my notebook, "Compared to
Amityville Horror, this = *yawn*" Mr. Shade said he'd give it a 2.5. Johnny's
cousin, who tends to be quite generous with his ratings, gave it a 2.5 as well! Things are not right. Granted,
things moved along a bit slowly for awhile after the quite promising opening flashback scene, but I personally never
found myself too bored.
I will grant you a few things. Some of the characters do dumb things they always seem to do in horror movies.
Simple rules were broken:
1. Don't leave your girlfriend outside alone in a creepy guy's truck while you use the bathroom in his creepy
house and then stay in the creepy house looking around at creepy stuff while your girlfriend is still alone
outside in a creepy guy's truck.
2. Make sure the bad guy is dead.
3. Stick together in a deserted town.
There was much wincing and shouting and moaning at the injuries and death scenes. With six people, excluding
killers, that's plenty of pain. And that's what this movie is about. I've seen more impressive death scenes, but
these were still good. I wasn't ever scared; I just had that sense of dread at the anticipation of all the
discomfort. I thought the story was OK too, as we learn the town's background and who is doing all the killing
and why. The actual house of wax is pretty cool, especially towards the end of the film. I love wax.
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ODDS & ENDS
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- This is a "re-imagining" of the 1953 horror classic House of Wax.
- One of the film's soundstages burned down when special effects equipment testing went awry.
- A candle started a fire that destroyed the studio in Australia where filming was taking place.
- I admire Johnny for writing so many reviews because I don't feel like doing this one anymore.
- Amber had way more fun taking pictures before the movie with my new cell phone than she did watching the
movie.
- Amber's pre-movie expectations: "Paris Hilton -- ugh." Post-movie, Amber thought Paris didn't do too bad.
- Amber really wanted to eat the popcorn of the man who was sitting next to her.
- Amber noticed Mr. Shade likes to smile and nod a lot when someone is talking to him.
- I waxed indignant when everyone was super-dissing this movie.
- "While the moon wanes and waxes, surely death and taxes are lurking out there." -- Roger Clyne
- Elisha Cuthbert was in The Girl Next Door with Michael Villani who was in The Philadelphia
Experiment with Michael Pare who was in The Virgin Suicides with Giovanni Ribisi who was in All the
Rage with Josh Brolin who was in Hollow Man with Kevin Bacon.
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MAMA'S APPROVAL
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Yeah I'm thinking this is not mama's cup of tea. Some sexual situations (including a Paris Hilton strip tease), a
bit of bad language, and, oh yes, plenty of uncomfortable slayings and inflictions of harm. Stay away, Mama.
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TRAILER COMPARISON
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The trailer didn't warn of the early slow pace, but otherwise it's a good indication of what you'll get: a
young-adult horror movie.
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THE GIST
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This is a fun horror movie that starts out slow, takes some stereotypical stupid-people-in-a-horror-movie routes,
but overall entertains.
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