‘House of Wax’s’ Gothic Terror Still Burns 20 Years Later
Something is missing from most (not all) slasher movies released today. Anyone who grew up in the heyday of the subgenre can likely sense that the slasher movies of this decade are deficient in some nebulous variable that rendered the classics so eminently rewatchable. Sometimes I’m not even sure what it is, but I can sense it. It’s probably a lot of “old man yells at cloud”, but they really don’t make them like they used to. Case in point? Nothing from the past two decades has come close to Jaume Collet-Serra’s directorial debut, House of Wax, which turns 20 this year.
Collet-Serra is a known entity now. Sure, he’s no Kubrick or Welles, but Orphan, The Shallows, and The Woman in the Yard are nothing to scoff at. So, yeah, he kind of is Welles, at least with regard to high-concept thriller territory. House of Wax—a VERY loose remake of Andre de Toth’s 1953 Vincent Price vehicle of the same name—was the first taste of Collet-Serra’s delectable visuals and unparalleled knack for glossy suspense.
The early aughts were packed to the brim with horror remakes, including remakes of lesser-known properties, so it would be easy to package House of Wax alongside The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Hitcher, Prom Night, the list goes on. That’d be doing House of Wax a disservice, however, since two decades out, it’s clear they weren’t even making them like this then. House of Wax is one-of-a-kind, a sensual, gory, foul, and gorgeous tapestry of gothic horror and Golden Age iconography. House of Wax is a burning flame, a celebration of the slasher subgenre’s history as much as it is a genuinely fantastic slasher in its own right.
Sure, the set-up leaves a bit to be desired. We’ve seen wayward teens stranded in the middle of nowhere before, though at least Wax has a cavalcade of hot young stars to make it all worthwhile. Elisha Cuthbert, Chad Michael Murray, Jared Padalecki, and Paris Hilton (better than you remember) round out the core cast, and even Robert Ri’chard of Cousin Skeeter fame pops in for some stylish slaughter.
If there are any marks against the film, it’s the brief yet unpleasant detour midway through into quasi-torture porn territory. That term is a matter of contention, I know, but it does conceptualize the decade’s considerable interest in intimate and rank violence. House of Wax didn’t need the perceived threat of sexual violence to keep its wick lit, is all I’m saying. Missteps aside, there are few slashers quite as adeptly distilled as this, and that the scale and scope augment the popcorn frights throughout is an added bonus.
The setting is, after all, not just the titular House of Wax, but an entire town of wax figures and buildings. It’s mini-Americana, Main Street USA stuff, complete with classic movie theaters, a baby church, and that can’t-miss museum. Too bad there’s a duo of evil siblings living within. Does it make logical sense? No, not really. Beyond the scope of their townscape, there’s the matter of supply and demand, namely, where all the wax is even coming from in the first place. I’m willing to concede to the fantastic for some good old-fashioned gore, however, and House of Wax has a ton.
There are beheadings, impalements, sliced Achilles, and bodies melted down under a deluge of hot wax. It’s graphic grindhouse stuff, and while ostensibly at odds with House of Wax’s Old Hollywood flair, the incompatibility is part of the charm. The fiery showdown has our living protagonists endeavoring to escape the museum as it burns to the ground while they’re pursued by a very 2005 slasher killer. It borders on poetic, the old clashing with the new, one melting down as the other desperately tries to hang on. Almost like the end of an era, no?
Luckily, House of Wax’s contemporary reception is stronger than when the film was first released. It was a horror movie, and a slasher at that, and it never really aspired to anything beyond blood-soaked homage. The New York Times was moderately positive, writing, “The set design is fairly elaborate by the standards of the genre, and the victims don’t die in precisely the order you might expect, but everything else goes pretty much according to formula.” Roger Ebert decried the film. Poor reviews are to be expected, and I’m never one to deny critics their agency or suggest they were wrong. I love this subgenre, so my bias for some slice and dice is just the same as some critics’ bias against it.
For slasher fans, however, House of Wax remains a sight worth seeing. Even 20 years out, the thrills and chills are perfectly preserved, almost like they’ve been coated as Grand Guignol perennials in a wax museum of their own. The slasher subgenre is luckily in the midst of a resurgence, too. This generation is liable to find a House of Wax of their own, and two decades out, they’ll be singing that film’s praises. Horror is history, and more than fifty years’ worth is housed here. Long live the wax, forever and always.
House of Wax is currently available to rent. A Scream Factory Collector’s Edition is also available for physical media diehards. Fans of the original can catch the 1953 3D opus available to rent as well. Be certain to check in with me @chadiscollins on Twitter, too, to talk all things House of Wax.
Categorized:Editorials
