House of Wax (2005)

House of Wax is a 2005 horror movie about an abandoned town, its only residents two brothers who have continued their mothers mission to make the place a museum of waxworks. A group of friends go on a road trip, camping out along the way, and are forced to visit Ambrose when one of their cars breaks down. Only when they arrive, they find things aren’t what they seem, as something sinister hides beneath the waxy exteriors.

~

I remember being terrified of this movie as a kid, and it still holds strong today. Boasting a great cast and amazing effects, it takes inspiration from the original 1953 film and the novel ‘The Wax Works’ by Charles S Belden. It preys on some of our most innate fears - of losing control and suffering a slow, yet lucid death.

~

It begins with the group of friends preparing to go to a football game, driving through the night until they have to pull over to sleep. They instantly notice an awful smell coming from the woods, and a pickup truck pulls up to the field they’re in, staking them out until a smashed headlight scares it off. Carly Jones, protagonist of the story finds it hard to sleep and is sure someone is watching, as a mystery stranger hides from view.

~

The next morning Carly’s boyfriend Wade Felton, as played by Jared Padalecki, finds the fan belt in his car has broken, despite only just being replaced. Carly and her friend Paige Edwards, as played by Paris Hilton, go to investigate the smell and find a dumping ground of animal carcasses, with a sinister human hand sticking out. The culprit arrives to offload more offal, and reveals the hand isn’t real, obviously left there by mistake. He offers to drive Carly and Wade to the nearest town, and they hesitantly accept.

~

After Carly’s window wont work and the tires need changing to off-road because of the town being inaccessible, they both quickly jump out of the car and decide to walk the rest of the way. The town is only around the corner, separated from the rest of the world by a rocky stream, and it appears as if no one is home. They think they’ve interrupted a funeral service, and this is when they meet Bo, presumed owner of the hardware store. At first he lashes out, but then apologises and directs them to where they can find what they are looking for.

~

After having an uneasy look around the House of Wax museum, they get tired of waiting for Bo and decide to go and help themselves to the part they need, leaving cash on the counter. They can’t find the right length however, and Bo arrives to inform them he has the correct item up at his house, having ordered it in recently. They apprehensively go with him and Carly stays in his pickup truck, slowly realising it’s the same one they saw earlier. Wade needs to take a leak and Bo offers his restroom, though after this he can’t resist having a look around and this is when the horror begins.

~

In the study, Wade sees a certificate for Victor Sinclair, even though Bo had confessed he’d never heard of him after Carly noticed his artwork in the museum. Wade comes across a medical room with a bed and tools laid out, and suddenly the lights flicker out, as Vincent takes the opportunity to strike from a trapdoor and sever the back of Wade’s ankle. This moment is genius because it’s the perfect way to immobilise someone, but also so impactful for the viewer because it’s more imaginative than tactics we’ve seen from other horror villains.

~

Wade struggles against his captor to no avail, as he’s drugged and dragged to an underground chamber, where he begins the process of becoming a waxwork. Another horrifying moment occurs, as Vincent rips off all of Wade’s facial hair, while all he can offer is a whimper. He’s then sat in a mechanical construction, which sprays his entire body with hot wax to complete the transformation. It’s really effective because our worst fear isn’t just being killed, but being aware of that whole experience without being able to do a thing about it.

~

Meanwhile, Carly gets more distrustful as Bo returns without Wade, and she locks the car doors as he starts to become irate. He manages to smash a window in but she escapes out of the back, running to the church for help. It’s only when she’s inside that she realises the service was fake, as everyone inside is made of wax too. Earlier she’d been able to leave a voicemail for Blake, warning that they’d ran into the pickup truck guy again, whilst her brother and Dalton make their way to pick them up.

~

Carly is eventually captured by Bo and tied up in the basement of the auto-repair shop, where the cars of previous visitors to the town that have gone missing end up. She tries to scream for help but he uses super glue to seal her mouth, and goes upstairs when her brother Nick arrives and bangs on the door. Bo pretends he hasn’t met Carly at first, and when she tries to signal to Nick through a ceiling grate, Bo cuts one of her fingers off. Through pain and determination she manages to rip through the glue, so that she’s able to scream and let Nick know where she is.

~

Elsewhere, Dalton goes in to explore the House Of Wax, where he finds Wade at the piano, a new exhibit on display. He’s still able to move his eyes but his body is frozen in wax - he tries to free him from his hardened shell, but this only rips the skin underneath. Vincent jumps out and attacks Dalton, further damaging Wade which makes him die of Shock. Dalton is chased into the depths of the building and injured, before finally being decapitated.

~

Nick scuffles with Bo and locks him out of the garage, going downstairs to find his sister. They go for help at another house where Carly saw a woman at the window, only to find she’s another wax animatronic. They run to the cinema where ‘Whatever Happened To Baby Jane’ is playing, and find themselves in the same predicament as the seats are filled with human statues. Bo comes after them and Carly tries to blend in with the waxworks, almost losing her head while Bo wields a shotgun. Nick gets the gun off him and shoots him multiple times, presuming he’s dead.

~

They go back to Bo’s house again, searching for Dalton. Back at the field where Blake and Paige are camping for the night, Paige goes looking for her friend to find he’s been murdered nearby, Vincent waiting for her. She runs desperately until she finds an old sugar mill, where she looks for something that can aid her. She runs up to a higher platform, where Vincent manages to stab her foot from underneath, and she finds a car to lock herself in. Eventually, Vincent throws a metal tube like a javelin and it goes right through her skull, claiming his fourth victim from the friendship group.

~

Up at Bo’s house, Carly finds photos and newspaper clippings about conjoined twins separated at birth - this explains why Vincent wears a wax mask, because his face is deformed from the detachment. In a prequel scene before the movie began, we saw Bo and Vincent strapped into highchairs, being cruelly mistreated by their parents. This gives basis to the twisted people they’ve become. Bo and Vincent return home, the bodies of Blake and Paige in the back of the pickup.

~

Carly and her brother run into the underground tunnels, coming across the wax room where Dalton has already been sprayed - though when Nick tries to free him, he soon finds out that the head isn’t attached to the body. Nick tries to find the right light switch and alerts Bo and Vincent to their location, as the switchboard for the whole town in beneath their house. The brothers catch up with them and Nick fights them off, pouring a vat of hot wax across the floor which starts a fire and temporarily traps Vincent.

~

Nick and Carly manage to get upstairs, pursued by Bo who is finally killed by Carly, as she lays into him with baseball bat. This enrages Vincent and he rushes to avenge his sibling while the house melts around them, their feet sinking into the staircase as Carly makes her way up to the bedroom. Vincent chases her across the bed as she tries to reason with him, claiming his brother was the villain all along. Nick comes in just as he attempts to kill her, and they grapple on the bed until Nick rips the mask off, revealing the damage beneath. With Nick’s help Carly stabs him and the floor collapses, sending Vincent to his death and both Carly and Nick falling to the lower balcony.

~

The house tries to claim them once more, as everything disintegrates around them, the waxworks revealing rotting skeletons beneath. They start carving out a wall, climbing through the sign on the front of the building and falling into hot wax, as they watch the building fall apart. The police arrive the next day and reveal there was a third sibling - and as Nick and Carly are driven away, Lester gives them a wave, the guy who had given Carly and Wade a lift at the start. He’s sitting with Bo and Vincent’s dog, confirming he’s another relation.

~

House of Wax is slow to get going, but really worth the ride. Produced by Robert Zemeckis’ studio Dark Castle Entertainment, the same company that gave us the 1999 remake of House on Haunted Hill, a dedication to realism really brings the film to life. The only CGI used was towards the end of the movie, for effects that couldn’t be achieved by other means, with a whole town constructed and a wax specialist brought on board to create the House of Wax set. The craftsmanship is highlighted the most when it’s destroyed; I think the sequence of the house melting is so impressive.

~

Despite being a cult classic now, the movie still receives mixed reviews and horror fans weren’t impressed when Paris Hilton was originally cast. The executives used this to their advantage, promising fans they could ‘See Paris Die’ and she even made merch with the slogans on. I really enjoyed her performance and thought she cemented her place as a scream queen. The rest of the cast did a great job too, actors synonymous with 2000s teen drama like Jared Padalecki and Chad Michael Murray.

~

The soundtrack is pretty cool too, with many rock and metal artists lending their talents. The end credits roll as ‘Helena’ by My Chemical Romance plays. The special features includes a fun cast commentary, as we get to watch them react to the bloopers reel. There’s also a short film about the creation of the town and the waxy sets, and a trailer too. I think it’s a must see for any fan of the genre.