Review of House of Wax (1953) by Jose Miguel G — 25 Jul 2015

The premise for House of Wax was interesting; if only it wasn't so bloated with visuals thrown in primarily to get in our face since it was released in 3-D. It's awesome that this was one of the earliest movies to be released in 3-D, but it reminded me of what I dislike about 3-D in this day and age.

At the core of this film is somewhat of a "mystery," which focuses on the question who is the man with the disfigured face murdering people all over town. Any audience member would think it has to be the wax sculptor who is trapped in a burning museum at the beginning of the film - and they would be right.

There's the spoiler in this review, but what I dislike about it is that it is really not much of a spoiler at all. We have a murderer running loose, setting up situations that are later redesigned at a wax museum by the main character who just so happens to return, only injured at the legs as far as we can tell. How many people around have a motivation for these murders? That's right, one.

Even worse than this is the idea that visuals including a paddle ball, dancers putting their rears to the camera, and a fist punching above a face at us tries to get us focused on the 3-D, and has little relevance to making a good story. Also, it throws off its fast pace when there is an intermission to his 90 minute film due to the fact it was filmed with 3-D cameras.

I don't much like this film, but it somewhat redeems itself for themes such as spectator-ship - the sculptor is obsessed with various women he recreates and marvels at their beauty - along with the motif of art vs reality - a friend of one of the murdered victims swears that the Joan of Arc sculptor must be that victim; it is too similar not to be.