House of Wax (2005)

Prey. Slay. Display.

Starring: Elisha Cuthbert, Chad Michael Murray, Brian Van Holt, Paris Hilton, Jared Padalecki, Jon Abrahams, Robert Ri'chard, Dragicia Debert, Damon Herriman, Andy Anderson

Director: Jaume Serra

Running Time: 113 minutes

US MPAA rating: R
UK BBFC rating: 15
Horror, Thriller

Like Dark Castle Entertainment's previous productions 'House on Haunted Hill' (1999) and 'Thir13en Ghosts' (2001), 'House of Wax' is more reimagining than remake. In André de Toth's 1953 original (the first major studio film to be in 3D), Vincent Price's sculptor transforms real human corpses into life-like wax models - and accordingly twin screenwriters Chad and Carey W. Hayes have themselves moulded this barebones premise into something altogether different, throwing in for good measure two sets of difficult twins (as a reflection, no doubt, of their own relationship). As a neat nod to the original, however, there is a pivotal character named Vincent who, like de Toth himself, is missing one eye.

Carly (Elisha Cuthbert), her delinquent twin Nick (Chad Michael Murray), boyfriend Wade (Jared Padalecki), friend Paige (Paris Hilton) and two others have taken a short cut on their way to a big college football game, and end up camping overnight in the middle of nowhere. Menaced by the unseen driver of a utility truck, and put off by a pungent odour in the area, they are keen to move on, but Wade's car has a problem, forcing him and Carly to head for the only town nearby, Ambrose. While they wait for the local mechanic Bo (Brian Van Holt) to return to his garage, the pair has a quick look around Trudy's House of Wax - and as their friends are drawn back to the town, it becomes clear that someone wants them all to join the well-preserved residents of Ambrose permanently.

It is one thing to bring an older film up to date (and the new 'House of Wax' certainly does that, seamlessly integrating mobile phones and GPS navigation into its plotting), but here it is also possible to see the different horror trends of the intervening decades layered on top of one another. The film screening on permanent loop in Ambrose's cinema,

It's Got: Wax, whacks and a certain wackiness (as well as some welcomely unpleasant deaths and near-deaths).

It Needs: I'm all for gratuitous violence in horror films, but why all the gratuitous, go-nowhere character backgrounds? Is Paige's possible pregnancy, Wade's aversion to the big city may be pregnant, or the question of Nick's guilt or innocence in a prior car theft, really so important? This is 'House of Wax', not 'House of Soap'.

Alternatives: 'House of Wax' (1953), 'Anatomie', 'Dead and Buried', The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), 'The Blair Witch Project', What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

Summary: Entertainingly nasty and silly, this reimagining manages to hold a candle to the original precisely by breaking the mould. Overall Score: 7 out of 10