What is the DEAL with WAX?
Is it the sensual nature of candles?
(mmm baby, give me that sandalwood...)
Its pliable nature?
The desire to chew on it, perhaps?
Mmm, wax.
Remember those red candy lips that nobody liked because they were just flavored paraffin
wax and they tasted like shoes?
(Mmm, shoes.)
Wax!
Fun for the whole family.
(*whispers* Wax…)
OR IS IT?
Today I’m going to be looking at House of Wax, the 1953 Vincent Price remake.
In this movie, wax is used to kill people and preserve their corpses.
Before we start waxing nostalgic, let’s briefly go over a few notable things about
this film.
House of Wax was the first color 3D film released by a mainstream American Studio, and the first
to feature stereophonic sound; theater gimmicks like this were somewhat common in the 50s,
everything from swinging skeletons over the audience and vibrating seats.
It’s not the first film to have success with 3D, however; Warner Brothers, who distributed
House of Wax, saw the potential of this gimmick and contracted the creators of the Natural
Vision 3D system, which was previously used in an independent film called Bwana Devil.
Critically, it flopped, but audiences were very amused by the 3D elements and using them
became pretty popular between 1952-1954.
It’s also important to note that this movie is, as mentioned previously, a remake.
Because there was a sub par House of Wax movie in 2005, people sometimes assume that this
one, with Vincent Price, is the original, but it is also a remake of “The Mystery
of the Wax Museum”, which was based on a short story called The Wax Works by Charles
S. Belden.
It stars the delightfully sinister Vincent Price, who wasn’t landing many roles before
this.
In fact this movie kind of refreshed his career and put him on the horror movie fast track.
I can honestly watch Price in anything; his spooky charisma is all I need to have a fun
movie night.
Maybe accompanied by a molten lava cake.
The cast comprises of relatively known actors and actresses, though I was most surprised
to discover that it costars Carolyn Jones, who you may not recognize right away in this
costume, but she played goth icon Morticia Addams in the Addams Family television series.
Also, random Charles Bronson!
He was credited under a different name during that time.
Now, let’s dive into this film!
Sit back and relax, it’s a house of wax!
Professor Henry Jarrod, played by Price, is a skilled artist who owns his own Wax Museum
in early 1900s New York; his specialty is sculpting realistic looking wax figures and
you know he’s a true artist because look at that beard and stache.
You know that man uses the wax to shape that thing.
He has a fondness for creating historical figures, but nothing too macabre.
Which is interesting because many of the people he recreated had very grisly endings to their
lives, but he likes the catch them right before that.
Literally, right before.
But yes, he prefers his more vanilla take on the figures and has an special affection
for his Marie Antoinette sculpture.
His business partner, Matthew Burke, tries to encourage Jarrod to create more gruesome
pieces and sets, something akin to Madame Tussaud’s Chamber of Horrors, so they can
attract more people, but Jarrod declines because he believes a well known art critic named
Sidney Wallace might buy him out.
Wow, when Wallace entered the shot I thought he was also Vincent Price; that would make
a great sitcom, by the way.
“Two Vincents for the Price of One!”
HAH!
Wallace is impressed with the museum and does make an offer, but he will not be able to
complete the purchase until after an upcoming trip.
Despite that, Burke fears that Wallace might back out on the deal and as a sure fire thing,
he tries to convince Jarrod to burn down the museum to collect the insurance money.
Heh, sure fire thing.
I get it.
Ah yes, your friends.
That definitely sounds rational and not maladjusted.
Jarrod doesn’t agree with Burke’s plans, but Burke’s like “fuck it” and sets
it ablaze anyway.
This scene is by far the scariest in the movie for me; as an artist myself, it’s horrific
to see artwork get destroyed in seconds; I’d be traumatized if someone torched all of my
paintings.
I don’t consider them my friends or anything, but I’d rather them not be ruined.
And though the movie isn’t graphic or gruesome in any way, seeing the wax melt and slough
off the faces of these wax people is fairly explicit, and I felt so terrible for Jarrod.
Even though you know these figures are inanimate, the fact that they resemble real people and
it looks like they are burning alive makes this scene fairly disturbing.
It feels extremely sad and chaotic, and the scene is shot well and looks convincing.
Probably because the fire was real; everything is being destroyed.
At one point during this scene the crew lost control of the fire, and it burnt a hole in
the roof and singed Price’s eyebrows, so this look of horror might be genuine.
Burke fights with Jarrod before dousing him in kerosene and fleeing.
Unable to stop the fire from spreading, we see Jarrod also attempting to escape before
the entire building collapses.
Eventually, the old timey firefighters arrive.
Welp, they’re not gonna be able to do DICK.
Burke assumes Jarrod died in the fire and is next seen trying to woo a young woman named
Cathy, who is overtly interested in the insurance money he collected.
After she suggests they should go to Niagara Falls with a marriage license, Burke is like,
“Oh shit no, check please”, and heads back to his apartment to greedily count his
newfound riches.
However, he is not alone as a disfigured man had been waiting for him; he cuts the lights
and strangles him, dragging him out into the hall.
Wow, this man is AMAZING at standing upright while dead; incredible balance for an corpse,
very impressive.
He ties a phone cord around his neck and throws him down the elevator shaft.
Brutal.
Now I assumed right away that this figure was Jarrod, considering his severely deformed
face, and because he had a solid motive.
You fuck with my art?
I fuck with your LIFE.
Meanwhile, Cathy is discussing her new Sugar Daddy to her friend Sue.
This woman is fuckin’ weird.
Also, interesting that they had her refer to a different hanging after Burke’s; is
there a word for reverse foreshadowing?
Or foreshadowing from the character’s perspective?
Backshadowing?
“He has an insufferable temper but isn’t he a card?”
She excuses herself, thinkin’ she’s gonna go visit Burke, and Sue also leaves for the
evening to go job hunting.
When she returns, she goes Cathy’s room to talk to her, but finds her dead in her
bed - the cloaked figure is still in the room and Sue escapes through the window.
Oh shit, she just fell from the second story!
Oh.
She’s okay.
Somehow.
She runs from the shadowy figure in a scene that looks like the Phantom of the Opera is
pretending to be Jack the Ripper, and manages to escape by getting into a friend’s house
nearby.
She sobs and laments about what happened, and the next day they all go to the police;
they inform her that that Cathy’s body was stolen from the morgue during the night, and
Matthew Burke’s body had also been stolen a few weeks ago.
We actually do get to see the morgue; a couple workers seem to be finishing their shift when
one of the bodies just sits upright for no reason, and the one guy is like “Hey, what’s
up with this one”, as if it’s normal; not scared at all, and the other mortician
says “ehhh because of the embalming chemicals corpses just do that sometimes.”
But it’s not just a little wiggle, he just SPRINGS right up.
That’s not okay.
In another part of town, we see that Jarrod has miraculously survived the museum fire,
with only his hands sustaining injury, making the audience wonder: Heck, who the crud is
this guy then?
The art critic, Sidney Wallace, visits him at his new studio and Jarrod tells him that
he will be opening a new wax museum, and this time he will give the people what they want;
more sensational, thrilling figures based on historical acts of violence; though he
cannot use his hands so he relies on his pupils to help him out.
He then takes him to his weird wax dipping horror dungeon where he shows Wallace how
sculpted mannequins are coated.
It looks like a science experiment using Pepto Bismol.
Or maybe that weird amoxicillin crap I used to take for ear infections; ugh.
That would be terrible, if it was just boiling amoxicillin and he was covering corpses with
it.
He also shows Wallace the wax figure of Matthew Burke; Jarrod said he created him from memory.
And then he just...lets it fall on the floor.
That was a very weird way to segue a scene.
We get an intermission, which seems strange in a film I am just watching on the internet,
but this was implemented because it was shown using a double projection system and required
a reel change.
The museum is now open, and we are greeted by a theater barker who seems to be annoying
people with some paddle balls.
The women are initially amused, but it quickly turns to irritation.
“Sir, get your balls out of my face.”
This paddle ball was meant to be part of the 3D gimmick, in fact the barker blatantly addresses
the audience at one point.
Now, I think this museum is amazing; I love scary wax figures and dabble in the macabre
not to be confused with dabbing on the macabre, but the museum guests don’t seem to have
the same appreciation that I do.
“OH MILLIE.”
Price really shines as Jarrod in this segment.
I love his descriptions of the scenes he’s showcasing; like most murderous lunatics,
he is very captivating and has a kind of...morbid charm.
Sue attends the museum opening and is shocked to see a Joan of Arc figure that resembles
Cathy; she is shaken by the similarities and has to take a moment; Jarrod overhears her
and assures her that he saw Cathy’s photos in the in the paper and used them as inspiration
for the figure, which...is very weird, but he is somehow able to charm Sue into thinking
it’s flattering and not weird, and also convinces Sue that she could be the inspiration
for his beloved Marie Antoinette sculpture.
Again, morbid charm.
Later that night, the cloaked man breaks into Sue’s room through a window, presumably
to kill her and take her body, but she wakes up and screams, scaring him away.
Despite her fear, she goes out on a date the following night.
This can can dance is meant to be another 3D gimmick, because who doesn’t want to
feel like they are being kicked in the face?
Sue however, is not impressed.
“Oh I don’t know, it doesn’t seem proper, all these women showing off their...talents.”
Gasp!
Those bare shoulders, so improper.
“Scott?”
“Hm?”
Look.
At her.
Butt.
Now completely convinced that there is something up with the Joan of Arc figure, Sue decides
to go to the museum to investigate.
She runs into Jarrod, who catches her examining the sculpture.
He forgives her for messing with it and presents her with…
HER HEEEEEEAD.
Seriously, that IS unnerving.
The police also launch their own investigation after realizing that John Wilkes Booth suspiciously
looks like a deputy attorney that had disappeared, and after briefly questioning Jarrod’s assistant,
Leon Averill, they believe that something isn’t right.
They realize that Averill, who does the wax work for the museum, is actually Karl Hendrix
who had been on their wanted list for breaking his parole after a brief stint in prison.
They find the watch of the missing deputy attorney in Averill’s possession, and begin
an interrogation.
Sue decides to take matters into her own hands and visits the museum after hours, also looking
for her love interest, Scott, who had been apprenticing there.
Upon entering, Jarrod’s assistant, Igor, locks her in.
“SUDDENLY IIIIIIGOR….”
This entire scene is very tense, even with Igor’s head comically placed like a wax
head on this shelf.
His face does have a molded look to it; there’s a reason video games and movies use things
like mannequins, and it’s because they are fuckin’ scary; anything that we perceive
as human or having human features, whether alive or not, is intriguing to us, and the
unnaturally realistic yet static nature of things like statues can be especially terrifying,
even more so when you are alone in a room with them in the dark.
She approaches Joan of Arc one more time to reveal what she had suspected all along: People!
THE CHAMBER OF HORRORS IS PEOPLE.”
Jarrod finds her and proves himself capable of walking, having pretended to be bound to
a wheelchair this entire time, and corners her.
Sue tries to fight him off but manages to instead, break apart a wax mask he was wearing
to conceal his identity; surprise, he’s the killer.
This looks fantastic; it happens so fast you don’t notice that it’s a practical effect
and doesn’t QUITE match Price’s face, but I was impressed at how well it worked.
It’s not the most surprising twist because I kept wondering if he really was just wearing
a mask; there would be no way only his hands were injured in that fire, but it’s still
a cool reveal.
Shocked by this, Sue faints, and she is taken, stripped naked, and put in a coffin to be
doused in boiling wax.
Averill finally cracks and admits that Jarrod had been using real people to create his wax
figures, so the police bolt to the museum, and good guy Scott also heads back there and
gets into a scuffle with Igor, who shoves his head into the guillotine.
That’s really not gonna be good for PR.
The police finally arrive on the scene, first saving Scott from decapitation, then heading
to the cellar to save Sue.
The majority of this film relies on suspense, but the final 15 minutes or so are more action
packed and thrilling; it’s very satisfying to see the pace accelerate as Jarrod fights
off police men, all while the wax continues to boil.
Jarrod gets punched in the face and careens into the vat, causing a PEPTO BISMOL EXPLOSION.
Sue is saved, and we get the most abrupt, tonally odd ending where everyone has a little
chuckle about it.
This movie did not do well critically when it was first released; reviews were pretty
much mixed, with more negatives than positives, possibly because the 3D aspects were considered
a bit contrived and some critics were not impressed by the story, but it has aged well
among horror fans and is considered a cult classic.
I really enjoyed the film; if you’ve seen the 2005 slasher remake, and I say the word
remake VERY loosely, here, then you might have some preconceived notions about it.
House of Wax 2005 has a emphasis on shock and violence; it’s more on the gory side
as you can expect from a slasher movie, but this version is gore-free and more eerie than
frenetic; I would put it in the category of suspense horror, and that really works for
me, I loved it.
The most explicit scene is the one I earlier discussed with the sculptures melting, otherwise
it plays out like a murder mystery in a way.
Price’s acting is wonderful; he is believably weird and a little twisted; I adore Price
no matter what, but he can be cheesy as you can imagine; last year I reviewed House on
Haunted Hill, a favorite of mine, and I found that movie more on the corny side, whereas
House of Wax felt more serious, more realistic, and the I love that the fear comes from the
idea that maybe these wax figures are corpses, not because I am seeing them actually being
murdered or covered in wax.
It’s not perfect, as the parts that were supposed to look cool in 3D felt out of place
when watched on the internet, but if you’re looking for an addition to your classic horror
collection or just want something to watch on Halloween, then I do recommend it.
Light some candles, order a pizza, down some Pepto Bismol, and have a chilling time with
House of Wax.
Hey everyone, thank you for watching my video on House of Wax - I hope you give it a watch.
If you want to see other movie reviews I have some linked in my annotations, and if you
want to regale me with spooky tales, check out my social media.
You can also give me money via Patreon if you find you just have WAY too much of it.
Thanks again and I’ll see you in the next one!