Professor Henry Jarrod (Vincent Price): “Once in his lifetime, every artist feels the hand of God, and creates something that comes alive.”
A bonafide 3D early classic and a less than lauded remake, House of Wax (1953 and 2005 respectfully), are very different films. The former starring legendary actor Vincent Price and directed by André De Toth (Crime Wave), is a vividly coloured, horror tinged murder mystery, while the latter film, directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, is a moodily lit modern era slasher flick that is slowly being reappraised.
One of the most successful 3D ventures of the 1950s era, De Toth frames Price’s wax artist, Professor Henry Jarrod, as a kindly and loving creative soul who is sadly betrayed by his business partner, Matthew Burke (Roy Roberts), who is a money hungry sociopath looking to invest elsewhere. Burning the wax museum down with its creator inside the building for the insurance money, the act brings bitter anger and utter madness to the once genteel artist, who somehow escapes with everyone believing he has perished in the fire. In fact, the fire on set went very wrong, with the three controlled fire locations promptly burning out of control, the roof soon had a hole in it and the costly wax figurines were melting away. . . De Toth, knowing the cost of the figures, continued to shoot, getting the impressive visuals seen in the movie.
On the other hand, the next century brought with it a very different House of Wax. Following a group of college kids on the way to a football game, we are introduced to siblings Nick (Chad Michael Murray) and Carly (Elisha Cuthbert), her boyfriend Wade (Jared Padalecki), flirty Paige (Paris Hilton) and Blake (Robert Ri’chard), as well as Dalton (Jon Abrahams). Partying the night away in the forest, they are terrorized by someone in a pickup with very bright headlights. . . with the person eventually leaving, the group learn that one of their fan belts is broken – forcing them into an off-the-beaten-track town; this is where the true horror lies.
Completely different in their settings, the 1953 version thrives in its Victorian era, New York city pageantry. Fanciful clothing, grand buildings, and secrets easily hidden – only shouts or whistles could bring the aid of the police. Distancing itself from the original time, the 2005 version instead relocates to deserted small town America, looking like a 1950s boom town that has fallen on hard times. When darkness isn’t used, neon movie theatre marquees light up the street, and old-timey attractions like a House Of Wax would bring in passing people off the highway.
Both thriving in their setting, the now seemingly wheelchair bound Professor Jarrod attracts a former acquaintance and starts again in a lavish building with basement lab that could compete with Doctor Frankenstein. Without the use of his hands (which were severely damaged in the fire), he has hired sculptor Leon (Nedrick Young) and deaf mute Igor (a very early role for Charles Bronson) to aid in his venture. Yet even more bizarrely than that, at night, a shadowy deformed figure seeks revenge on those who seem to have wronged the Professor, including pyromaniac Burke and his fiancée Cathy Gray (Carolyn Jones – The Addams Family tv series), bringing unlucky witness Sue Allen (Phyllis Kirk) into the fray.
In the modern recreation, this town is all empty dark corners, and suspicious residents peeping out their windows. The only seemingly kindly soul is mechanic Bo (Brian Van Holt), who they interrupt at a funeral and shows up a bit later to help them with the fan belt issue. Of course, as this is a slasher film, all is not what it seems, and in a somewhat surprising order, the party animals soon start falling one by one.
Visually scrumptious in wholly different ways, De Toth develops a posh piece of cinema, the lavish surface giving way to a hideously hidden interior. All of the beautifully horrific wax figures are not what they seem. . . a rare similarity between the two versions, and this, in many ways, is Price’s true debut as the silver screen horror genius – he did have a few macabre roles early on in his career, like Tower of London in 1939 and The Invisible Man Returns in 1940, but this was really the beginning of what would soon become the rest of his life’s work – The Fly (1958), House on Haunted Hill (1959), and onward – including his iconic voice over for Michael Jackson’s Thriller in 1982.
Collet-Serra instead paints in a darker brush, the crumbling of the post war era with its roadway washed away displaying another small town dead. Yet, like the wax works, the facade is still strikingly there. Feeding off of the slasher craze from a couple decades earlier, this setting gives way for a more modern horror aesthetic – cell phones useless due to the secluded locale, it is full of jump scares, gruesome deaths, and a most claustrophobic atmosphere compared to the grandiose exteriors and interiors of New York City. Yet it still carries with it a certain gothic element, with the double playing a pivotal and intriguing aspect within the narrative.
Of course, both bring with them a few flaws. If you’re not watching it in 3D, the gimmick of The Barker (Reggie Rymal), literally inserted for its use of the effect, has him breaking the fourth wall and talking to the audience eating popcorn – enticing them to come into the dreaded House of Wax. It’s hokey and feels cheap by today’s standards, but you can definitely understand its usage in the context of an excitingly new technology. For the remake, its real flaw is the one dimensional characters – they are most definitely not in 3D. Though Cuthbert, Murray, Padalecki, Hilton, and the rest give their best, there is only so much you can do when you are plugged into the staid formula of the slasher genre. Thankfully, the whole advertising stunt of getting people to come see Paris Hilton die is long gone, allowing people to watch the movie as a whole instead of simply going for a stupid, singular reason.
Two worthy watches, each House of Wax will give you something to like. Be it the traditional, gothic-tinged horror of 1950s Hollywood, featuring phantom-like attire, romantic escapades, wax figures of Marie Antoinette, and a psychotic Vincent Price, or the more modern slasher atmosphere, with impressive set (the House of Wax is truly mesmeric. . . and daunting), terror-inducing spirit, and plenty of blood and guts, both have lots to offer. So, wax poetic with the former and enjoy a whole different ball of wax with the latter, one thing’s for sure, they’re both worth the price of admission.