In the, oh, ten millionth attempt to remake a horror movie, we get House of Wax. Unlike other horror remakes, though, this version of House of Wax is very, very loosely based on the original. They might have just taken the title and the concept, to be honest. However, I highly anticipated House of Wax for two specific reasons. The first was that it's the first teen-slasher horror since The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003), which is one of my favorite horror movies of all time. The second, and probably the reason of every viewer of this movie, is to see the already infamous death scene of Paris Hilton.

House of Wax is a "by-the-book" slasher, no doubt. Six friends take a road trip to see the year's biggest football game. On the long road there, they decide to make a stop for the night in the woods, where they have a run in with a stranger and his truck. After scaring him away, their form of transportation (an oldie car) was now missing some parts that needed to be replaced immediately. To do so, they hitch a ride from an oddball pervert to a ghost town. Little did they know that they wouldn't be leaving that town (or making the football game...) anytime soon. The town is made of wax, and the wax people are actually, well, people.

We've got six friends here, and as a "by-the-book" slasher, you've got all the right characters. Elisha Cuthbert (The Girl Next Door, Old School) plays Carly Jones, a college student with big hopes for her life in the big city of New York with her boyfriend, Wade, played by Jared Padalecki (Flight of the Phoenix, New York Minute). Chad Michael Murray, America's teen hunk, plays Carly's twin, convict brother, Nick. He's basically the badass of the movie that doesn't care about anyone until they're about to be killed. Nick's best friend, Dalton, is played by Jon Abrahams (Meet the Parents, My Boss' Daughter). Robert Ri'chard (Coach Carter) plays Blake, the rich boyfriend of America's billionaire bimbo, Paris Hilton. Paris Hilton's first major film (that's released in theaters, not the internet) happens to be the movie's marketing. She's not very popular, so the marketing scheme for House of Wax was "See Paris Die". Of course, that's going to get people excited. It got me excited, at least. The only actor here that really gave anything to the movie was Elisha Cuthbert. Everyone else was just there to take up the screen.

The first observation, and most important one, is Paris Hilton. When the studio was able to get Paris Hilton for this movie, I thought we'd be in trouble. I find her very, very annoying, so I was praying for a great death scene. But, I didn't find her all that annoying in this movie. She didn't really have the biggest role (in comparison to Cuthbert), but she did add a little something to the film. I can't deny it, though, that I clapped when she died. The whole audience roared as Paris Hilton, the dumbest blonde of any horror movie in the history of cinema, dies for being above stupid. She did a few things before her death scene that made you want to jump into the screen and strangle her yourself. "Hmm, I'm being chased by a killer. Maybe I should run into that abandoned warehouse!" Her death scene was truly one of the greatest death scenes ever.

House of Wax has its fair share of scares and thrills. Because this is one of the only R-rated horror movies this year, the audience was given a movie with a lot of gore. That made the movie twice as good as any other horror this year. There were scenes in the movie that were so disgusting, I couldn't help but feel a little sick. It was a pleasant surprise to have a horror movie actually packed with blood and great death scenes.

There were a few minor problems with House of Wax, but they didn't really hurt the movie. First, the length of the movie is way too long. A slasher film should never be longer than 100 minutes, but House of Wax was a whopping two hours long. The first 45 minutes of the movie was just one, long setup for some great fun in the second half. They could have easily cut some of this movie and it would still be great. Also, I think if you watch the trailer to the movie, you'll figure out who the survivors of the movie will be. I had a gut feeling it would be a certain few people, and I was very much right on that.

Overall, I found House of Wax to be one of the best slasher films ever. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was the last great one, but this was almost as good as the best slasher ever, Scream. House of Wax isn't exactly the brightest movie you'll ever see, but it'll sure be the most fun horror in a long, long time.

I too am surprised with the film. I didn't love it, but I sure did like it. There was a ton of great toirture scenes and some of it was skin crawlingly tough to watch.

BTW....did Cuthbert get a boob job...they are great in this film.

7/10

There wasn't any skin, just Paris Hilton in her bra. Elisha wouldn't get a boob job, she's totally against that.

Yea, but they are way bigger in this film that in TGND.

What's NOES? Heh.

As I expected from the trailers a surprisingly good fun horror/scary movie with some jumps.

*******************************************************************************

Does any credit go to a producer like RZ as I know he has some horror in his background - Tales from the Crypt plus others.

Produced by

Joel Silver .... producer
Robert Zemeckis .... producer - Back to the Future plus lots of others.

**********************************************************************************

With that last line about the 3rd brother - any chance they will try to milk something else out of this movie.

Rrright. "NOES" make me think of Nintendo...

Now, did you two like Scream 2? I saw that one before the first, and, bleh. The monster wasn't even scary. He was too careless floppin' over everything in sight.

On the other hand, HOW was much, much bloodier than Scream. It still needed to maintain the same level of energy it kept in the beginning and end...

bump - any answers to the above.

- How much input does a producer have into a movie? Say compared to the director. Is the producer just a money man or majorly involved before the director is hired.

- Will there somehow be a sequal as they mentioned the 3rd brother with the final line - who knows how much the wax will play into it but could it be the brother's revenge.

...graphic torture scenes!

Scream is unbeatable. It set the standard for slasher films, and honestly, I don't see it ever being beaten.

House of Wax, though, is a good second option. :wink:

And, yeah, it's weird that me and makeshift completely agree on a horror film. Last time that happened was with, what, Boogeyman? And, we agreed that it was a loud of garbage. :razz:

You do realize that Screamdidn't set the standard for horror films, it revived a dormant genre, but it did not set the standdard for the genre. There are many many films before it that set standards.