House of Wax, a title synonymous with horror and suspense, has a rich and intricate history spanning several decades and multiple iterations. From its origins as a play to its various film adaptations, the story of a wax museum with sinister secrets continues to captivate audiences.
The story begins with Charles S. Belden's three-act play, "The Wax Works." This served as the basis for the 1933 film Mystery of the Wax Museum, directed by Michael Curtiz and released by Warner Bros. This early adaptation, starring Lionel Atwill and Fay Wray, holds the distinction of being the last feature film to be filmed in two-color Technicolor. The film tells the story of Ivan Igor (Atwill), a wax artist whose museum is destroyed by fire. Igor survives, but is left disfigured and dependent on assistants to rebuild his collection. As bodies begin to disappear, a reporter (Wray) investigates, uncovering Igor's dark secret: he is using corpses to create his wax figures. Mystery of the Wax Museum was considered lost for many years, but was eventually found in Jack Warner's private vault.
Two decades later, in 1953, Warner Bros. revisited the story with House of Wax, directed by Andre de Toth. This remake, starring Vincent Price, marked a significant milestone in cinematic history. It was the first 3D film with stereophonic sound to be presented in a regular theater, and the first color 3D feature film from a major American studio.
Filmed under the working title The Wax Works, House of Wax was Warner Bros.' response to the success of the independent 3D film Bwana Devil. The studio contracted Julian and Milton Gunzburg's Natural Vision 3D system, the same one used for Bwana Devil. The dual camera rig necessary for 3D filming was extremely awkward, limiting camera set-ups and staging. J. Peverell Marley, ASC took over as director of photography on Warner Bros.’ 3-dimensional thriller House of Wax after cinematographer Bert Glennon was forced to quit the picture because of illness.
Andre de Toth's involvement as director is particularly noteworthy, as he was blind in one eye and unable to experience 3D effects. Despite this, he delivered a commercially successful and technically innovative film. Vincent Price recalled: "When they wanted a director for [a 3D] film, they hired a man who couldn’t see 3D at all! André de Toth was a very good director, but he may not have been suited to direct a 3D movie. He’d go to the rushes and say 'Why is everybody so excited about this?' It didn’t mean anything to him. But he made a good picture, a good thriller. He was largely responsible for the success of the picture. The 3D tricks just happened-there weren’t a lot of them."
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The film made foregrounded uses of 3D in the film with scenes featuring fights, can-can girls, and a paddle ball-wielding barker. The film included a scene in which the shadowy figure of one of the characters seems to spring up out of the theater audience and run into the screen.
Set in New York City during the early 1900s, House of Wax tells the story of Professor Henry Jarrod (Vincent Price), a talented sculptor who runs a wax museum featuring historical figures who have met grisly ends. His business partner, Matthew Burke, wants to create more sensational, crowd-pleasing exhibits. Wealthy art critic Sidney Wallace expresses interest in buying out Burke. Impatient, Burke sets the museum on fire for the insurance money, leaving Jarrod for dead.
Burke receives the insurance money, but is then murdered by a disfigured man in a cloak, who stages the murder as a suicide. The killer also murders Burke's fiancée, Cathy Gray, but is interrupted by her roommate, Sue Allen, before he can arrange the scene. Sue escapes and seeks help.
Wallace meets Jarrod, who survived the fire but is now in a wheelchair and unable to sculpt with his crippled hands. Jarrod asks Wallace to invest in his new wax museum, featuring statues made by his assistants, deaf mute Igor and alcoholic Leon Averill. Sue, attending the museum's opening with her friend Scott, notices a disturbing resemblance between the Joan of Arc figure and Cathy. Jarrod claims he based the figure on newspaper photos.
Jarrod hires Scott as an assistant and asks Sue to model for a Marie Antoinette wax figure, as she resembles his earlier one. Sue tells Detective Lieutenant Tom Brennan that the Joan of Arc figure shares a distinctive ear piercing with Cathy, which she does not believe would be discernible from a newspaper photo. The police investigate. Sergeant Jim Shane recognizes Averill as Carl Hendricks, wanted for breaking parole.
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Sue arrives at the museum after hours to meet Scott, but Jarrod had sent him on an errand. She removes the Joan of Arc figure's wig, exposing Cathy's hair beneath. Jarrod, watching, gets up from his wheelchair, revealing he can walk. Sue strikes him, breaking a wax mask from his disfigured face and identifying him as the murderer. Scott returns and is subdued by Igor.
The police learn the truth from Averill: Jarrod was driven mad by his previous museum's destruction, and his new wax figures are the wax-coated corpses of his victims. They arrive at the museum in time to stop Igor from decapitating Scott with a guillotine. Jarrod is knocked into a vat of hot wax and killed.
House of Wax premiered in Los Angeles at the Paramount Theatre on April 16, 1953. The film topped the box office charts for five weeks and earned an estimated $5.5 million in rentals from the North American box office alone, making it one of the biggest hits of 1953.
Early reviews were mixed. Variety was positive, writing: "This picture will knock 'em for a ghoul. Warners' House of Wax is the post-midcentury Jazz Singer." Bosley Crowther of The New York Times found the film "disappointing", writing: "This picture, apart entirely from the fact that it is baldly, unbelievably antique in its melodramatic plot and style, shows little or no imagination in the use of stereoscopic images and nothing but loudness and confusion in the use of so-called stereoscopic sound. The impression we get is that its makers were simply and solely interested in getting a flashy sensation on the screen just as fast as they could."
Richard L. Coe of The Washington Post wrote: "It's supposed to be a horror movie and it's horrible alright… The novelty has some appeal especially through its long shots into depths, but there is also a feeling of limitations once what novelty there passes. Then it is we go back to the gaga script devised by Crane Wilbur from a story which served one of the early talking films and one is inclined to shudderingly ask: Are we to go through all that again?" John McCarten of The New Yorker also hated the film, writing that he thought it had "set the movies back about forty-nine years."
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Despite some critical reservations, House of Wax revitalized Vincent Price's career and established him as a horror icon. Following this role, he was in high demand to play villains and other deranged characters in genre films. The film was re-released to theaters in 3D in 1971 and during the 3D revival of the early 1980s.
In 2005, House of Wax was remade as a slasher film directed by Jaume Collet-Serra. Starring Elisha Cuthbert, Chad Michael Murray, and Brian Van Holt, this version presents a more graphic and violent take on the story.
On the way to a football game, a group of friends - Carly Jones, her twin brother Nick, her boyfriend Wade, and their friends Dalton, Paige, and Blake - camp for the night in the woods. A stranger in a pickup truck arrives, then leaves after Nick smashes one of his headlights. The group later finds themselves in the ghost town of Ambrose, where they encounter Bo Sinclair, who offers to help them repair their car.
Carly and Wade visit Trudy's House of Wax, the town's wax museum, while waiting for Bo to return with a fan belt. Wade is attacked by Bo's twin brother, Vincent, who wears a wax mask to cover his disfigurement. Carly realizes the stranger from the campsite was Bo and flees, but is captured.
Paige and Blake return to the campsite, while Nick and Dalton search for Carly and Wade. Carly is rescued by Nick, while Dalton discovers Wade as part of the House of Wax. The friends realize that the wax figures in the museum and around Ambrose are actually the wax-coated corpses of lured victims. Vincent had been attempting to continue the wax sculpting work of his mother, Trudy Sinclair, after her death, but Bo began manipulating Vincent into making more realistic figures out of their victims.
At the campsite, Vincent murders Blake and chases Paige, killing her with a metal pipe. Vincent encounters the Joneses in the House of Wax basement. Nick unintentionally starts a fire. Nick battles Bo and is stabbed in the leg before Carly beats Bo to death with a baseball bat. Vincent chases Carly, who stabs him in the back.
The next morning, authorities arrive and report that the town has been abandoned for a decade. As the Joneses are driven away, one of the officers is told that the Sinclair family did not have just two sons, but three.
House of Wax (2005) was filmed at Warner Bros. Movie World, Australia. A $7 million lawsuit alleged that Mr. Fletcher and Wax Productions were grossly negligent over the fire, which destroyed part of the Gold Coast's Warner Bros. Movie World studios.
House of Wax (2005) grossed $12 million in its opening weekend. On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 28% based on 161 reviews and the average rating is 4.29/10.
Roger Ebert gave the film two out of four stars, writing, "House of Wax is not a good movie, but it is an efficient one and will deliver most of what anyone attending House of Wax could reasonably expect…assuming it would be unreasonable to expect very much." Stephen Hunter of The Washington Post gave the film four out of five stars, calling it a "guilty pleasure." Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle rated it 4/5 stars and wrote, "After a month, no one will talk about this movie again. Still, with a picture like this, there is really only one question: Is it fun? Yes. Lots. Definitely."
House of Wax (2005) received several nominations, including:
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