House of Wax (2005 film)

House of Wax
Directed by	Jaume Collet-Serra
Produced by	Joel Silver Robert Zemeckis Susan Levin
Written by	Charles Belden Chad Hayes Carey Hayes
Starring	Elisha Cuthbert Chad Michael Murray Brian Van Holt Paris Hilton Jared Padalecki Jon Abrahams Robert Ri'chard
Music by	John Ottman
Cinematography	Stephen Windon
Editing by	Joel Negron
Studio	Dark Castle Entertainment
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures Village Roadshow Pictures
Release date(s)	April 30, 2005 (2005-04-30) (Tribeca) May 6, 2005 (2005-05-06) (United States) July 14, 2005 (2005-07-14) (Australia)
Running time	105 minutes [1]
Country	United States Australia
Language	English
Budget	$40 million[2]
Gross revenue	$68,766,121[2]

House of Wax (also titled Wax House, Baby) is a 2005 horror film directed by Jaume Collet-Serra. Though not a remake itself, it shares the name of a 1953 horror film, which was a remake of the 1933 film Mystery of the Wax Museum.^[3] It was released in theaters on May 6, 2005 to negative reviews, but a financial success. On October 25, 2005, the movie came out on DVD and on Blu-ray on September 26, 2006.

Plot

In 1974, a woman is making a wax sculpture in the kitchen while her son eats breakfast in his highchair. Her husband enters with another son who is shouting and kicking. The boy is forced into a highchair and strapped in place by his father. He scratches his mother's hand, causing her sculpture to fall to the floor, she then slaps her child across the face.

In 2005, six teenagers are on their way to a highly anticipated football game in Louisiana. Night falls and the group decides to set up camp for the night. The campsite is later visited by a stranger in a pickup truck who shines his lights at the campsite, but refuses to leave or address them until one of the boys smashes a headlight with a bottle. The next morning, one of the cars fan belts is found to be damaged. The group meets a disheveled, rural man named Lester, who offers to drive two of the teens to the nearby town of Ambrose to get a new fan belt, while the rest of them go to the football game.

The two arrive at Ambrose, which is virtually a ghost town. Unable to find an attendant at the auto mechanics shop, they wander into the church, disrupting a funeral. There, they meet a mechanic named Bo, who offers to sell them a fan belt after the funeral. While waiting for the services to end, the two teens visit the wax museum, which itself is made of wax and is the central feature of the town. Afterward, they follow Bo to his house to find a proper fan belt. The teens make the realization that Bo is the stranger that had appeared at the campsite previously, but not before being attacked. The teens are separated and one of them runs to the church, only to find that the funeral is ongoing, populated only by wax sculptures. She is captured by Bo and imprisoned in a cellar, taped to a chair with her lips glued together.

The rest of the group arrives in search of their compatriota, only to be attacked as well. After most of them are dispatched, it becomes apparent that the only inhabitants of the town are the sons of the wax museums proprietors, who have been trapping their victims for the creation wax sculptures. The two owners were Siamese twins separated at birth, leaving one of them horribly disfigured and the other mentally deranged. The two remaining teens set fire in the building's basement to cut their attackers off. The fire spreads through the museum, slowly melting it down. The two teens soon kill the brotherly owners and escape from the wax museum as it melts to the ground, burying the two tragically disturbed brothers in their own work.

The next morning, the smoke from the fire has drawn help from outside and police and rescue workers sift through evidence throughout the town. The sheriff informs the group that the town has been abandoned for a decade, since its sugar mill closed down, and it doesn't even appear on maps anymore. While addressing the sheriff over the radio, a policeman indicates the existence of a previously unmentioned son of the Sinclair's. The film closes and implies that Lester, who had driven the teens to the town earlier, is the third son.

Cast

• Elisha Cuthbert as Carly Jones
• Chad Michael Murray as Nick Jones
• Brian Van Holt as Bo Sinclair / Vincent Sinclair
• Paris Hilton as Paige Edwards
• Jared Padalecki as Wade
• Jon Abrahams as Dalton Chapman
• Robert Ri'chard as Blake
• Andy Anderson as Sheriff
• Dragitsa Debert as Trudy Sinclair
• Thomas Adamson as Young Bo
• Murray Smith as Dr. Victor Sinclair
• Sam Harkess as Young Vincent
• Damon Herriman as Lester

Lawsuit

In January 2006, it was announced by Warner Roadshow studio owners Village Theme Park Management and Warner Brothers Movie World Australia that they were suing special effects expert David Fletcher and Wax Productions because of a fire on the set during production.

The $7 million lawsuit alleges that the Mr. Fletcher and Wax Productions were grossly negligent over the fire which destroyed part of the Gold Coast's Warner Bros. Movie World studios. The alleged grounds of negligence included not having firefighters on stand-by and using timber props near a naked flame. The set where the fire broke out has now been demolished and a field kept for Movie World for future projects.^[4]

Release

Box office

Opening in 3,111 theaters, the movie grossed $12 million in its first three days. Though most critics did not recommend the film, many of them acknowledged that it was well made and/or better than other recent similar films. House of Wax earned $68,766,121 worldwide. 46.6% of that total came from domestic receipts. House of Wax also earned $42,000,000 in VHS/DVD rentals.^[5]

Soundtrack

House of Wax: Music from the Motion Picture
Commercial soundtrack
Soundtrack by Various, John Ottman
Released	May 3, 2005 (commercial), May 10, 2005 (score)
Genre	Soundtracks Film scores
Length	50:41 (commercial), 41:46 (score)
Label	Varese Sarabande
Alternate cover
Score soundtrack

House of Wax: Music from the Motion Picture is the title of a publicly released soundtrack used for House of Wax, comprising of commercially recorded songs.^[6] A second album, titled House of Wax was released containing the film score, composed by John Ottman.^[7]

Track listing

Commercial soundtrack

1. "Spitfire" - The Prodigy
2. "I Never Told You What I Do For A Living" - My Chemical Romance
3. "Minerva" - Deftones
4. "Gun in Hand" - Stutterfly
5. "Prayer" - Disturbed
6. "Path to Prevail" - Bloodsimple
7. "Dried Up, Tied and Dead to the World" - Marilyn Manson
8. "Dirt" - The Stooges
9. "Not That Social" - The Von Bondies
10. "Cut Me Up" - Har Mar Superstar
11. "New Dawn Fades" - Joy Division
12. "Taking Me Alive" - Dark New Day

Orchestral score soundtrack

1. "Opening/Tantrum"
2. "Ritual/Escape the Church"
3. "Story of the Town"
4. "Up in Flames"
5. "They Look So Real"
6. "Sealed Lips"
7. "Brotherly Love"
8. "Hanging with Baby Jane"
9. "Paris Gets It"
10. "Curiosity Kills"
11. "Bringing Down the House"
12. "Three Sons"
13. "Endless Service"

References

External links

• Official site
• House of Wax at the Internet Movie Database
• House of Wax at Allmovie
• House of Wax at Box Office Mojo