| House of Wax | | Cast : | Elisha Cuthbert, Chad Michael Murray, Paris Hilton | | Director : | Jaume Collet-Serra | | Studio : | Warner Home Video | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen | | Released Date : | May 06, 2005 | | DVD Released Date : | October 25, 2005 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), French (Dubbed), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), Spanish (Dubbed) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | August 03, 2005 | | Summary | Could be a classic! | Content
 | I consider myself to be a movie buff and this one gets my highest rating. I love scary movies and don't miss any. Usually I am disappointed by what Hollywood has to offer in the horror section at the movie store, but this one is top of the game. I will definitely buy this one when it comes to DVD. I especially love the gore and this one has plenty. You don't want to miss this one! |
| Rating | | | Date | August 03, 2005 | | Summary | Played For Laughs but Better in the Widescreen Version | Content
| Ignore the extreme comments about "House of Wax", in no way is it either great or totally awful. Many who saw it based on the trailer feel cheated. The trailer makes this movie look very promising, which is what trailers are supposed to do. There is only one thing for sure with trailers, if the producers can't cobble together a minute of interesting elements to make a trailer, it is a pretty much a sure thing that the movie is a major suck-fest. But a good trailer only tells you that a few things about the movie are good, it does not give you much idea about the total package. Here a little research can be valuable.
"House of Wax" stars Elisha Cuthbert (whose acting skills are closer to Kathy Ireland than to either her fellow Canadian Sarah Polley or her lookalike Rose McGowen), and was directed by a music video artist formerly known as Jaume, in his feature debut. These are not good signs but if you are like me you ignore them and go to see the work of Production Designer Grace Walken, who was responsible for the look of "Ghost Ship". Once again Walken's work is worth seeing, so much so that it looks like 90% of the movie's $30 million budget went to production design. The rest went to Cuthbert to compensate her for the abuse she has to take throughout the film (finger cut off, lips glued shut, tied up, and lots of wading around in assorted gooey stuff). By-the-bye, Cuthbert looks considerably heavier than she did in "The Girl Next Door", about one big pig-out away from having a major weight problem.
Which means they had nothing left over to pay the rest of the cast and crew. And judging from the what was on the screen, this might actually be true. It looks like everyone else donated their time to get their first acting or crew credit. Unfortunately, whether it was inexperience or jealousy over the pay disparity, the contributions of all these inexperienced/incompetent volunteers amount to less than zero.
Inexperienced Steven Window's DP work was about as awful as you are likely to see and working in league with incompetent editor Joel Negran (insert "Pearl Harbor" here) they manage to take away most of the value added by the production design group. Rather than linger over and showcase the sets, Window filmed this stuff with bad lighting and jerky-zooming-bobbing camera work. Negran compounded the problem with an insane number of disorienting cuts. Poor lighting, an ADD-like camera, and flurry cutting are what you use to hide cheap and crappy production design; not what is needed when the movie's only strength is its expensive and detailed sets.
Chan Hayes did the screenplay and Charles Belden (who wrote the original story) is credited as the writer although except for the title and the use of wax figures there is absolutely no similarity. One saving grace is that the movie does not take itself seriously as a horror film and is mostly parody (insert "Van Helsing" here). The murders are played for laughs, too extreme to be scary or even creepy to anyone over age six. The audience particularly cracked up when a certain high profile hotel heiress got her homely face run through by an steel bar, although her earlier half-baked striptease was the only genuinely creepy thing in the film. Another comedy highlight was when Cuthbert sticks her finger through a grate and has it clipped off by the bad guy.
The good scenes take place in Trudy's House of Wax, a waxworks that has something to do with a closed sugar mill, conjoined twins, and a lot of roadkill (which Cuthbert gets to bathe in). All this is supposed to be happening somewhere in rural Florida although from the many hills it sure looks like southern California (attention location scouts-the gulf coast is not noted for it's rolling terrain). The screenplay apparently intended to play up the connection (bad pun) between the two sets of twins, but somewhere during production or post-production most of the dialogue concerning this was trimmed. Since what is left about the twin connection makes no sense and goes nowhere, you wonder why it wasn't also cut to reduce the boredom factor.
What is particularly sad is that the producers did not have the brains to recognize in mid-production that they had the ingredients for a first rate horror classic-even with the existing cast. What was staring them in the face was a chance to go somewhere with the illusion of a town of wax. Because it is a photographic medium, modern film is intrinsically naturalistic, almost without exception prone to creating an illusion of reality. Here they had a ready-made opportunity to give the photographic medium a theatrical element of extreme stylization. Like an impressionist painting, the town creates the illusion of reality from a distance but reveals itself as a highly stylized wax fabrication up close. Of course they would have had to find a visionary Director and DP to bring the thing off successfully, but everything else was already in place for this to happen. |
| Rating | | | Date | July 31, 2005 | | Summary | An Above Average Teen Slasher Flick | Content
| This movie isnt by any stretch the best horror movie ever made, but it isnt nessecarily the WORST either. There were some good thrills, and the gore was average. All the actors delievered a fairly good and somewhat believable preformance, yes, even PARIS HILTON.
The ending was what really made this a B+ horror movie, the last 5 or so minutes, if that wasnt the case, than it would probably be down instantly to a C horror movie, and wouldn't be so controverisal "should i see it? should i forget it?" - there have been an equal amount of good, and yet bad reviews on the movie, this movie is okay to sit through once or twice, but definatly not a movie worth 20 dollars. If you want to buy this because your like me, and you could buy the movie with the late fee money, wait for a month until the price dies down.
Rating:
Rated R for horror violence, some sexual content and language.
Horror Violence: Most of the Violence is VERY GRAPHIC - and its not only "horror violence" - its gore. So it should have said "strong graphic horror violence and gore". *SPOILERS* - There is a cut off head, an impaling, a stabing, a knife in the throat, a cut off finger, melting wax, a ripped off face, a cut achilles tendon - and more. ALl of which is shown on screen with lots of blood.
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And Language: There arent that many F words, maybe a dozen or so - other than that the language could classified as PG-13.
Overall this stays within the bounderies of a B horror movie but the ending gives it a B+ movie - so watch it once and give it a chance. You might be surprised at how different this movie is from all the other Paris Hilton things, and you might actually find that you like it! |
| Rating | | | Date | July 30, 2005 | | Summary | Specifications | Content
| House of Wax was awesome. Here is what you'll get hwne you buy it on DVD.
It will be released in a two-disc widescreen edition, along with a UMD for PSP.
DVD extras: A Blooper Video Cast Commentary, a From Location: Silver Reveals House of Wax featurette, a Wax On: The Design of House of Wax featurette, and a House Built on Wax: The Visual Effects of House of Wax featurette, an alternate opening, a gag reel, and the theatrical trailer.
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| Rating | | | Date | July 29, 2005 | | Summary | Yes | Content
| I saw this in the theatres and loved it! I cannot wait for it on DVD i am definately pre-ordering it. |
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