The movie didn’t seem to be too focused on using the 3D format to its advantage, but rather on just having it in the first place and that being remarkable enough to get asses in seats. However, unlike later ventures into the format, it didn’t really use it to underpin any of the horror, with 3D sequences involving dancers and a man with a paddle ball that bounces toward the camera. The 1953 House of Wax was notable in its day for being the first big movie to exploit the newfound trend of 3D in color. Again, we see tears pouring from Wade’s eyes, and when a distracted Dalton is attacked by Vincent, Wade is unable to warn or help him. Wade, surely burned over his entire body, has been physically trapped, and his poor friend ends up doing more harm than good by trying to save him. This is such a sharp idea that really conveys the terror of human waxworks, both inside and outside the wax. Yes, he’s still alive under there! Horrified, Dalton goes into panic mode and tries to dig his friend out, only to find that he is peeling away his flesh in the process. At first, thinking his friend is just screwing around, he looks a little closer, and Wade’s eyes move toward him. A little while later, when the other friends have come looking for the couple, Dalton wanders into the wax museum where he sees Wade seated at a piano. Quite cleverly though, this is not where it ends. It’s a truly harrowing viewing experience in which his physical and mental pain is inescapable, and the thought of being in that situation is absolutely horrifying. Then comes the money shot, in which Wade is strapped to a strange chair-like device surrounded by hoses and taps, and steaming hot wax showers down on him as his muffled screams ring out. So showing Wade in such a vulnerable state, in which all pretense of machismo is lost, is very impactful and suggests just how desperately overpowered he is by Vincent. It is not often that teen horror allows real vulnerability in its characters - especially the men, who usually try to wrestle with the villain and call him a “sick fuck” before dropping dead in a quick and neat fashion. He wakes up drugged on a table, aware of everything going on but unable to move, and the sight of tears running down his face is a surprisingly effective one. As the first to fall prey to Vincent, and with the audience not yet knowing what the brothers are really up to, Wade’s ordeal makes for a grizzly watch. So while much of the slashing is fairly typical of the era and not likely to invoke fear in older or more experienced horror watchers, it is the instances of body horror that secure the movie its most effective scares. Landing squarely in the 2000s brand of horror, House of Wax is really able this time around to explore the realm of body horror that the earlier tellings of the story were not. Jaume Collet-Serra takes a distinctly more modern approach to the source material in his 2005 directorial debut, while still managing to pay homage to the original movies and a bygone era of cinema. The original movie and the Vincent Price remake centered on a tortured artist, whose waxwork sculpting suffers when he is maimed in a fire and loses the use of his hands, prompting him to seek easier ways of creating the same effect. The uncanny valley way that waxworks unsettle the human mind is a brilliant starting point for horror and has been taken in a number of directions over the years, such as the Waxwork films. It’s a darkly amusing concept that filmmakers have had a lot of fun with. The three movies only have a basic thread of commonality, in which a waxwork museum’s exhibits are made up of human bodies. It is best remembered, if at all, for its 1953 remake House of Wax starring horror legend Vincent Price. Belden’s unpublished short story The Wax Works, it was first made into a movie in 1933 titled The Mystery of the Wax Museum. By the time House of Wax went into production in the mid-2000s, it was already an old story that had been told on screen twice.
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