Review of House of Wax (2005) by James S — 19 Mar 2013

Given that this is a horror movie which uses wax works as it's primary horror selling point, this should have been a good deal scarier than it actually is.

Not that House of Wax isn't scary, it is creepy enough and has enough of the terror prerequisites to make it an effective enough horror but then you have the golden opportunity of seemingly inanimate, and slightly freaky, looking objects that could come to life at any moment and you don't exploit that to the full then it's a little baffling. It's almost as though the film makers knew what kind of a movie and scares the audience would be expecting and tried to steer clear of them, perhaps with the hope of being unpredictable.

If the scares aren't predictable then almost everything else is though. It's blatant from the get go who is going to survive and who will meet a sticky end of the small group of road tripping teens who end up lost in middle America somewhere. Car trouble ensues as it so often does under these circumstances and the only place for miles around is an abandoned town. With a wax works museum.

The band of good looking but soon to be chopped up youngsters include the usual array of US TV stars. Chad Michael Murray broods as the bad boy, Elisha Cuthbert is the stand out as his younger sister and Paris Hilton runs about in her bra.

The film has enough mystery and creeping through darkened corridors to give it an air of menace and the first trip into the House of Wax of the title is a pant soiling affair that is abruptly diluted and the grand finale is spectacular and original at least but despite having a semi-plausible storyline, the film shoots itself in the foot by giving too much away too soon. Also, the death sequences are mostly pedestrian and nothing to get excited about.

A decent horror which could have been a great one with a better story, script, actors and direction. That's the most obvious end to a review ever.