Mini Review
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Director |
Jaume Collet-Serra
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Cast |
Elisha Cuthbert
Brian Van Holt
Emma Lung
Chad Michael Murray
Paris Hilton
Jared Padalecki
Jon Abrahams
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Distributor |
Warner Bros. |
Running Time |
113 Minutes |
Certification |
15 / R
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Reviewed By
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Albert Koleba
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Buy this film
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HOUSE OF WAX (2005)
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When I first saw the trailer for House Of Wax (a retelling of André De Toth's 1953 film of the same name) I was astonished. It looked mind-blowing awful. I went into the theatre prepared for the worst, and to my amazement, House Of Wax turned out to be a good slasher movie. Sure, all the characters are idiots and deserve to die, the script is weak and is just a rip-off of numerous other slasher movies, but it's still fun to watch.
The cast is fine for the most part which includes Elisha Cuthbert and Chadd Michael Murray as twin brother and sister Carly and Nick Jones and they do a pretty good job. The standout performance in the movie belongs to Brian Van Holt, who plays the killer twins Bo and Vincent. He's very convincing as the psychopaths and he's a joy to watch. In his past career he's mainly played military men or police types in films like Black Hawk Down, S.W.A.T, Basic, and Windtalkers, but he shows very good range here and, thanks to his Wax performance, will hopefully go on to bigger roles in the future. The rest of the cast is fine except for...you guessed it, Paris Hilton.
Paris Hilton sucks. No pun intended. Actually it was intended. Seriously though, she has no acting talent whatsoever. Maybe with a few years of hard training and practice she can get better, but she's awful in House Of Wax. She's not in the movie enough to really hurt it badly, but when she is in it, all believability is lost. There is something I found interesting though. There are two scenes in the film where it seems like either the director or maybe the editor was trying to take a jab at Paris. In one scene a character questions where an awful smell is coming from, and the camera cuts to Paris and stays on her for a little too long and you can't help getting the feeling that she's being made of fun of. In the other scene a rap song is playing, and there's a moment in the song where they start saying something about hoes. Just as that starts, they awkwardly cut to Paris again. It could be nothing, but to me it felt like someone was trying to insult her. If so, bravo.
What makes House Of Wax actually enjoyable is the creative murder scenes. They're more violent than other films of this genre and director Jaume Collet-Serra doesn't shy away from showing the gore. This is the reason people go to see this type of film. Sure a good story and interesting characters would be nice, but in horror films all that stuff is just a bonus. We see these films because we want to see people get slaughtered horribly. The better and the more graphic the murder, the more pleased the viewer is. So House Of Wax should please many people.
The beginning of the film is a little annoying. It's the typical teens going on a road trip nonsense. Stupid music is playing loudly. They give you a little back story on each of the characters that you don't really give a damn about. After all that garbage is finished with, the film starts to deliver some good tension. Before you know it the killings start and the movie takes off. Body parts get chopped off and the blood flows like a river.
The characters do all the usual, stupid horror cliches that viewers have seen time and time again. Things like leaving weapons behind when they think they're no longer in danger, and not making sure they really killed the killer a couple of times. These are typical horror film mistakes. These mistakes are forgivable though, because the acting is believable for the most part, the killings are creative and fun, and the ending is much better than your average horror film has to offer. Throw logic out the window, and you shouldn't have a problem enjoying House Of Wax.
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Score
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7 / 10
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