The last of that first run of horror movies from Dark Castle was a in name only remake of the the Vincent Price classic horror movie, House of Wax (itself a remake of The Mystery of the Wax Museum). Aside from the basic premise of a nefarious Wax Museum, this film is completely new, taking it's cues more from the exploitation cinema of the late 70's. Still, taken on it's own merits it's actually a pretty intense and gnarly little horror flick.
Carly (played by Elisha Cuthbert) is traveling with her boyfriend Wade (played by Jared Padalecki), her brother twin brother Nick (played by Chad Michael Murray), and friends Paige (played by Paris Hilton), Blake (played by Robert Ri'chard) and Dalton (played by Jon Abrahams) to a football game in Baton Rouge. After an intended shortcut turns out to be a bust, the group decide to camp in a nearby field for the night and continue on the next day to the game. The next morning, Wade discovers the fan belt on his car has broken. The group meets Lester (played by Damon Herriman), a local resident who clears roadkill from the roads and agrees to take Carly and Wade to the nearby town of Ambrose to get a new fan belt while the others continue on to the game. Carly and Wade arrive to find a virtual ghost town. They eventually run into Bo (played by Brian Van Holt), who runs the local gas station who tells them that he will meet them at the gas station in a half hour to get him the fan belt. To kill some time, they decide to check out the local attraction, an old Wax Museum. Meanwhile, Nick and their friends find themselves faced with a huge traffic jam and realizing they aren't going to make the game in time decide to turn back to meet up with Carly and Wade. Soon enough, they all discover the dark side of Ambrose and the titular House of Wax. They'll have to fight for their lives to not only escape but also avoid becoming the latest attraction.
The film is directed by Jaume Collet-Serra from a script by Chad and Carey Hayes. The three of them manage to put a nice polish on a very well worn horror movie scenario. The plot line itself is fairly predictable, although they do add a few novel twists to the story and once it really gets going Collet-Serra keeps the tension high. The biggest is probably the museum itself which is uniquely creepy from the minute Carly and Wade step inside. There is just something about each of the displays that I found so unnerving, which is naturally what the filmmakers intended. It's also an inspired choice that the entire museum itself is primarily made from wax. It may not make much logical sense, but it does make for a memorable finale as the place is predictably set ablaze and begins melting around the characters. The town itself is equally unnerving with just one street, a few houses and a few businesses with no one in sight much of the time. Of course, once the action picks up that only adds to the tension as we realize there is no one to help our main characters. Things are topped off with an impressive score from John Ottman that helps keep the tension and suspense quite well.
The film assembled a strong cast for the film which also helped smooth over some of the more well-worn aspects of the plot. Elisha Cuthbert does well in the lead role as Carly as she nails the final girl archetype well, giving her character the resourcefulness and strength needed. Chad Michael Murray also does well as her far more hot headed brother Nick, who has a troubled life and recently had done some time in jail. Of course, when things get crazy those personality traits come in handy as they find themselves having to defend themselves against the crazed proprietors of the House of Wax. Jared Padalecki is a real sport in this movie, both in trying to keep his character likable even though he spends much of it complaining as well as everything his character goes through later in the movie. Paris Hilton doesn't come off quite as well here, more or less just playing herself and manages to skate by because of it. Still, it's an interesting piece of stunt casting that the studio and even Hilton herself leapt on with promoting the film with the tease that they can "See Paris die," which given her then annoying public image at the time audiences were all too eager to do. Brian Van Holt makes for a nasty and frightening villain in this as Bo, who really puts our intrepid characters through the ringer alongside his equally demented brother Vincent.
Overall, House of Wax marked the end of a very short era of the annual Dark Castle horror flick. This one was even inexplicably released at the beginning of the summer of 2005 rather than during Halloween. Still, this is one of their better ones they made as they took a familiar premise and aside from that built a whole new movie. Yes, it is built from familiar parts but the filmmakers give them a good polish and present them with style as the events don't quite play out exactly as one might expect. Nonetheless, it's a thrilling and wild ride from beginning to end and sometimes that's all a movie needs to be.
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