House of Wax (2005 film)
Encyclopedia
House of Wax is a 2005 horror film
directed by Jaume Collet-Serra
. It shares the name of a 1953 horror film
, which was a remake of the 1933 film
Mystery of the Wax Museum. It was released in theaters on May 6, 2005 to negative reviews, but a financial success. On October 25, 2005, the film came out on DVD and on Blu-ray on September 26, 2006.
In 2005, Carly (Elisha Cuthbert
) and her boyfriend Wade (Jared Padalecki
) with her friend Paige (Paris Hilton
) and Paige's boyfriend Blake (Robert Ri'chard
) are on their way to a highly anticipated football
game in Louisiana
. Eventually, Carly's delinquent twin brother, Nick (Chad Michael Murray
) and his friend Dalton (Jon Abrahams
) also join them. Night falls and the group decides to set up camp for the night. The campsite is later visited by a stranger in a pickup truck
who shines his lights at the campsite, but refuses to leave or address them until Nick smashes a headlight with a bottle. The next morning, Carly and Paige go exploring, Carly falls down a hill and lands in deer remains and sees a fake hand. Wade's car's fan belt is found to be damaged. The group meets a disheveled, rural man named Lester (Damon Herriman
), who offers to drive Carly and Wade to the nearby town of Ambrose to get a new fan belt, while the rest of them go to the football game.
The two arrive at Ambrose, which is virtually a ghost town. Unable to find an attendant at the auto mechanics shop, they wander into the church, disrupting a funeral. There, they meet a mechanic named Bo (Brian Van Holt
), who offers to sell them a fan belt after the funeral. While waiting for the services to end, Carly and Wade visit the wax museum
, which itself is made of wax and is the central feature of the town. Afterward, they follow Bo to his house to find a proper fan belt. While there, Wade is crippled and stabbed by a long-haired man with a wax facemask named Vincent. Bo grabs Carly, super glues her lips shut and locks her in a cellar. Dalton and Nick arrive in Ambrose to look for Carly and Wade. Vincent meanwhile strips and shaves Wade, then puts him in a chair with a metal contraption on his head which pins his eyes open. Vincent pulls a couple of levers which showers the immobile Wade with hot wax.
While Nick questions Bo if he has seen his sister, Carly tries signaling for help by sticking her finger out of a vent, trying to get her brother's attention. Bo notices her finger sticking out, and snips the tip off with a pair of dikes. Carly falls screaming in pain and later pries her lips open in order to scream for help. Nick, hearing her screams, knocks Bo out after he attacks him. Nick locks Bo out of the station and finds his sister, and the two escape. Dalton finds Wade who is alive but he is unable to move or talk because he is immobilized by the layer of wax covering his body. Dalton peels off the wax but realizes he is peeling Wade's skin off. Vincent finds Dalton and accidentally slashes Wade's face with a knife. Wade dies from shock. Vincent later chases and decapitates Dalton, killing him too. Meanwhile, Nick and Carly realize that the wax figures are actually real people – Bo and Vincent have been trapping people in wax in order for the figures to look more realistic. Bo finds Carly and Nick at the theatre, but they escape after Nick shoots Bo with a crossbow.
Vincent goes to their camp site, kills Blake, and chases Paige to an abandoned sugar mill. After being stabbed in the foot, Paige hides in a car but Vincent finds her, and impales her in the head with a spear. As Vincent brings Blake and Paige's bodies Carly and Nick overhear Bo and Vincent talking and discovers that they were conjoined twins. Their father, a doctor, performed a controversial procedure to separate the brothers. The surgery left half of Vincent's face badly deformed, forcing him to wear a wax mask for the rest of his life. Nick and Carly find the basement where they find Dalton's body covered in wax. Nick tries to remove the contraption but ends up twisting his head. Bo and Vincent find and chase Carly and Nick to the House of Wax. Nick and Carly unintentionally set the House of Wax on fire, causing the entire structure to melt. Carly beats Bo to death with a baseball bat, which enrages Vincent. Vincent chases Nick and Carly on to the balcony but Carly and Nick stab Vincent in the hip, thus killing him. As the House of Wax melts from the fire, the room in which all three are in collapses, causing Vincent to land on Bo's corpse. Nick and Carly escape the fiery House of Wax and breathlessly watch as it melts to the ground.
The ambulance and police arrive at daybreak, reporting that Ambrose has been abandoned for ten years when the local sugar mill failed. The policeman (Andy Anderson
) reveals that there was a third son of Mr. and Mrs. Sinclair who happens to be Lester. Nick and Carly are then taken to hospital. As the ambulance leaves, Carly sees Lester looking and smiling at her while sitting on his truck with Vincent's dog, Sandwich.
, Australia
in 2004.
Before the role of Paige Edwards was given to Paris Hilton, Kate Winslet
and Jennifer Connelly
were considered to play the role.
The $7 million lawsuit alleges that the Mr. Fletcher and Wax Productions were grossly negligent over the fire which destroyed part of the Gold Coast's Warner Bros. Movie World
studios. The alleged grounds of negligence included not having firefighters on stand-by and using timber props near a naked flame. The set where the fire broke out has now been demolished and a field kept for Movie World for future projects.
giving it a 25% "rotten" rating. It was also nominated for three Razzie Awards including Worst Picture and Worst Remake or Sequel, with Paris Hilton
winning Worst Supporting Actress. Critics and audiences had agreed that Hilton's character's death was the best part of the film; a limited-run promotional t-shirt advertising the movie on the front and "SEE PARIS DIE" was apparently in very high demand.
, composed by John Ottman
.
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
directed by Jaume Collet-Serra
Jaume Collet-Serra
Jaume Collet-Serra is a Spanish film director and producer.Collet-Serra is most famous for the 2005 remake House of Wax, and 2009's Orphan...
. It shares the name of a 1953 horror film
House of Wax (1953 film)
House of Wax is a 1953 American horror film starring Vincent Price. It is a remake of Warners' Mystery of the Wax Museum without the comic relief featured in the earlier film, and was directed by André de Toth...
, which was a remake of the 1933 film
1933 in film
-Events:* March 2 - King Kong premieres in New York City.* June 6 - The first drive-in theater opens, in Camden, New Jersey.* British Film Institute founded....
Mystery of the Wax Museum. It was released in theaters on May 6, 2005 to negative reviews, but a financial success. On October 25, 2005, the film came out on DVD and on Blu-ray on September 26, 2006.
Plot
In 1974, a woman is making a wax sculpture in the kitchen while her son eats breakfast in his highchair. Her husband enters with another son who is shouting and kicking. The boy is forced into a highchair and strapped in place by his father. After being strapped and taped to his chair by his mother, he scratches her hand. She then slaps her child across the face.In 2005, Carly (Elisha Cuthbert
Elisha Cuthbert
Elisha Ann Cuthbert is a Canadian film and television actress. Cuthbert is known as the former co-host of the Canadian children's television series Popular Mechanics for Kids. In 1998, she had her first film role in Airspeed. She followed this in 2003 with a role in Old School...
) and her boyfriend Wade (Jared Padalecki
Jared Padalecki
Jared Tristan Padalecki is an American actor. He grew up in Texas and came to fame in the early 2000s after appearing on the television series Gilmore Girls as well as in several Hollywood films, including New York Minute and House of Wax...
) with her friend Paige (Paris Hilton
Paris Hilton
Paris Whitney Hilton is an American businesswoman, heiress, and socialite. She is a great-granddaughter of Conrad Hilton . Hilton is known for her controversial participation in a sex tape in 2003, and appearance on the television series The Simple Life alongside fellow socialite and childhood...
) and Paige's boyfriend Blake (Robert Ri'chard
Robert Ri'chard
Robert Andrew Ri'chard is an American television and movie actor.-Early life:Ri'chard was born Robert Andrew Richard in Los Angeles, California...
) are on their way to a highly anticipated football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
game in Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
. Eventually, Carly's delinquent twin brother, Nick (Chad Michael Murray
Chad Michael Murray
Chad Michael Murray is an American actor, former fashion model and spokesperson. Murray is well known for portraying Lucas Scott in The CW young adult drama series One Tree Hill, in addition to the commercially successful films A Cinderella Story, Freaky Friday and House of Wax...
) and his friend Dalton (Jon Abrahams
Jon Abrahams
Jon Avery Abrahams is an American film and television actor.-Life and career:Abrahams attended Saint Ann's School in Brooklyn....
) also join them. Night falls and the group decides to set up camp for the night. The campsite is later visited by a stranger in a pickup truck
Pickup truck
A pickup truck is a light motor vehicle with an open-top rear cargo area .-Definition:...
who shines his lights at the campsite, but refuses to leave or address them until Nick smashes a headlight with a bottle. The next morning, Carly and Paige go exploring, Carly falls down a hill and lands in deer remains and sees a fake hand. Wade's car's fan belt is found to be damaged. The group meets a disheveled, rural man named Lester (Damon Herriman
Damon Herriman
Damon Herriman is an Australian actor who is best known for his role in drama series Love My Way.Damon Herriman was born in Adelaide, South Australia. He began acting in local television commercials at the age of eight, but it was not until he was cast as Frank Errol in The Sullivans two years...
), who offers to drive Carly and Wade to the nearby town of Ambrose to get a new fan belt, while the rest of them go to the football game.
The two arrive at Ambrose, which is virtually a ghost town. Unable to find an attendant at the auto mechanics shop, they wander into the church, disrupting a funeral. There, they meet a mechanic named Bo (Brian Van Holt
Brian Van Holt
-Early life:Van Holt was born in Waukegan, Illinois and raised in California. Despite his Dutch surname, he is of mainly Scotch-Irish ancestry. Van Holt has a degree in Sociology from UCLA. At 18 years of age, he struck the perfect image of a Huntington Beach, California surfer...
), who offers to sell them a fan belt after the funeral. While waiting for the services to end, Carly and Wade visit the wax museum
Wax museum
A wax museum or waxworks consists of a collection of wax sculptures representing famous people from history and contemporary personalities exhibited in lifelike poses....
, which itself is made of wax and is the central feature of the town. Afterward, they follow Bo to his house to find a proper fan belt. While there, Wade is crippled and stabbed by a long-haired man with a wax facemask named Vincent. Bo grabs Carly, super glues her lips shut and locks her in a cellar. Dalton and Nick arrive in Ambrose to look for Carly and Wade. Vincent meanwhile strips and shaves Wade, then puts him in a chair with a metal contraption on his head which pins his eyes open. Vincent pulls a couple of levers which showers the immobile Wade with hot wax.
While Nick questions Bo if he has seen his sister, Carly tries signaling for help by sticking her finger out of a vent, trying to get her brother's attention. Bo notices her finger sticking out, and snips the tip off with a pair of dikes. Carly falls screaming in pain and later pries her lips open in order to scream for help. Nick, hearing her screams, knocks Bo out after he attacks him. Nick locks Bo out of the station and finds his sister, and the two escape. Dalton finds Wade who is alive but he is unable to move or talk because he is immobilized by the layer of wax covering his body. Dalton peels off the wax but realizes he is peeling Wade's skin off. Vincent finds Dalton and accidentally slashes Wade's face with a knife. Wade dies from shock. Vincent later chases and decapitates Dalton, killing him too. Meanwhile, Nick and Carly realize that the wax figures are actually real people – Bo and Vincent have been trapping people in wax in order for the figures to look more realistic. Bo finds Carly and Nick at the theatre, but they escape after Nick shoots Bo with a crossbow.
Vincent goes to their camp site, kills Blake, and chases Paige to an abandoned sugar mill. After being stabbed in the foot, Paige hides in a car but Vincent finds her, and impales her in the head with a spear. As Vincent brings Blake and Paige's bodies Carly and Nick overhear Bo and Vincent talking and discovers that they were conjoined twins. Their father, a doctor, performed a controversial procedure to separate the brothers. The surgery left half of Vincent's face badly deformed, forcing him to wear a wax mask for the rest of his life. Nick and Carly find the basement where they find Dalton's body covered in wax. Nick tries to remove the contraption but ends up twisting his head. Bo and Vincent find and chase Carly and Nick to the House of Wax. Nick and Carly unintentionally set the House of Wax on fire, causing the entire structure to melt. Carly beats Bo to death with a baseball bat, which enrages Vincent. Vincent chases Nick and Carly on to the balcony but Carly and Nick stab Vincent in the hip, thus killing him. As the House of Wax melts from the fire, the room in which all three are in collapses, causing Vincent to land on Bo's corpse. Nick and Carly escape the fiery House of Wax and breathlessly watch as it melts to the ground.
The ambulance and police arrive at daybreak, reporting that Ambrose has been abandoned for ten years when the local sugar mill failed. The policeman (Andy Anderson
Andy Anderson (actor)
Andy Anderson is an actor best known for his roles on both Australian and New Zealand television.-Career:...
) reveals that there was a third son of Mr. and Mrs. Sinclair who happens to be Lester. Nick and Carly are then taken to hospital. As the ambulance leaves, Carly sees Lester looking and smiling at her while sitting on his truck with Vincent's dog, Sandwich.
Production
Principal photography of House of Wax took place in QueenslandQueensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
in 2004.
Before the role of Paige Edwards was given to Paris Hilton, Kate Winslet
Kate Winslet
Kate Elizabeth Winslet is an English actress and occasional singer. She has received multiple awards and nominations. She was the youngest person to accrue six Academy Award nominations, and won the Academy Award for Best Actress for The Reader...
and Jennifer Connelly
Jennifer Connelly
Jennifer Lynn Connelly is an American film actress, who began her career as a child model. She appeared in magazine, newspaper and television advertising, before making her motion picture debut in the 1984 crime film Once Upon a Time in America...
were considered to play the role.
Cast
- Elisha CuthbertElisha CuthbertElisha Ann Cuthbert is a Canadian film and television actress. Cuthbert is known as the former co-host of the Canadian children's television series Popular Mechanics for Kids. In 1998, she had her first film role in Airspeed. She followed this in 2003 with a role in Old School...
as Carly Jones - Chad Michael MurrayChad Michael MurrayChad Michael Murray is an American actor, former fashion model and spokesperson. Murray is well known for portraying Lucas Scott in The CW young adult drama series One Tree Hill, in addition to the commercially successful films A Cinderella Story, Freaky Friday and House of Wax...
as Nick Jones - Brian Van HoltBrian Van Holt-Early life:Van Holt was born in Waukegan, Illinois and raised in California. Despite his Dutch surname, he is of mainly Scotch-Irish ancestry. Van Holt has a degree in Sociology from UCLA. At 18 years of age, he struck the perfect image of a Huntington Beach, California surfer...
as Bo Sinclair / Vincent Sinclair - Paris HiltonParis HiltonParis Whitney Hilton is an American businesswoman, heiress, and socialite. She is a great-granddaughter of Conrad Hilton . Hilton is known for her controversial participation in a sex tape in 2003, and appearance on the television series The Simple Life alongside fellow socialite and childhood...
as Paige Edwards - Jared PadaleckiJared PadaleckiJared Tristan Padalecki is an American actor. He grew up in Texas and came to fame in the early 2000s after appearing on the television series Gilmore Girls as well as in several Hollywood films, including New York Minute and House of Wax...
as Wade - Jon AbrahamsJon AbrahamsJon Avery Abrahams is an American film and television actor.-Life and career:Abrahams attended Saint Ann's School in Brooklyn....
as Dalton Chapman - Robert Ri'chardRobert Ri'chardRobert Andrew Ri'chard is an American television and movie actor.-Early life:Ri'chard was born Robert Andrew Richard in Los Angeles, California...
as Blake - Andy AndersonAndy Anderson (actor)Andy Anderson is an actor best known for his roles on both Australian and New Zealand television.-Career:...
as Sheriff - Damon HerrimanDamon HerrimanDamon Herriman is an Australian actor who is best known for his role in drama series Love My Way.Damon Herriman was born in Adelaide, South Australia. He began acting in local television commercials at the age of eight, but it was not until he was cast as Frank Errol in The Sullivans two years...
as Lester - Dragitsa Debert as Trudy Sinclair
- Murray SmithMurray SmithMurray Smith may refer to:*Murray Smith , Canadian lawyer and politician, member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, 1993–2004*Murray Smith , MP for Winnipeg North, 1958–1962...
as Dr. Victor Sinclair - Thomas Adamson as Young Bo
- Sam Harkess as Young Vincent
- Emma LungEmma Lung- Career :Lung played Carmelita in the short-lived Australian drama series The Cooks. She received her first breakthrough role in the film Peaches starring alongside Jacqueline McKenzie and Hugo Weaving. She starred in the movie 48 Shades alongside Victoria Thaine and Richard Wilson...
as Jennifer
Lawsuit
In January 2006, it was announced by Warner Roadshow studio owners Village Theme Park Management and Warner Brothers Movie World Australia that they were suing special effects expert David Fletcher and Wax Productions because of a fire on the set during production.The $7 million lawsuit alleges that the Mr. Fletcher and Wax Productions were grossly negligent over the fire which destroyed part of the Gold Coast's Warner Bros. Movie World
Warner Bros. Movie World
Warner Bros. Movie World is a popular movie related theme park on the Gold Coast in Australia. It is owned and operated by Village Roadshow since the take over from Time Warner and is the only movie related park in Australia...
studios. The alleged grounds of negligence included not having firefighters on stand-by and using timber props near a naked flame. The set where the fire broke out has now been demolished and a field kept for Movie World for future projects.
Box office
Opening in 3,111 theaters, the film grossed $12 million in its first three days. Though most critics did not recommend the film, many of them acknowledged that it was well made and/or better than other recent similar films. House of Wax earned $70,064,800 worldwide. 46.6% of that total came from domestic receipts. House of Wax also earned $42,000,000 in VHS/DVD rentals.Reception
The film received negative reviews from critics, with Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
giving it a 25% "rotten" rating. It was also nominated for three Razzie Awards including Worst Picture and Worst Remake or Sequel, with Paris Hilton
Paris Hilton
Paris Whitney Hilton is an American businesswoman, heiress, and socialite. She is a great-granddaughter of Conrad Hilton . Hilton is known for her controversial participation in a sex tape in 2003, and appearance on the television series The Simple Life alongside fellow socialite and childhood...
winning Worst Supporting Actress. Critics and audiences had agreed that Hilton's character's death was the best part of the film; a limited-run promotional t-shirt advertising the movie on the front and "SEE PARIS DIE" was apparently in very high demand.
Soundtrack
House of Wax: Music from the Motion Picture is the title of a publicly released soundtrack used for House of Wax, consisting of commercially recorded songs. A second album, titled House of Wax was released contained the film scoreFilm score
A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film, forming part of the film's soundtrack, which also usually includes dialogue and sound effects...
, composed by John Ottman
John Ottman
John Ottman is an American film editor, composer and director.He is best known for his collaborations with film director Bryan Singer, acting as film editor and composing the scores for The Usual Suspects, Apt Pupil, X2: X-Men United, Superman Returns and most recently...
.