I must say, I'm surprised that I like this movie. I guess I lowered my expectations that it ended up being pretty good. The art direction, cinematography, and make-up effects are very well-made. There are also enough twists (sibling issues, "evil twin" theory, the origins of the villain) and images (somewhat graphic torture scenes! whatever happened to baby jane is a creepy movie! arrows shot! paris sex tape - almost, also, towards the climactic ending, the "twin" thing comes up again in a clever way) in the movie that kept me interested.

Oh, and Paris was okay. She did get, I think, the longest screentime before getting whacked off. :razz:

B

I'm really excited for this one. It looks like a lot of fun. I'll try to see it later this weekend.

Great horror flick, the best of 2005. I loved it. Great death scences and great fun. SEE PARIS DIE. She actually had the best death scene. A (The best since Texas Chainsaw Massacre!!)

I have a feeling many will ignore the slow first half and walk out pleased because of the ending...

It's like a perfect hybrid of Halloween Ressurection, Friday the 13th, Scream, and $30 million. Yeah, it's got more style, but it's still the same old faux preachy "don't go out in the dark because danger could be right behind an ordinary shrub!" stuff. House of Wax is derivative, self-deprecating, and entertaining.

Asides from perfecting an ending, Dark Castle hasn't made much progress over Ghost Ship. While the beginning is near-perfect (it'll get you pumped), much like Ghost Ship, the middle portion is uninspired. It's outright embarassing in places (even though the script isn't a major problem in this one). If you want a bad metaphor, House of Wax is like the energetic weakling who doesn't exercise outside of school. You know. You put a boy on a running field. He runs the first lap with loads of energy, which eventually wears him down until he's walking the next four. Then, he picks it up at top speed once he realizes that there's only one lap left before he can rest his legs and worry about physical activity come adulthood.

And, yeah, the filmmakers play up the majority's perception of Hilton. You'll see.

C

whorino, you're right on a few things (spoilers ahead!)...

There were a few scenes in that movie that make you think whether the characters in the movie were actually given a brain. In the scene where Paris Hilton is trying to hide from the killer, one guy in the audience yelled, "great hiding spot, you dumb bitch!" And, I couldn't blame him. When you're being chased by a killer, you don't go into an abandoned warehouse, you don't hide in a car where you obviously can't hide (windows, anyone?!), and it's hard to quickly escape and make it out alive.

And, yes, the filmakers basically hit the nail on the head with Paris Hilton's character. As I watched her on the screen, I basically thought that she was playing herself. 100% slut. Did anyone else find it funny that Paris Hilton happened to be pregnant?! :razz:

The beginning was great. A nice (and interesting) setup to a slow first half, followed by a non-stop, bloody second half. I was impressed with some of the death scenes. I guess it's been a while, because all the other horror movies this year have had those lame, cutaway scenes. House of Wax was no-holds barred, baby! It was a hell of a time, and though some parts were extremely cheesy, I couldn't help but walk out of that theater and crack that smile that a) I just saw a great slasher movie, and b) Paris Hilton's death scene was, by far, the greatest killing of all time.

A

LMAO! That's a great pun... hehe I hope it's unintended...

Hahahahahaha! I didn't even realize that.

I'll crank out a full review tomorrow sometime (i'm dead tired), but this is easily the best American slasher film since 1996's Scream. It was a stunning breath of fresh air to see a horror film shot with such artistry and beauty crank the brutal meter up to eleven. Like I said, full review tomorrow, but this one kicks all kinds of ass. And you know what, Paris Hilton is actually decent. =D>

That was such a great death scene. I clapped. And I was alone in the theatre. LOL

makeshift, you actually... loved it?!

I seriously thought I'd be the only one of the horror fans to actually love it, but yes! =D>

Heh, well, the scene is a little better when it's a sold out crowd that is clapping. :wink:

I am horror fan and I love it too!!

All the love you guys are giving this movie is really cool.

House Of Wax is the best pure, un-sanitized, un-filtered, American slasher film we've seen since close to ten years, and it's mostly becase of one man - Jaume Serra. I'm sure you've seen films that had such a terrible, wretched screenplay that the entire film was brought down by it, right? Well, House Of Wax could have easily been one of those the films. The script is pure amateur night quality. However, by some miracle brought forth by the horror gods, Joel Silver hired Jaume Serra to film this mess of a script, and by doing so managed to not only save the film, but carry it to "slasher-classic" level. Serra has such a striking artistic eye, such beautiful control over the look and feel of a film, that you are almost shocked to find him directing a slasher film as his first feature length project. However, once you see the film, and see how Serra purposefully indentifies the slasher "lines", and then proceeds to take a jack hammer right threw them, you know he is a perfect fit for this genre. Most slasher films will feature one ankle slahing in a quick cut at the most. Serra gives you two, on full display in front of the camera. Most slasher films will have one person decapitated at one point, but it is almost always off the screen and the aftermath is rarely shown. Serra shows us the characters head disconnect from the body, roll to it's side, and continue to blink in a post-death twitch. Almost every slasher film will surely feature several stabbings, but they're never shown in great detail or are especially brutal in nature. Serra's killer stabs you, but them comes back later to step on the handle of the knife and bury it deeper inside of you. The occasional slasher film will have a character killed off with a piacular weapon of choice, and it is normally the highlight of the film. I've never seen a slasher film take it's "piacular weapon" kill as far as Serra takes his, though. Hell, he even gives us two - one invovling what wax melted onto your skin might do to you when you try to peel it off, and another that shows us what the back of your head looks like as it's forced down on, and eventually off of, a metal rod. Most slasher films will also feature one of it's villians getting a particularly brutal send off, but Serra takes this idea and runs with it in a scene that is so brutal, so disquieting, that I noticed that most of the people at my showing had to look away from the screen - and when they looked back, the scene was still happening! If you've ever seen the French film Irréversible and can remember the fire extinguisher bit, you'll know exactly what i'm talking about.

And all of this, all of this brutality and uber-gore, is shot with such an overwhelming visual panache and beautiful artistry, that it truly becomes one of the most surreal experiences i've had in a theater in quite some time. It's an odd site to see these brutal, ugly images contrasted with extravagant camera angles and surrealistic lighting and set design. You just know that you are in the hands of a very talented filmmaker once the highly disturbing and visually orgasmic opening scene ends to reveal the film's title card. Serra gives slasher films a whole new look with House Of Wax. Instead of the standard, boring static shot of the victim running at the camera during the chase scene we see in so many slasher pics, he gives us a static aerial shot of the chase, and we get to see the killer slowing closing in on her as they run through the town. It's quite a site to behold, and it really ups the tension of the scene. Speaking of tension, Serra does a marvelous job of actually making us feel uncomfortable and queasy. He uses tight camera angles to do accomplish this. In many shots, all you'll see are exaggerated closeups of the potential victims, their sweaty and blood covered faces filling the screen as they cry in terror. The fact that you can't see anything around them - where the killer is coming from - really makes it claustrophobic.

However, to say that Serra's deft hand is all that is going for this film would be selling it criminally short. John Ottman's musical score is perfectly bombastic and wholly original. It's very arty, and sounds quite a bit like Danny Elfman at certain points (especially in the opening scene). It was very refreshing to here a unique musical score in a horror film. The acting is as good as could be expected across the board. Even Paris Hilton does a fine job with her small role.

On the downside of things, the film does run a little long for it's own good, and the last couple of frames are absolutely off the radar on the cheese factor scale. However, this is still head and shoulders above any other American horror film we've seen in a long time. Surreal and beautiful and ugly and brutal all in one (and often at the same time), House Of Wax is a slasher classic that will likely be looked back on very fondly in years to come. I give it an A-.

makeshift, do you find style, like, the most important aspect of a horror film?

I've always found that pacing is key. I guess that explains it, heh. It did look good.

Paris Hilton was suprising. The women were better than the boys. Murray was awful. He can't cover lines (even though, as I said, the screenplay wasn't that big of a problem to me. I guess my expectations for decent dialogue were already low, heh. That's the best way to approach horrors like this).

Overall, pretty meh. Good in parts (beginning and end), bad in others. It's a lot of fun, though.

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.

Well damn, I'll definitely be checking this one out then. I may have thought that you've been mildly bipolar (hate to use Maverikk's phrase, but meh...) in your opinion of some of the latest horror flicks makeshift (The Amityville Horror did not have the best first half of a horror movie in years and one of the worst second halves in years. ), but you and Zingaling have convinced me to check this sucker out. Tell me though, is it Dark Castle's best movie in your guys opinions? I thought House on Haunted Hill was a pretty damn groovy flick that happened to have one of the scariest scenes ever put to film in it, but since then there movies have ranged from mediocre (Ghost Ship C+) to outright terrible (Gothika D). But if you guys think this one is better then those two and Thirteen Ghosts, I'll make an effort to sneak in for sure.

Are you referring to that camcorder sequence with Bridgette Wilson-Sampras?

I thought that movie sucked (a lot), but that scene gave me the willies.

Pleeeeeeease make the effort, MovieDude!

It's my favorite Dark Castle movie. I'd grade them all like this...

House of Wax - A
House on Haunted Hill - B
Gothika - B
Ghost Ship - B-
Thirteen Ghosts - C+

The only Dark Castle movies I've liked have been HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL and THIRTEEN GHOSTS. I HATED the others.

Wow. With Zing and you, the two I'd trust the most when it comes to horror flicks, giving rave reviews for this one, my anticipation for this one has rose by 100%! I'll make sure to see it as soon as it comes out. As brutal as the fire extinguisher kill in Irreversible? WOW!

As for Dark Castle flicks, I'd say:

House on the Haunted Hill - B- (good idea, some disturbing scenes, but the payoff is lacking)

Thirteen Ghosts - B- (the concepts of ghosts are great, good atmosphere, but bad acting and no suspense anywhere to be found)

Ghost Ship - B (one of the best opening sequences ever made, terrific, from then on it goes down, but the final 10-15 minutes are okay, not as bad as many say)

Gothika - B (best Dark Castle effort to-date, suspenseful, gave me some jumps and would have been even much better, if it wasn't for the "twist" at the end)

Indeed, Lecter - except this one involves a baseball bat to the face instead of a fire extingusher.

Thinking about it more and more, this film really is that brutal. The gore is just... intense. At one point, there is a ten second long static shot of guy pulling an arrow out of his arm with blood squirting out. The screams the guy makes and his facial reaction.... it's just powerful. AND THERE IS NO CUTTING AWAY. I can't believe they got this film past the MPAA. I guess it helps to have an uber-powerful producer behind you.

I am sooooo there!

The last really powerfully brutal flick I saw was Oldboy, but even there, the camera cut away.