Length:
108 minutes
Release
Date: May 6, 2005
Rating:
R
Director:
Jaume Collet-Serra
House of
Wax opens in a home literally made of wax back in the 1970s. A woman
is trying to feed a kid in a high chair when her husband comes in
with a screaming and struggling second child. They strap him down
before the movie jumps to the present.
Carly
and her friends are on a road trip to a football game. She's
seriously giving some thought to breaking up with her boyfriend Wade
because she's about to move to the city and isn't sure she wants him
to go with her or even if they should stay together. Her best friend
Paige has problems of her own because she's late and thinks she might
be pregnant by her jock boyfriend Blake who clearly won't marry her.
Also along for the ride is their geeky friend Dalton and Carly's
juvenile delinquent twin brother Nick.
To save
money, the group decides to camp overnight on the side of the road. A
truck pulls in later that night, shines its headlights on them, and
acts like a tool before taking off. The next day, Carly and Paige go
for a walk, Carly trips, and almost lands in a pit filled with dead
animals. Though she thinks she sees a hand sticking out, it's
actually a mannequin. A random guy shows up, shows her it's a
mannequin, and laughs at her. When they find that the fan belt in
Wade's car broke, the guy offers to take them for help while the rest
of the group heads to the game.
Ambrose,
the town he takes them to, is almost completely deserted. The only
people they see are a few people inside their homes. They eventually
wander into the church, interrupt a funeral, and find the Bo, the man
who owns the repair shop in town. As he needs some time at the
funeral, they agree to meet him later. This leads them to check out
the wax museum in town, which they saw advertised earlier. It then
doesn't take long before the group begins disappearing one by one and
they learn that there is something sinister about the wax museum and
the whole town.
The only
thing anyone ever remembers about House of Wax is that it's the movie
where Paris Hilton dies. I was literally just thinking that when I
turned it on, the roommate sat down, and said the scene where she
dies was the best moment in the movie. That's actually a little sad
because she's not that bad of an actress. I thought she did an
admirable job of playing a girl worried about the future and that the
guy she loved might leave her. That said, yeah, it's actually pretty
nice when she died!
House of
Wax came out right around the time when studios were obsessed with
PG-13 ratings, so I was a little surprised when I realized this was
actually an R rated horror movie. Given the lack of gore, blood, and
just plain deaths, it's hard to believe it didn't get a lower rating.
The best death in the film – outside of Paris – is obviously
Wade. When you see him sitting there covered in wax with his eyes
moving, you can't tell me that didn't get to you. Add to that his
best friend trying to “save” him by peeling off the wax to reveal
the muscle and tissue underneath while his eyes still moved makes
it one of the best scenes in the flick.
If
you're like most people, you probably haven't seen House of Wax in
years, but give it another go. It's a lot better than some of the
crap Hollywood puts out today.
No comments:
Post a Comment