House of Wax
Review by Gareth Von Kallenbach
 House of Wax
interview.
House of Wax
second
opinion.
As sure as the winter season brings snow and
rain, summer brings sequels, remakes and anything else seen as the
cinematic equivalent to a Xerox, to theaters across the land.
With retools such as The
Amityville Horror and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
already making some beaut bank and with The Fog
pending, Hollywood is trying to find gold from the past. The latest
spec at the bottom of the pan is a rework of the ol' Vincent Price
shrieker, House of Wax.
This Wax - produced by
the one man movie machine, Joel Silver - shares precious little with
the 1953 Price classic - aside from the title house and an abundance of
wax figures - but it's still quite an undeniably fun and
teeth-grindingly creepy diversion.
Carly Jones (Elisa Cuthbert), a young
college graduate, is planning to move from her small town to take an
internship in New York. Her boyfriend Wade (Jared Padalecki) is unsure
if he will follow her to the big city and this evokes a source of
tension between the otherwise happy couple.
Cue the getaway to smooth the rough patches.
Carly and Wade decide to take a road trip to a big sporting event, and
have their friends Paige (Paris Hilton), Blake (Robert Ri’chard),
Dalton (Jon Abrahams), and Carly’s brother Nick (Chad Michael Murray),
tike along for the ride. Not surprisingly - considering it's pedigree -
the film sees our troupe ending up in a remote backwoods area where
they bonk and booze-on.
In cliche number 61, the merriment is
interrupted with a mysterious truck pulling up. The gang's car is
unexpectedly out of business - broken fan belt - and so in the morning
forces Carly and Wade stay behind to locate the needed part in a nearby
town while their friends continue on to the game with the abovesaid
driver.
The local town is mostly empty, and looks
like something out of the '60s aside from numerous signs that tout the
local wax museum. While exploring the empty town, Carly and Wade
stumble upon a church where a service is in session, and meet Bo,
(Brian Van Holt), the local mechanic, who tells them he can get the
needed part as soon as the service has ended. With time on their hands,
Carly and Wade visit the local wax museum - which is equally deserted,
but filled with life like figures. You can guess the rest. Drip, Drip,
Drip.....Aaaaah!
Despite some flaws, Wax
generally works. As horror films go, it's got it all. The characters
and plot are as thin as A4 paper - not unexpected with a film such as
this though - but there's enough good moments to make up for the weak
spots.
It takes about 50 minutes for the bloodshed
to kick in, but when it does, the film cranks into overdrive: the
killings are some of the most brutal in horror film history. On more
than one occasion during my press screener did I see a member of the
audience hiding their face in the shoulder of a significant other
during some of the films more intense moments.
Of the cast, Brian Van Holt is the most
impressive - unleashing a fairly underwritten but highly memorable
rogue. The remaining troops - including Cuthbert and Hilton - are also
quite apt in their parts.
Points to first time director Jaume
Collet-Serra too. His pacing of the film is effective and helps sustain
the tension. You'll be frozen with fear in quite a few spots.
My biggest issue with the film would be the
ending. I thought it took the Hollywood way out, opting to go with a
big FX spectacle instead of staying focused on the characters and their
plight. That being said, as mindless summer thrills go House
of Wax is a decent, if albeit at times lacking, film.
3 out of 5
House of Wax
Australian release: Thursday the 14th of July, 2005
Cast: Elisha Cuthbert, Paris Hilton, Chad Michael Murray,
Jared Padalecki, Brian Van Holt, Jon Abrahams.
Director: Jaume Collet-Serra.
Website: Click here.
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