House of Wax

In a strange way I am a fan of horror movies. I say strange because I don’t own many, and on the principle of things like that many either. But I do love watching them! I think it’s because horror films have a unique hold on an audience. They don’t have to captivate your interest with character or plot, like all other films. They don’t have to earn your attention, because as soon as you are scared. As soon as your nerves are shattered and you are gripping the edged of your seat – the film has you. You are hooked until the end. Horror taps into a primal emotion in all of us, prompting us to ask what if I was in that situation? What would I do? Of course that’s if it’s done well. House of Wax is a remake of a 1950s movie, yet another display of Hollywood stealing from its own rather than truly innovating. Well as far as horror films go House of Wax is strange. Strange because half of it is pretty terrible, and the other half is pretty decent. So if you wondering why it gets the score of 5 it is because that evens out the bad and the good – to an average score. The movie flows a typical bunch of teenagers on their way to get tickets for a football game. Naturally things go awry after they stop in a field to camp out nearby for the night. Soon they find their car sabotaged and two of them hitch a lift to the nearest town for help. Here they find a creepy abandoned wax museum, and that the town isn’t what it first seems to be. Soon enough they are on the run for their lives from a couple of psychopaths with a fetish for turning them into Wax Models of themselves using painful looking machinery. The plot, after the opening, actually works OK. The actions of the characters are believable enough (something many horror films get wrong) and the set up is kind of creepy. The design is excellent and there is an effectively creepy atmosphere created throughout. One of the main problem with the film though is it’s complete lack of horror. For a horror film there is very little. For starters it is a very slow burner. It takes nearly an hour for the film to properly get started which is way too long. The characters are built up here, but not very well and none are interesting enough to really care about. During this first hour there are some jump scares, but they are just cheap tricks and are badly done. Supposedly creepy events are made boring and the whole thing could easily have 20 minutes cut. The second half of the film however is a lot better, it may not be scary but it can be very tense and exciting and the finale in particular is very well executed and handled. However it doesn’t make up for everything, while some characters are off in the town two remain behind, excluding them from pretty much the whole film. Then the most ridiculous thing happens that makes no sense. These two people start getting a bit frisky in a tent. The guys phone rings outside so he goes to get it. We then cut to later and the woman is asleep. It is now dark, she wakes and goes to look for the guy! Did she just fall asleep during his two-minute conversation? Did she forget he went just outside the tent? It just makes no sense! But if you get through the start of the film there are some good thrills and chills here, especially if wax dummies creep you out. Overall the film is worth maybe a rental, and if you’re a horror fan there is some good gore on offer here, but for the rest of us a trip to Madame Tussauds with the lights of might be preferable. A horror remake of two halves, from a boring and unscary opening hour to a thrill packed ending this is a strange beast that comes off as average - but neither particularly horrifying or original.