House of Wax (US - DVD R1)
Warner Home Video and Dark Castle Entertainment are ready to scare you this Halloween with their latest fright flick, House of Wax...
Film
So another Halloween is nearly here and you’re all going to head to the video store or other, favourite such establishment to pick up a couple of horror films off the rack where you will certainly find several dozen copies of Warner Home Video and Dark Castle’s newest offering, House of Wax. So do check out with this flick as part of your scarefest, or do you go with one of the more traditional, tried and true favourites in the genre instead?

House of Wax finds a group of college students taking a road trip to the big football game, only to be sidelined in parts unknown along the way. After being forced to take a detour from their route, they decide to camp for the evening and in the morning find that one of their two vehicles has broken a fan belt. Forced with the decision of leaving the vehicle or heading up the road to the small town of Ambrose for help, Wade (Jared Padalecki) and girlfriend Carly (Elisha Cuthbert) soon find themselves upon the sleepy little town and its tourist trap, Trudy’s House of Wax. While waiting for the local gas station attendant (Brian Van Holt) to return with the part they need, the two occupy their time by exploring the wax museum. As the sun goes down, the couple becomes trapped in the town, leaving it up to Carly's twin brother, Nick (Chad Michael Murray), and friends to go searching the town for the missing twosome.
Many of you are aware that the film takes its name from the 1953 Vincent Price film, but the movie actually owes more to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and, to an even greater extent, 1979’s forgotten gem Tourist Trap than it does either of the two previous films to carry the House of Wax torch (including 1933’s Mystery of the Wax Museum). While the basic hook is the same in all three films, this latest movie veers so wildly from the older films that any other resemblance is solely accidental. Gone is Vincent Price’s sympathetic villain, and in his place is a set of twins wreaking havoc on the hapless co-eds and instead of an inner city museum, the film delivers a backwoods locale that has remained hidden away for years, even from the local law enforcement. For all intents and purposes the filmmakers have made a completely original movie, albeit taken from the spare parts of more modern and violent fare than the aforementioned originals, and for the most part this new concoction works quite well on the level it intends to.
In fact, House of Wax works so well as a fun, popcorn, horror flick that the only real drawback is the film’s script and its dependency on giving the six protagonists a total IQ of fifty while exercising several of the more standard slasher film clichés to ensnare each victim. For instance, everyone knows that you don’t hitch a ride from the toothless wonder that hauls road kill into a pit for a living and that you never, ever split up while going in to or searching through a decrepit old house, especially when there’s another greasy looking hick inviting you in. There is a nice build up in the film as Padalecki and Cuthbert ramble through the town before the real violence begins, but you have to wonder just how long it would have taken any normal human being to figure out that they need to get the hell out of Dodge before they lose any major body parts. The first sign for me that I’ve stepped into one of those really ghoulish episodes of The Twilight Zone would have been seeing gas prices below $1.20, but that’s just me.

I’m not exactly sure what I was expecting out of House of Wax, but given all the recent horror offerings in a year that I have found to be extremely disappointing for the genre I wasn’t expecting much. But all moronic characters aside, I found that House of Wax isn’t a bad horror flick at all and in a lot of ways it was a great deal of fun. The film doesn’t try to offer any of the deeper, philosophical meanings on the human condition or the state of the world that bogged down George A. Romero’s Land of the Dead to a degree and it doesn’t attempt too much trickery and twists like last Halloween’s Saw. It is what it is—a fairly straight forward slasher flick that offers up a few good scares with one or two queasy moments, some gruesome effects, adequate acting, and a couple of scenes that you just can’t help but role your eyes toward. The set design is also quite impressive, with the centrepiece being the titular house that inevitably melts away with our heroes still inside.
So, should you check out House of Wax, another one of the several newly released for Halloween DVDs, or stick to films you know like A Nightmare On Elm Street, The Exorcist, or the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre for your annual scary night of movie watching goodness? My answer to that question is that as long as you don’t expect anything outstanding or overly clever and just want some decent gore, a few scares, and an attractive cast then House of Wax shouldn’t disappoint you if you are in the mood for something you haven’t seen ten times already. The film is easily the best to come out of Joel Silver and Robert Zemeckis’ Dark Castle Entertainment production house since it began with 1999’s House On Haunted Hill, which depending on how well you enjoyed their previous efforts is either a sign of good things or a dubious honour at best, and should at least make for a good appetizer before the main course of better, more classic Halloween favourites.

Warner Home Video presents House of Wax on DVD with an anamorphic video transfer at the film’s theatrically exhibited aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and the result is a very mixed bag. The transfer is average at best and does everything right that it should in that with this being a new film there is nothing wrong with the transfer as far as any positive or negative artefacts resulting from debris on the source print goes. The transfer also handles the colour palette of the film nicely and for the most part the image is clear and sharp. The problems with the transfer begin and end though with a lot of grain and uneven black levels throughout the entire film, which in turn make many of the finer details in the video seem a bit soft in the darker areas of the film. For a movie that primarily takes place at night and contains many a dark place and shadow to hide in, this presents a real problem and tends to get fairly distracting when it becomes more prevalent. One only has to look at New Line Cinema’s release of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre last year for a movie just as dark and a DVD that features near perfect video for an example of how House of Wax should have looked here.
House of Wax has been presented with DVD with a selection of Dolby Digital 5.1 audio tracks in English, French, and Spanish along with optional subtitles for each of the three languages as well. While the audio fares better than the video on the disc in that it doesn’t contain any technical deficiencies, it’s still a pretty average effort and isn’t outstanding by any means. There are some nice surround effects and all of the available audio channels are put to good use, but on the whole the audio seems to be toned down when compared to other recent movies in the genre. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing though, as the less aggressive audio mix lends itself to the film quite well and better showcases John Ottman’s excellent, eerie score. Overall, the English audio track presented here is a fine example of what good a Dolby Digital track should sound like on your home theatre system.

Warner Home Video has housed a number of extras along with the movie on this single disc that are worth checking out if you are at all interested in the making of the picture.
First up, there's a twenty-six minute featurette, entitled ‘B-Roll and Bloopers Video Cast Commentary’, which finds cast members Jared Padalecki, Elisha Cuthbert, Paris Hilton, and Chad Michael Murray sitting on a living room couch while watching several outtakes and clips of behind-the-scenes footage from the making of the film. The featurette employees a split-screen technique that places the cast at the top of the screen and the footage underneath, thus allowing them to freely comment on the material as seen by the viewer. While the featurette is actually pretty good, it isn’t a suitable substitute for a feature length commentary during the actual film, which by misreading the packaging is exactly what I understood it would be.
Next up is the seven minute featurette ‘Wax On’ which details the work that went into the excellent set design of the film. Several of the film’s behind-the-scenes personnel, such as producer Joel Silver and director Jaume Collet-Serra, chime in on their involvement with the process of making the town and building of Ambrose, making this a worthwhile addition to the disc. Another similarly themed and equally informative featurette, the ten minute ‘The House Built on Wax’, takes a look at the film’s visual effects and just how certain sequences, including the movie’s climax, came to be.
The special features are rounded out by a short, gag promo for the film with producer Joel Silver, entitled ‘From Location: Joel Silver Reveals House of Wax’, that is very much in the spirit of the late William Castle, a three minute gag reel, an alternate opening that, even though it has seemingly nothing to do with the finished picture, should be viewed for the shock value alone, and the film’s theatrical trailer. Overall, you get some nice features bundled with the movie that give just enough about the making of it, but I lament the exclusion of an audio commentary, a feature that I would have easily traded everything included here in for and would on most other DVDs as well.

House of Wax isn’t going to win any awards for creativity by any means, but it doesn’t pretend to be anything other than a straight forward slasher flick that follows in the footsteps of movies like Friday the 13th and countless others that feature idiotic characters stumbling into places or situations they’d be better off leaving well enough alone, and every once in while that type of movie isn’t a bad thing. On the promise of some good scares and nice effects, the film delivers well enough to quench this reviewer’s blood thirst for some disposable entertainment and I’m pretty sure it will satisfy most others out there hankering for just this kind of movie too. Warner Home Video’s DVD presentation of the film is, when taking into consideration the standards set by some of their other recent offerings, a very average package overall with a ho-hum video transfer, pretty solid audio and some nice, but not great, extras included. Overall, while I liked the film for what it is, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend a purchase of the title as a rental will do most just fine.
So another Halloween is nearly here and you’re all going to head to the video store or other, favourite such establishment to pick up a couple of horror films off the rack where you will certainly find several dozen copies of Warner Home Video and Dark Castle’s newest offering, House of Wax. So do check out with this flick as part of your scarefest, or do you go with one of the more traditional, tried and true favourites in the genre instead?

House of Wax finds a group of college students taking a road trip to the big football game, only to be sidelined in parts unknown along the way. After being forced to take a detour from their route, they decide to camp for the evening and in the morning find that one of their two vehicles has broken a fan belt. Forced with the decision of leaving the vehicle or heading up the road to the small town of Ambrose for help, Wade (Jared Padalecki) and girlfriend Carly (Elisha Cuthbert) soon find themselves upon the sleepy little town and its tourist trap, Trudy’s House of Wax. While waiting for the local gas station attendant (Brian Van Holt) to return with the part they need, the two occupy their time by exploring the wax museum. As the sun goes down, the couple becomes trapped in the town, leaving it up to Carly's twin brother, Nick (Chad Michael Murray), and friends to go searching the town for the missing twosome.
Many of you are aware that the film takes its name from the 1953 Vincent Price film, but the movie actually owes more to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and, to an even greater extent, 1979’s forgotten gem Tourist Trap than it does either of the two previous films to carry the House of Wax torch (including 1933’s Mystery of the Wax Museum). While the basic hook is the same in all three films, this latest movie veers so wildly from the older films that any other resemblance is solely accidental. Gone is Vincent Price’s sympathetic villain, and in his place is a set of twins wreaking havoc on the hapless co-eds and instead of an inner city museum, the film delivers a backwoods locale that has remained hidden away for years, even from the local law enforcement. For all intents and purposes the filmmakers have made a completely original movie, albeit taken from the spare parts of more modern and violent fare than the aforementioned originals, and for the most part this new concoction works quite well on the level it intends to.
In fact, House of Wax works so well as a fun, popcorn, horror flick that the only real drawback is the film’s script and its dependency on giving the six protagonists a total IQ of fifty while exercising several of the more standard slasher film clichés to ensnare each victim. For instance, everyone knows that you don’t hitch a ride from the toothless wonder that hauls road kill into a pit for a living and that you never, ever split up while going in to or searching through a decrepit old house, especially when there’s another greasy looking hick inviting you in. There is a nice build up in the film as Padalecki and Cuthbert ramble through the town before the real violence begins, but you have to wonder just how long it would have taken any normal human being to figure out that they need to get the hell out of Dodge before they lose any major body parts. The first sign for me that I’ve stepped into one of those really ghoulish episodes of The Twilight Zone would have been seeing gas prices below $1.20, but that’s just me.

I’m not exactly sure what I was expecting out of House of Wax, but given all the recent horror offerings in a year that I have found to be extremely disappointing for the genre I wasn’t expecting much. But all moronic characters aside, I found that House of Wax isn’t a bad horror flick at all and in a lot of ways it was a great deal of fun. The film doesn’t try to offer any of the deeper, philosophical meanings on the human condition or the state of the world that bogged down George A. Romero’s Land of the Dead to a degree and it doesn’t attempt too much trickery and twists like last Halloween’s Saw. It is what it is—a fairly straight forward slasher flick that offers up a few good scares with one or two queasy moments, some gruesome effects, adequate acting, and a couple of scenes that you just can’t help but role your eyes toward. The set design is also quite impressive, with the centrepiece being the titular house that inevitably melts away with our heroes still inside.
So, should you check out House of Wax, another one of the several newly released for Halloween DVDs, or stick to films you know like A Nightmare On Elm Street, The Exorcist, or the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre for your annual scary night of movie watching goodness? My answer to that question is that as long as you don’t expect anything outstanding or overly clever and just want some decent gore, a few scares, and an attractive cast then House of Wax shouldn’t disappoint you if you are in the mood for something you haven’t seen ten times already. The film is easily the best to come out of Joel Silver and Robert Zemeckis’ Dark Castle Entertainment production house since it began with 1999’s House On Haunted Hill, which depending on how well you enjoyed their previous efforts is either a sign of good things or a dubious honour at best, and should at least make for a good appetizer before the main course of better, more classic Halloween favourites.

Video
Warner Home Video presents House of Wax on DVD with an anamorphic video transfer at the film’s theatrically exhibited aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and the result is a very mixed bag. The transfer is average at best and does everything right that it should in that with this being a new film there is nothing wrong with the transfer as far as any positive or negative artefacts resulting from debris on the source print goes. The transfer also handles the colour palette of the film nicely and for the most part the image is clear and sharp. The problems with the transfer begin and end though with a lot of grain and uneven black levels throughout the entire film, which in turn make many of the finer details in the video seem a bit soft in the darker areas of the film. For a movie that primarily takes place at night and contains many a dark place and shadow to hide in, this presents a real problem and tends to get fairly distracting when it becomes more prevalent. One only has to look at New Line Cinema’s release of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre last year for a movie just as dark and a DVD that features near perfect video for an example of how House of Wax should have looked here.
Audio
House of Wax has been presented with DVD with a selection of Dolby Digital 5.1 audio tracks in English, French, and Spanish along with optional subtitles for each of the three languages as well. While the audio fares better than the video on the disc in that it doesn’t contain any technical deficiencies, it’s still a pretty average effort and isn’t outstanding by any means. There are some nice surround effects and all of the available audio channels are put to good use, but on the whole the audio seems to be toned down when compared to other recent movies in the genre. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing though, as the less aggressive audio mix lends itself to the film quite well and better showcases John Ottman’s excellent, eerie score. Overall, the English audio track presented here is a fine example of what good a Dolby Digital track should sound like on your home theatre system.

Extras
Warner Home Video has housed a number of extras along with the movie on this single disc that are worth checking out if you are at all interested in the making of the picture.
First up, there's a twenty-six minute featurette, entitled ‘B-Roll and Bloopers Video Cast Commentary’, which finds cast members Jared Padalecki, Elisha Cuthbert, Paris Hilton, and Chad Michael Murray sitting on a living room couch while watching several outtakes and clips of behind-the-scenes footage from the making of the film. The featurette employees a split-screen technique that places the cast at the top of the screen and the footage underneath, thus allowing them to freely comment on the material as seen by the viewer. While the featurette is actually pretty good, it isn’t a suitable substitute for a feature length commentary during the actual film, which by misreading the packaging is exactly what I understood it would be.
Next up is the seven minute featurette ‘Wax On’ which details the work that went into the excellent set design of the film. Several of the film’s behind-the-scenes personnel, such as producer Joel Silver and director Jaume Collet-Serra, chime in on their involvement with the process of making the town and building of Ambrose, making this a worthwhile addition to the disc. Another similarly themed and equally informative featurette, the ten minute ‘The House Built on Wax’, takes a look at the film’s visual effects and just how certain sequences, including the movie’s climax, came to be.
The special features are rounded out by a short, gag promo for the film with producer Joel Silver, entitled ‘From Location: Joel Silver Reveals House of Wax’, that is very much in the spirit of the late William Castle, a three minute gag reel, an alternate opening that, even though it has seemingly nothing to do with the finished picture, should be viewed for the shock value alone, and the film’s theatrical trailer. Overall, you get some nice features bundled with the movie that give just enough about the making of it, but I lament the exclusion of an audio commentary, a feature that I would have easily traded everything included here in for and would on most other DVDs as well.

Overall
House of Wax isn’t going to win any awards for creativity by any means, but it doesn’t pretend to be anything other than a straight forward slasher flick that follows in the footsteps of movies like Friday the 13th and countless others that feature idiotic characters stumbling into places or situations they’d be better off leaving well enough alone, and every once in while that type of movie isn’t a bad thing. On the promise of some good scares and nice effects, the film delivers well enough to quench this reviewer’s blood thirst for some disposable entertainment and I’m pretty sure it will satisfy most others out there hankering for just this kind of movie too. Warner Home Video’s DVD presentation of the film is, when taking into consideration the standards set by some of their other recent offerings, a very average package overall with a ho-hum video transfer, pretty solid audio and some nice, but not great, extras included. Overall, while I liked the film for what it is, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend a purchase of the title as a rental will do most just fine.
Review by Matt Joseph
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Existing Posts
A great review of this film. Does anyone happen to know if they will be bringing this out as a 2 disc DVD? I actually enjoyed the film and I would like to see the 2 disc version as Warner said they were going to bring out when it was annouced.
This film truly brings out a discomfort in its audience, from both its horrid script and acting, and from its blatantly gratuitous gore. Honestly, there are certain shots of slice-n-dice that left me shuddering, from cutting an Achilles tendon with a pair of scissors to the chopping off of finger tips. The amount of up close blood and impaling turned out to appall me. Secondly, though you’re curious to see who is going to get killed next and how it’s going to happen, the film’s story is relatively simple and unenthusiastic. Fortunately, watching these young actors get murdered is delightfully intriguing, especially since their acting skills deserve the guillotine (especially Hilton). Thankfully, the writers and director kept Hilton’s character to a minimum. In fact Hilton's screen presence can be summed up as one of her wild Friday nights on Sunset Strip: she has about nine lines, does a strip tease for a meathead goon before making out with him, and then gets finished off with a pole in the face (though I gave away some of the plot with that one, it was too witty not to toss in there). Overall, a DVD enthusiast is better off not purchasing the film. Though the extras aren’t bad, the motion picture is sub-par. Overall, House of Wax is an easy rental. Shelling out cash for this flick is the foolish way to go about seeing this film
FAQ
Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles have one of the best show on the tube right now..."Supernatural" It kind of reminds me of the first season of the X-Files (the sloppy writing, awkward acting, etc.), but in a good way.
FAQ
Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles have one of the best show on the tube right now..."Supernatural" It kind of reminds me of the first season of the X-Files (the sloppy writing, awkward acting, etc.), but in a good way.
is this any good
The movie was very lack luster. Some very boring deaths, but it did have some very progressive camera work here and there. But the CGI at the end suprised me, i thought it'd be like every other hollywood crapfest, but it looks like they put some effort into this one. Wasn't Peter Jackson (a 10) but it wasn't Exorsist Beginnings (a-800)
I thought that there was one brillant scene where Elisha Cutbreth was hiding in the movie theater and she was sitting amoung the other wax statues in the theater and the killer was walking around looking for her. They way that scene was constructed was brillant. It was so intense and the way the film was lighting up the place was beautiful. The movie was not special by any means but there were sparks of organility here and there. I will get this.
This film looked like poo, frankly. I trust Matt's opinion, so it seems it was better than I thought it would be.
Sorry about that, but I thought that almost everyone knew about it.
Quote: Originally posted by Jonny "Me You"
Hmmmm....no real interest in the movie. But any flick where Paris Hilton Spoiler horribly dies can't be all bad in my books
Good work Matt!Wasn't the way it happened a reference to her other 'ahem' movie?
Oh and Tony, spoilers please...(although yes, most people know this by now)
Hmmmm....no real interest in the movie. But any flick where Paris Hilton Spoiler horribly dies can't be all bad in my books

Good work Matt!Wasn't the way it happened a reference to her other 'ahem' movie?

Oh and Tony, spoilers please...(although yes, most people know this by now)
Okay film. Like what Jonny said, it was awesome when Spoiler Paris Hilton died.
Good review, Matt.
Good review, Matt.
Eh? We review loads of R1 stuff...
Wow a Region 1 review for once. Nice work, Matt.
I would have gotten this -- liked the movie a lot -- but seeing as some sort of commentary was recorded and Warner initially announced a Two-Disc Set to go along with this release, I get the feeling an Unrated double-disc set with director/actor commentary and a couple extra bonuses is on the way, ala Dark Castle's Gothika. I'll hold out for that release.
I really liked this movie. Nothing special but it was so nice to see a R rated and gory teen slasher flick. I want to pick of the DVD soon while tis on sale at Best Buy. I am upset that there is not a commentary. A commentary with the cast would of been so funny and I was looking forward to it, it sucks! Well I say check it out for nice horror movie fun and some pretty creative scenes.
Hmmmm....no real interest in the movie. But any flick where Paris Hilton Spoiler horribly dies can't be all bad in my books 
Good work Matt!

Good work Matt!
wow
Great honest review


Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian
Disc Details
Release Date:
25th October 2005
Discs:
1
Disc Type:
Single side, dual layer
RCE:
No
Video:
NTSC
Aspect:
1.85:1
Anamorphic:
Yes
Colour:
Yes
Audio:
Dolby Digital 5.1 English, Dolby Digital 5.1 French, Dolby Digital 5.1 Spanish
Subtitles:
English, French, Spanish
Extras:
B-Roll and Video Bloopers Video Commentary, 'Wax On' Featurette, 'The House Built On Wax' Featurette, Alternate Opening, Gag Reel, 'From Location: Joel Silver Reveals House of Wax' Promo, Theatrical Trailer
Easter Egg:
No
Feature Details
Director:
Jaume Collet-Serra
Cast:
Elisha Cuthbert, Chad Michael Murray, Jared Padalecki, Brian Van Holt
Genre:
Horror and Thriller
Length:
113 minutes
Ratings
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