House of Wax (2005)

A group of teens are unwittingly stranded near a strange wax museum and soon must fight to survive and keep from becoming the next exhibit.

Director:

Jaume Collet-Serra

Writers:

Charles Belden (story), Chad Hayes (screenplay)

Stars:

Chad Michael Murray, Paris Hilton, Elisha Cuthbert

5 wins & 11 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview:
Elisha Cuthbert	...	Carly Jones
Chad Michael Murray	...	Nick
Brian Van Holt	...	Bo
Paris Hilton	...	Paige
Jared Padalecki	...	Wade
Jon Abrahams	...	Dalton
Robert Ri'chard	...	Blake
Dragicia Debert	...	Trudy Sinclair (as Dragitsa Debert)
Thomas Adamson	...	Young Bo
Murray Smith	...	Dr. Sinclair
Sam Harkess	...	Young Vincent
Damon Herriman	...	Roadkill Driver
Andy Anderson	...	Sheriff

Storyline

Six friends are on their way to a football game. They decide to camp out for the night and continue driving the next day. The next day the friends find that they're having car troubles, so two of the friends accept a stranger's ride into a small town named Ambrose. The main attraction in Ambrose is the House of Wax. Except something is not right in this town, the wax figures are so realistic and the whole town is deserted - except for two murderous twin brothers. The six friends must fight to survive and escape from being the next exhibits in the House of Wax.

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Plot Keywords:

wax | group of friends | brother sister relationship | beaten to death | bra | 

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Taglines:

The flesh is weak. Wax is forever.

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Genres:

Horror | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for horror violence, some sexual content and language

Did You Know?

Trivia

This film is director Jaume Collet-Serra's first horror film. Collet-Serra's two horror films that followed are Orphan (2009) and The Shallows (2016), respectively.

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Goofs

Carly turns around to look out the window when the housemaid wax figure in the kitchen startles her. The figure's back is to the window when Carly accidentally tips it over and smashes it. About a minute, earlier when Carly first stepped into the kitchen, the figure was facing the wall to the left of the window.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Trudy Sinclair: You are being such a good boy. Would you like some more cereal, sweetheart? Here you go.

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Crazy Credits

Random letters in the end credits of the movie begin to melt down from the screen as they appear. Also, some pairs of letters are joined, just like Bo and Vincent when they were born.

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Alternate Versions

The DVD features an alternate opening: A young woman, Jennifer (Emma Lung), (the woman who is sculpted into Miss Ambrose) is stranded on the road after her car breaks down. As she calls a towing company, Bo's truck drives up. She tries to signal him, but gets no response. Then, the truck speeds up. Jennifer tried to run, but Bo grabs her by the neck and throws her face-first into her windshield, instantly killing her.

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Connections

Referenced in Cleanflix (2009)

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Soundtracks

I Never Told You What I Do For A Living
Written by Gerard Way, Mikey Way, Matt Pelissier, Frank Iero and Ray Toro
Performed by My Chemical Romance
Courtesy of Reprise Records
By Arrangement with Warner Strategic Marketing

User Reviews

Great Friday night horror entertainment

I like a horror movie every now and then. There's been a dearth of acceptable ones lately.

This one was different. The setup's the same, and you know when somebody's about to get killed, but I didn't end up hating the cast. Usually, horror movie victims, they deserve to die either for being too stupid or too unlikeable in the first place.

These characters just showed up at the wrong place at the wrong time. I wanted them to live even though most of them don't make it.

Elisha Cuthbert's performance was excellent, just as Jessica Biel was in the remake of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Chad Michael Murray's role I liked as well. They both play ordinary characters dealing with a dire situation, but doing so in a credible, intelligent manner (e.g. they don't run around screaming for the duration of the money, only parts of it). The movie starts out slow but picks up the 2nd hour...there's a lot of moments with chilling, atmospheric intensity.

and I have to say...I thought they ran out of ways to creatively kill people in this genre, but I saw a variation yesterday. And it was nasty enough to keep me awake last night after the film, thinking, "that's got to be such a horrible way to go."

Details

Official Sites:

Warner Bros. [United States]

Country:

Australia USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

6 May 2005 (USA)

Also Known As:

Wax House, Baby

Filming Locations:

Australia

Box Office

Budget:

$40,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$12,077,236, 8 May 2005

Gross USA:

$32,064,800

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$68,766,121

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros., Village Roadshow Pictures, Dark Castle Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

113 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1