Today is a very special day: it is the 10-year anniversary of the remake of House of Wax. Okay, I jest. It’s really not that special of a day, but I thought it would be appropriate to bring back our “In Defense Of” series to discuss what I think is a very underrated film. Is it perfect? No, but it’s a helluva lot better than its 25% Rotten Tomatoes score and 41 MetaCritic score would suggest. Plus, it’s fun!
Let’s get the obligatory Paris Hilton section out of the way first. I am not particularly for or against her so I won’t bash her or her acting, but casting her in House of Wax was definitely a publicity stunt. Her reality series The Simple Life (as well as her actual social life) was at the peak of its popularity, so it apparently looked like the smartest thing to do. Whether you agree or not is irrelevant, but really, she’s not bad in the movie. She does exactly what she is asked to do for the role of Paige (and her character isn’t even that annoying!). The best way to describe her casting is trendy, and everyone immediately hopped on the hate bandwagon. It’s depressing that House of Wax will forever be remembered as “that one where Paris Hilton gets a pole thrown through her face,” because it’s much more than that.
I think part of the reason I love this movie so much (and yes, I do love it) is simply because of nostalgia. The trailer was one of those that I would watch repeatedly (I just love that montage choir music at the end) and I gathered a bunch of friends to go see it in a theater the Friday it opened after school let out (I was a sophomore in high school at the time). It’s a strong trailer, to be sure. and it almost made my list of favorite horror movie trailers:
Looking back on some of the 2005 reviews for the film, the consensus seemed to be that it was too long, the first 40 or so minutes were too slow, the characters were dumb, the acting was poor, and the film was too vile/sadistic/violent. Most of the horror films coming out at the time were far more violent than House of Wax (Hostel would be released just eight months later), so those criticisms don’t make a lot of sense. I could just be desensitized, though. What say you on this subject?
From an effects and gore standpoint, House of Wax doesn’t disappoint. There aren’t many kills in the film, but each one of them stand out. While Hilton’s death gets the most discussion when the film is brought up, it’s the below scene that is one of the best set pieces in House of Wax (though not the best, which I’ll get to in a second):
It’s apparent that the film has a good sense of humor about itself, which is something that many critics at the time didn’t detect. This is why the characters making dumb decisions (one review even pointed out that they split up a record four times during the film) isn’t particularly bothersome. The film comes across like an extended (and violent) episode of Scooby-Doo, and viewing the film as such makes it much more entertaining to watch. Whether or not that was intentional, we’ll never know (director Jaume Collet-Serra also directed the 2009 film Orphan, so make of that what you will). The “bad acting” ties into that too, though I think that Elisha Cuthbert and Chad Michael Murray do a perfectly fine job playing estranged siblings.
House of Wax is long for a horror film. At 113 minutes, it wears out it’s welcome a little bit. The criticism that the first 40 minutes are slow is valid, and it could have done with about 10-15 minutes cut from the first act. The intention was probably to allow the audience to spend more time with the characters, but other than Cuthbert’s and Murray’s characters (with the possible exception of Jared Padalecki), they’re all pretty one-dimensional. Again, if you go into it with the Scooby-Doo mindset, that’s not a bad thing! But at nearly 2 hours, the film could have used a better editor.
My final point (and one that most critics agree on) is that the climax of the film is a beast. Some of the CGI is spotty (the shot of the exterior of the house warping has always looked laughably bad to me), but it’s a showstopper of a set piece if I ever saw one. I would argue that it’s the main reason to see the film, but as I’ve stated already, I think the whole thing is a blast.
What are your thoughts on House of Wax? Do you agree with me that it’s a fun, goofy Scooby-Doo-style romp? Or do you think it’s lazy filmmaking at its worst? Let me know in the comments below!
