Director:
Jaume Collet-Serra
Cast:
Elisha Cuthbert …. Carly Jones
Chad Michael Murray …. Nick Jones
Brian Van Holt …. Bo/Vincent
Paris Hilton …. Paige Edwards
Jared Padalecki …. Wade
Jon Abrahams …. Dalton Chapman
Robert Ri’chard …. Blake
The Movie
A loose remake of the 1953 original, House of Wax tracks 6 young people who camp out in anticipation of a football game the next day. Carly Jones (Elisha Cuthbert) is dating Wade (Jared Padalecki). Wade isn’t too happy that Carly’s brother Nick (Chad Michael Murray) is on the trip with them, as he is generally a jerk to him and also just recently got out of jail.
While camping the group complains about a hideous smell. They buck the slasher flick trend of investigating it though and continue their party. A mysterious truck shows up and places his high beams on the group. Nick throws a bottle at the truck and takes out one of the headlights and the truck drives away. The next morning the group gets ready to go to the game and Wade’s fan belt is cut in his car. At the same time Carly and Paige get a whiff of the horrible smell and investigate. They find the root of the nasty smell is a pit of dead animals. An odd man brings another deer to add to the pile and offers to drive Wade and Carly into the nearby town to get a fan belt while the rest of the group goes to the game.
This is where the shenanigans begin as the head to a “town” with a House of Wax and soon enough find themselves in a whole heap of trouble with the “occupants” of said town.
There is a back-story to the people that live in the town, but you’ll have to see the movie for it.
While House of Wax plays up the general slasher formula, they do a decent job of changing things up and not making everything obvious. A huge high point of the movie is the actual murders. Gruesome and original, you’re sure to say “DAMN!” at least once. The movie is not without its holes and disappointments though. During the second half of the movie you are more than likely to notice some points that are extremely far fetched.
Overall the movie is a decent piece of work that attempts to reach outside of the usual slasher boundaries. It has its moments where it succeeds and moments it fails. At the very least, it’s a damn good try and the actors give their best with what they have to work with.
Score: 7.5/10
The DVD:
Video
“Matted” Widescreen format preserving the aspect ratio of the original theatrical exhibition. Enhanced for widescreen TVs. I don’t have a widescreen so I missed the enhancement part, but the video is perfect quality, even in the parts where the filming crosses over to “home video”.
Score: 10/10
Audio:
Dolby Surround 5.1. The audio sounded great and had no slips or trips.
Score: 10/10
Special Features:
B-Roll and Bloopers Video Cast Commentary: Elisha Cuthbert, Paris Hilton, Chad Michael Murray and Jared Padalecki sit down and watch some outtakes and b-roll footage and basically goof on everything. This is somewhat funny and humanizes them, although Murray seems completely disinterested and is the first to jump to leave when they are finished.
Gag Reel: Funny stuff as usual. I’m a huge fan of gag reels.
From Location: Joel Silver Reveals House of Wax: Joel Silver finds a way to promote an entirely different movie called “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” with Robert Downey and Val Kilmer in addition to his production company, Dark Castle. This really serves no purpose and I have to question who allowed this to be on the DVD, regardless of Silver and Dark Castle’s affiliation with the movie.
Theatrical Trailer: It’s the trailer…yummy trailer goodness.
Alternate Open: Jennifer Killed: I’m not sure who Jennifer is, but she would’ve died if they used this opening, and died REALLY gruesomely.
House Built on Wax: The Visual Effects of House of Wax: This is actually a really cool feature showing how they did all of the visual effects, including a nifty peanut butter bed, and how the wax characters were created.
Wax On: The Design of House of Wax: Another feature based around the special effects. This mainly focuses on the building of the set and how everything built was literally made out of wax. Fun fact: A sound stage being used for the film burned to the ground during a test of special effects equipment. The fire was started by a candle destroying a studio where this movie was being filmed at Warner Bros Movie World on Australia’s Gold Coast. One crewmember was treated for burns to his arm no one else was injured. The smoke from the fire also crossed onto a nearby heavily used Highway, which caused health concerns for driving motorists, the Highway was not shut down during this incident.
Score: 9/10
