It’s kind of hard not to like a movie where Paris Hilton bites the big one. (And by that, I mean DIES….. sheesh, what did you think I meant?) “House of Wax” is yet another in a series of horror movie remakes that offer a little bit of thrills and chills, even if they don’t necessarily re-create the original’s spirit. Back in 1953, we had the late, great Vincent Price as a horribly disfigured sculptor whose artwork is comprised of the recently deceased, encased in wax. The 2005 version shares with its predecessor only the existence of an actual Wax Museum. The story differs greatly, and updates it into the more easily accepted plot of taking a group of college friends, stranding them in some godforsaken place, only to have them ‘offed’ one by one. In this version, our victims are on their way to see a football game.

When the drive takes longer than anticipated, they opt to pull over for the night to get some rest. They come upon an apparently abandoned town, complete with a literal ‘House of Wax.’ The house, and everything in it, is completely made of wax. Well… not completely. The rest of the film works on the level of ‘ten little Indians’, with audiences left to figure out who is going to die and in what order.

What works in “House of Wax” is the sheer audacity of the victim’s demises. Thanks to the wonderful world of special effects (both CGI and the much preferred makeup), the ones who die do so quite painfully and creatively. Though admittedly, none of the deaths are quite as gratifying as that of the character played by Hilton. This is the only spoiler I will freely give out, since her death is a BIG selling point of the film. What I wouldn’t give for that to be the fate of every character she ever plays, anywhere… even on the E! channel.

The film is directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, who mainly has a background in commercials and music videos. This has a somewhat mixed blessing for the finished product as there are scenes that look wonderfully creepy and actually do the job of creating a frightening atmosphere… BUT… these are at times ruined by his need to use headache inducing, rapid fire edits.

Warner Brothers recently released the DVD of “House of Wax” and provided the requisite extra features, plus a few interesting ones. The more typical include a couple of featurettes on the production design and the visual effects. Plus there is a short gag reel and an alternate opening sequence. On the more creative side, Warners opted to include a video cast commentary where four of our young stars hang out on camera and talk about the movie (well, more like laugh a lot). Here they utilize a split screen feature so you can see the film rolling along at the bottom of the screen. Finally, there is a very short, but very appropriate video of producer Joel Silver revealing the House of Wax.

Of the slew of film remakes that have come our way over the past couple of years, I’ll have to admit that “House of Wax” offered at least a pretty fun ride and some really nasty deaths. It’s worth getting ahold of for a late night fright fest. But, it’s just not THE “House of Wax” without Charles Bronson running around as Igor….

Directed by: Jaume Collet-Serra
Starring: Elisha Cuthbert, Chad Michael Murray, Brian Van Holt, Paris Hilton, Jared Paledecki
Specifications: Widescreen, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
Studio: Warner Brothers
Release Date: 10/25/2005
Region 1
MPAA Rating: R

We'll give House of Wax a C.