House of Wax (2005)

A group of unwitting teens are 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 | twin | brother sister relationship | beaten to death | 

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Taglines:

Gejagt. Ermordet. Zur Schau gestellt. (Hunted.Murdered.Displayed.)

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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

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [Australia] Warner Bros [France]

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

Did You Know?

Trivia

This is Dark Castle Entertainment's fifth film.

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Goofs

When Paige is running towards the stairs in the building, as she nears them you can see someone running left-front of her.

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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

Two versions are available in Germany: the uncut version with a "Not under 18" rating and an edited version (with a "Not under 16" rating) which misses ca. 3 minutes.

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Connections

Referenced in Jeopardy!: 2005 College Championship Semifinal Game 1 (2005)

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Soundtracks

Taking Me Alive
Written by Brett Hestla, Corey Lowery, Clint Lowery, Will Hunt and Troy McLawhorn
Performed by Dark new Day
Courtesy of Warner Bros. Records Inc.
By Arrangement with Warner Strategic Marketing

User Reviews

A Guilty Favorite of Mine

OK, maybe it doesn't deserve an Oscar. Or a Golden Globe. Or any award, for that matter. The acting isn't outstanding, there's no reason to give credits to the directing, and its really just another semi-gory 21st century slasher flick that MOST people will consider just decent. Or maybe even dreadful. But in my opinion, all of this doesn't matter a bit. And thats because i had a great time watching this movie.

Sure, the first 40 minutes are pretty slow, but as the movie progresses, something in it you will like, if you are like I was, and anybody else should be when watching this movie. And that is: looking for 2 hours of fun, mindless violence. (And a kick-ass ending, which i won't spoil.) Yes, there are many flaws in this movie, but don't let the cast list on the front cover fool you. Hilton delivers a decent performance that nobody saw coming. Even her greatest haters like me and my friends had to agree that she surprised us greatly with her barely believable acting skills and a strip-tease that wasn't as nasty as anything an online pop-up would promise of her, but still not so unbearable as to fast-forward or turn off the DVD.

The violence in this surprised me; nobody at school or on the horror board was talking about it like they were about "these new movies called 'Saw' and 'Hostel'" but I could safely say that "Wax" was more graphic than Saw, and some death scenes were actually quite disturbing.

In conclusion, I'm not surprised House of Wax didn't make a place on the IMDb Top 250, but it is definitely worth a look.