House of Wax

Plot synopsis:
The movie begins with a scene set in 1974. A woman is boiling hot wax to make wax masks while her young son is eating his breakfast in a high chair. Suddenly the father comes in holding a near hysterical second son who is kicking and screaming wildly. The second child needs to be strapped down in his high chair due to his apparently violent nature, and is compared negatively to the other child.The present. Six youngsters are on their way to a highly anticipated football game. Carly Jones (Elisha Cuthbert) is an ambitious young woman who is planning to move to New York. Her boyfriend Wade (Jared Padalecki) is a small-town boy who is hesitant about moving to the big city. They are joined on their trip by Carly's friend Paige Edwards (Paris Hilton) who may be pregnant with her boyfriend Blake's (Robert Ri'chard) child, although she hasn't told him yet. Blake has invited Carly's twin brother Nick Jones (Chad Michael Murray), a juvenile delinquent, to come along; Nick comments that their parents say Carly is the "good twin" and he is the "bad twin". Nick has brought along his rather annoying and immature friend, Dalton Chapman (Jon Abrahams). When night falls the group decides to set up camp for the night in a field. The campsite is visited by a mysterious stranger in a truck who shines his lights at the campsite, but refuses to leave, speak, or turn off his lights. Nick throws a beer bottle at the truck, breaking a headlight. Later that night, when everyone is asleep, Carly detects someone entering their camp.The next morning Wade discovers that his fan belt has been torn... or cut. Carly and Paige, meanwhile, discover a large ditch filled with roadkill. A disheveled man with poor hygiene and strange behavior adds a deer to the pile. He offers to drive Carly and Wade to the nearby town of Ambrose to get a new fanbelt, while the rest of the group goes to the football game. However, the rest of the group soon find themselves in a traffic jam and decide to return to the camp site to wait for Wade and Carly to return from Ambrose.Wade and Carly are creeped out by the roadkill transporter and get out and go to Ambrose on their own. The town seems almost like a ghost town, though the church is full. They visit the run-down wax museum, which is entirely made of wax. Scared by the rather eerie wax figures and the sudden appearance of a creepy man outside the window of the museum, Wade and Carly go to a garage where they meet with Bo, a mechanic who was in the church, who agrees to take them to his house and sell them a fanbelt. The handsome, charming man tells them the story of the Sinclairs (the former owners of the wax museum) while they walk to his house. Apparently Dr. Victor Sinclair and his wife Trudy moved to Ambrose when Victor was fired for performing experimental procedures on patients. Once in Ambrose, his wife Trudy discovered a passion for sculpting wax figures but eventually fell ill and died. A depressed Victor then committed suicide, leaving the Sinclair children as orphans.While Carly waits in the car outside of Bo's house, she discovers that the headlight of Bo's truck is broken. Realizing it must be the same truck that bothered them the night before, she tries to warn Wade by blowing the car horn. However, as Wade is trying to leave, someone comes from below and cuts his Achilles tendon, crippling him. Wade is subsequently stabbed and knocked out. Revealing his true intentions, Bo begins chasing Carly, and she eventually ends up in the church and discovers that all the funeral guests she saw earlier are actually wax figures. She is captured by Bo and imprisoned in the cellar of his gas station with her lips glued together, as well as cutting a part of her finger off. Bo's brother Vincent (the creepy man Carly saw outside the museum), meanwhile, starts to embalm Wade in wax.Nick and Dalton soon arrive in Ambrose to look for their friends and, upon encountering Bo, Nick asks him whether he has seen Carly or Wade. Carly hears Nick's voice and manages to rip her lips open and scream for help. Knocking Bo over, Nick rushes to the rescue and frees Carly. The siblings discover that the rest of Ambrose's population is dead, wax-preserved and displayed to make it appear that the town actually has living residents. At the same time, Dalton enters the house of wax and finds Wade covered in wax. Wade is alive, but unable to move. Dalton attempts to free Wade by peeling the wax. As he is doing this, he realizes that he is peeling Wade's skin off his face (which somehow fused with the wax). Vincent finds Dalton and starts to chase him, slicing off part of Wade's face off in the process which causes him to die from shock. Dalton falls down the stairs and Vincent decapitates him.Vincent then goes to the campsite where Paige and Blake are and kills them by stabbing Blake in the neck and impaling Paige on a metal pole. Back in Ambrose, Carly and Nick overhear a conversation between Bo and Vincent, who are the Sinclair children seen in 1974. It turns out that Vincent (the "good" twin who was seen behaving well in the opening scene) simply wanted to continue his mother's work of creating wax figures but Bo (the "evil" twin who had been violent and was tied down in the opening scene) manipulated him to start murdering people to make more realistic wax figures out of their victims. Carly also finds newspaper cuttings that report how Dr. Victor Sinclair separated his Siamese twin sons at birth, leaving one (Vincent) badly disfigured. Chased once more by Bo and Vincent they eventually end up in the wax museum. Nick starts a fire in the house of wax and the whole house begins to melt. The demented brothers die in the fire, with Bo's head being beaten by Carly with a bat. Upon seeing Bo's lifeless body, Vincent, in anger becomes fixated on killing Carly, despite her trying to reason with him over his family's history of corrupt ways. Vincent is then stabbed by Carly and pushed through the wax floor to his death by Nick, where he lands on his brother's corpse on the same place where they were both conjoined. Carly and Nick then manage to dig their way out to safety through the second-story wall. The smoke from the blaze eventually draws outside help. The siblings discover that the town had long ago been abandoned, and that it was no longer on any map. As the ambulance carries Carly and Nick away, the Sheriff learns that there were actually three Sinclair children. The film ends with a shot of the roadkill transporter petting Bo and Vincent's dog and waving to Carly and Nick as their ambulance leaves Ambrose, leaving audience to think if the seemingly innocent man is one of the Sinclair brothers.

Tags: good versus evil, violence, murder

Review:
Using their third brother as a connection with the exterior, it's pretty much arguable that the Sinclair twins should obtain the money necessary to buy the wax, in a WWII-type fashion.So, that aside, I think the movie deserves a lot more than it gets, and nobody should lose the chance to watch it.
House Of Wax is pretty much everything I like in a horror movie.
For those who enjoy Paris Hiltons stage presence, this may be a movie to see at home when its released on video, because at the screening I was at, we all laughed at her misfortunes through the movie and she is portrayed as a "woman of questionable values".The movie itself was pretty good (unlike the recent flood of weak horror flicks), it has everything a good horror should; a creepy villain, excessive violence, acts which make that average person cringe...this movie hit all the bases.
While HOUSE OF WAX will never be mistaken for Texas CHAINSAW MASSACRE or HALLOWEEN, it does try and ultimately succeed in being a worthy addition to quality horror film making.
Vincent Price is nowhere to be seen and when you start seeing fingers being cut off and hot wax covering comatose bodies, you realize this film is a little on the edge.I'd like to see an uncut director's X rated version.
House of wax is a typical slasher in many respects but that does not take away from the certain charm it holds...it has pretty much everything you would want in a horror film.The plot is simple and standard for the genre.
What's nice about House of Wax is its relatively slow burning, sure there are some jump scares and creepy moments but the real action does not start until around the 40 minute mark, some might call this dull but for me it only makes the third act even more impressive.Despite the little character development, the acting is surprisingly good and helps make the characters likable.
In a time when most high-profile horror films are disappointments, latent with bad writing, static direction, and amateur acting, I consider myself lucky that Serra and the Hayes brothers took it upon themselves to make a good, old-fashioned, spook fest.
As seen in the trailer, one knock I had was believing that a whole town could be "forgotten" but this is a cheesy popcorn horror movie so I accept it for what it is.My only major complaint is I assumed Paris Hilton would touch wax or get dipped etc.
The characters are developed decently and are somewhat likable (not like Cabin Fever where you wanted them to die) and the movie has a decent pace although nothing happens in the 1st 30 minutes like most horror films.I give it a 8/10 as it delivered good scares and gore and I had low expectations going into it.
After a somewhat wobbly start introducing our young characters, "House Of Wax" shifts gears and becomes an extremely effective horror outing.The plot really doesn't matter too much here - I think most people know upon seeing this that these stranded kids are going to meet up with a nasty killer and find some awful things in the titular house of wax.
Chad Michael Murray, like Hilton and Cuthbert, is pretty to look at, but unfortunately is not very convincing as the "bad boy" of the group.I predict good things for "House Of Wax," as the audience at the screening I attended hollered, screamed and clapped through out many parts of the movie.
Carly (Elisa Cuthbert) and Wade (Jared Padalecki) decide to go to the nearest town to get a new fan belt while the rest of the group attempts to go to the game , while Paige (Paris Hilton) and Nick (Chad Murray) stay on countryside making love .
Some scenes are clumsily shot but the movie has some good moments here and there , the illogical parts in the argument are more than compensated for the excitement provided by the creepy wax models , eerie killers and many other things .
Lavishly produced including spectacular scenes by the successful American producer Joel Silver who along with Robert Zemeckis and Gilbert Adler created ¨Dark House¨ , a production company specialized on terror genre ; both of them have produced successful terror movies dealing with eerie tales about horror , grisly killings and lots of blood and gore such as ¨House of haunted hill¨, ¨Return to house of haunted hill¨ , ¨Gothika¨, ¨Ghost ship¨, ¨House of wax¨ , Whiteout¨ , ¨Splice¨ , ¨The reaping¨ , ¨Orphan¨ , among others .
Even her greatest haters like me and my friends had to agree that she surprised us greatly with her barely believable acting skills and a strip-tease that wasn't as nasty as anything an online pop-up would promise of her, but still not so unbearable as to fast-forward or turn off the DVD.The violence in this surprised me; nobody at school or on the horror board was talking about it like they were about "these new movies called 'Saw' and 'Hostel'" but I could safely say that "Wax" was more graphic than Saw, and some death scenes were actually quite disturbing.In conclusion, I'm not surprised House of Wax didn't make a place on the IMDb Top 250, but it is definitely worth a look..
I know a lot of people thought Paris Hilton was going to just be terrible in this movie, in my own personal opinion, I actually thought she did pretty good In her own respective role.
Chad Michael Murray is one of the main stars here, who actually acts well and looks hot in his role at the same time, hard to find in a horror movie!
Of course it isn't anywhere near Oscar material but compared with other remakes you can do a lot worse than this.As you already might know, this movie is a remake of the original House Of Wax from 1953 (which was also a remake of an earlier I've been told), starring the legendary Vincent Price.
Paris Hilton's acting was about as good as can be expected, which is adequate, and she by far has the most boring death, but with that exception being stated, some gnarly bloodshed ensues which had me, a relatively jaded horror aficionado used to the standard issue death scenes, saying "Damn-that's harsh!" It's one of those movies that has you (at least I hope I'm not the only one!) putting yourself into the victim's shoes, imagining both their pain and mental desperation.
I was scared a lot and if I'm watching a horror film, that's OK with me and therefore i'm recommending the movie despite all it's clichés you've probably seen 100 times before.
It is a cheesy style remake of a classic and doesn't really do anything that i've not seen before, but it has an Ora about it takes sets it apart from a lot of the mediocre horror flicks in recent times.The build up, although slow is well paced and introduces the characters well enough so that we 'the audience' develop a liking for them; and when the killing's start i'm sure you'll agree the wait was worth it.Overall, House of Wax has a decent cast, adequate story, great tension and wonderful over the top death and violence that make it a must see for cheesy horror lovers and a safe bet for any horror fan.8/10.
Still with the fantastic set design to make the whole house into wax the movie is a typical classic horror remake like Tobe Hooper's 1974 classic Texas Chainsaw Massacre later remade, despite creativity and so-so acting the movie was still just a gore picture.
No real relation to the vintage 1953 Vincent Price film, this really quite demented little movie (overly castigated on first release) sees six teens getting lost in the woods and stumbling on a near-deserted town that the AA wouldn't recognise.
The scene where one character discovers another fully waxed up, his tear-filled eyes still moving, and attempting to save him, is a highlight.Paris Hilton, the only real major 'star' name to this movie, acts to the best of her ability.
I'll admit I rented House of Wax mainly to have a good look at Paris Hilton because I figured I was in for just another clichéd horror film.
Title-only remake of the 1953 Vincent Price thriller has more in common with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (or the lesser-known 1979 movie Tourist Trap) than with the original film, but still it's a surprisingly good ride for horror fans.College kids stumble upon a backwoods town and make a deadly mistake when they decide to visit the creepy local wax museum.Upon first viewing this film last year I admittedly enjoyed it but still I was rather critical of it too.
Elisha Cuthbert makes for a likable heroine, Chad Michael Murray does a good bad-boy performance as the bother, Brian van Holt is good as our villain, and Jared Padalecki is solid in the role of Cuthbert's ill-fated boy friend.So in retrospect House of Wax is a good time for horror fans, or those that would just like to see Ms. Hilton meet the wrong end of a spear.*** out of ****.
i simply loved it, it was pure horror, with a lot of suspense in between, and a lot of powerful scenes, this movie goes all the way to my top 10, in some scenes was breathtaking, and a little choking like when jared's character (wade) was sitting there, all covered in wax, and Dalton starts to peel it off to..
House of Wax was a freaking gory, graphic and disturbing movie with lots of weird ways of people getting killed, slashed or beaten up.
The formula for "HOW" is simple: take the sketch of an old idea (the 50's Vincent Price vehicle of the same name, and only that), borrow heavily from similar "remakes" (2003's Texas Chainsaw) and others (Joy Ride), throw in C-list WB white teen "stars" to save money (Chad Michael Murray, Elisha Cubert), someone who isn't an actor but will raise awareness of the film (Paris) and one brother for the sake of the ACLU (Robert Richard), and you have a movie that will most likely, top the box office.
I thought this movie was pretty good!OK, so maybe it had a few scenes that could make people think of other horror movies, but i have seen a lot more pathetic movies that got much higher ratings than this!
What were people expecting from a movie titled 'House of Wax' that starred Paris Hilton?
Elisha Cuthbert is the only worthwhile reason to watch this movie.House of Wax is probably one of the poorest horror movies I have seen.
If you are a fan of real horror flicks such as Halloween, Texas chainsaw massacre, evil dead just to name a few stay far away from this crap, I mean come on their are two crazed killers who have seemingly killed an entire town and they can't take out one guy and a girl ,in fact they get whipped by them.
Although the setup is almost an hour long, but long enough to find out who's too stupid to have a chance to live, the heart of the action at the House of Wax is absurdist horror, replete with demented or dumb sets of twins, a crazed scientist, and a Norman-Bates type holding the secrets of a town long gone to wax.In a year when the best horror films have been The Amityville Horror and The Ring Two, House of Wax is easily the winner, a meltdown if you will of horror expectations loaded with the usual vacuous young people, false frights, severed body parts, and gratuitous sex, only more of it.The climactic scene, when everything and everybody take the heat, is worthy of the original (shown in 1953, starring Vincent Price, and in 3D).
Meanwhile female and male boobs dominate a laughably entertaining slasher with CGI and old-fashioned makeup so effective that a severed finger looks like it came straight out of a Wendy's chili order.Notwithstanding the superior technology, what places House of Wax at the head of the horror genre this year is the inane dialogue: As heroine Carly (Elisha Cuthbert) exclaims, "This place is a freak show." Welcome to the best freak show so far in 2005..
You'll yawn through the rest of the film, if you haven't yawned through it so far, although there are some impressive special effects with the wax, some I've mentioned already, including an obviously CG but still interesting climax, which describes the fate of the House of Wax. Essentially, it's just another bad slasher movie from the 1980s, but with Paris Hilton and, the one thing that has caused horror films to lose their souls, computer generated special effects.
This is certainly not the worst modern horror movie you could watch, I'm mentioned in this review some that are at least as bad and some far worse (like House of the Dead), it's just so tiring to see yet another one come out with so little thought or effort put into it..
In the words of the great actor Jonathan Harris,who played the character of Doctor Zachery Smith on the classic TV science-fiction series of the 1960's,"Lost In Space",would actually say when the worst was yet to come,he would say....."OH THE PAIN,THE PAIN".And the remake of the 1953 Vincent Price classic horror flick,"HOUSE OF WAX",is a example of how much PAIN the producers at Dark Horse Entertainment can really,really torture the essence of a good horror movie and here they butchered it.
Gory Fun. i have not see the old House of wax so i can't compare it with that movie this movie and i really enjoyed watch this movie remake.it a nice build up to the characters which i really liked.I loved the Deaths scenes in this movie, they were great gory and nasty as the same time, The acting wasn't that bad.The killer in this movies were really creepy and i love chase was really well done.I think this great Fun, Gory , Nasty and little creepy at the same time.i giving this movie 8/10.
blood and violence every other minute brilliant acting especially by elisha cuthbert and chad michael murray, and thank god JC serra didn't give Paris hilton too much screen time.when i looked at the user ratings, the movie only has a 5.4 rating, but it definitely deserves better than that.
i gave it a 7 for the following reasons.1, it's very violent.2, it has many suspenseful moments3, elisha cuthbert is amazing to look at, both acting-wise and body-wise4, no Paris hilton making love with the wax.5, i am not sure, but i think this is an Asian movie adaptation, and if it is, it was the only one that was good.6, firm ending.7, awesome sculptures.P.S. can somebody please award elisha cuthbert with something, an emmy or a golden globe, anything useful, anything that will raise her reputation..
If you like good old-fashioned horror with random acts of senseless violence and just a tiny bit of sex - Paris Hilton is in this movie for a reason and Elisha Cuthbert almost looks as hot as Jessica Biel when being chased through a forsaken, rotten town by a serial killer - "House Of Wax" is the movie you should go and see..
I liked the Ring 2 but I had a better time at the movies seeing house of wax.
This is one of the best horror / suspense films that Hollywood has made in years or maybe even decades.Even though in my opinion this movie was predictable in parts, it has everything that a good film in this genre should had CHILL, THRILLS, AND yes a lot of GORE!!
In fact, House of Wax is filled with some great popcorn gross-em-out violence, and features some of the most creative death scenes since the last Final Destination movie (and parents, please note the R rating and don't come back complaining because you thought it was safe to take your daughter because she LOVES Chad Michael Murray).Of course this film cannot take itself too seriously; check out the mini-parody of the Hilton sex tape.
The film relies on lots of superficial shocks, the kinds that have been done millions of time before, so much so that you can easily see them coming (hinted by little things like camera work, and duration of pauses, misplaced sound cues)House of Wax starts off okay but the middle section is kind of boring, (the only good part being what happens to Paris Hilton).
House of Wax is one of the best horror that I have ever seen.I accidentally on TV saw trailer for the film and made me interesting, so I decided to watch it.
All in all, producers and writers have made a great film that is definitely worth watching and I recommend it to anyone who loves a good horror movies.So,my rating is 9/10..
House of Wax is a slasher movie that gets a lot of bad rep, really for no other reason than that Paris Hilton is in it.
"House of Wax" has a genuine creepy feel with good performances from Elisha Cuthbert, Chad Michael Murray, Brian Van Holt and Jared Padalecki.With the classic plot of a group of teens going on a trip when suddenly things go awry, there are moments that are unexpected and leave you thinking even after the credits have rolled.
Unfourtunetly "House Of Wax" could be any late 80's horror movie - minus the bad effects.
House of Wax exceeds expectations, and if you're looking for a good thrill, a substantial horror, and some stomach-knotting gore scenes, this is the movie for you.
After a long time, I found one great horror movie that is ''House Of Wax''.
Then there is a cool scene at the end where they are escaping the wax house.FYI: Paris Hilton still can't act.FINAL VERDICT: If you like teen horror movies, this is for you.