Emma Roberts Movie:

		List Price: $28.99		Label: Warner Bros. Pictures Salesrank: 65779 Released: September 12, 2006
		Our Price: $21.40
		Used Price: $11.39
		MPAA Rating: R (Restricted) Media: HD DVD

Editorial Review:
House of Wax tells the story of a group of friends who fall prey to a sinister plot while passing through a small town on their way to a college football game.

Description of House of Wax [HD DVD]:
You know the one about the group of horny kids who get offed one by one? Yeah, so do director Jaume Collet-Serra and his screenwriters, who have updated an old Vincent Price flick and sandwiched it between hearty slices of The Blair Witch Project and various Friday the 13th films. Lots of WB and Fox network hotties--including 24's Elisha Cuthbert, One Tree Hill's Chad Michael Murray, and, well, Paris Hilton--have car trouble and stumble onto a town populated by real killer personalities. The R-rated result is fairly gruesome and, though no one ever quite looks frightened enough, Collet-Serra knows his way around a jolting suspense sequence or two. Cuthbert and an unintentionally funny Murray (striking ludicrous poses as some kind of real toughie) act more like angry ex-lovers than the fraternal twins they're supposed to be; Hilton acts bored while her real-life video scandal is exploited for ironic kicks; and the film heads shamelessly over-the-top with each new twist. As an exercise in bloody mayhem, it has a few novel touches, but you can easily find better scares. --Steve Wiecking

House of Wax [HD DVD] Reviews:
Better Than Expected
2008-11-17 - HOUSE OF WAX is a remake of a 1953 picture of the same name that starred Vincent Price. Having never yet seen the original, I can't comment on comparisons between the two films. This version of the story was produced by Joel Silver and Robert Zemeckis, among others, and was the feature directorial debut of Jaume Collet-Serra. I was a bit hesitant to watch the movie because the picture was promoted as Paris Hilton's breakout role. In fact, she was the first person cast in the movie and the rest of the cast was built around her. However, despite my reluctance to originally watch the movie, HOUSE OF WAX is actually a fairly decent slasher-suspense movie.

The plot of the movie is fairly simple. A group of six college-age friends leave together on a roadtrip to see the biggest football game of the year in Louisiana. They leave the main road to take a shortcut. The shortcut ends up having a detour and the group camps for the night in a woody field. That night the group is harassed by a man in a pickup truck. One of the friends, Nick Jones (Chad Michael Murray), throws a beer bottle at the truck, breaking a headlight which for whatever reason causes the driver to leave. That night Nick's twin sister, Carly (Elisha Cuthbert), is awaken by noises she hears outside of their tent. She investigates, but doesn't find anything. However, the next day Carly's boyfriend, Wade (Jared Padalecki) discovers that the fan belt to his car has been cut. Wade and Carly hitch a ride into a nearby town with a creepy guy who picks up road kill for a living to get a fan belt while the rest of the group leaves to go to the game. Traffic is so bad that the group misses most of the game and comes back to the campsite. Meanwhile, Wade and Carly find themselves wandering around a dingy looking town that looked like it once was quaint. The town professes to have a famous wax museum that Wade and Carly investigate. As it turns out, the wax house is literally made of wax as is most everything in it and the figures are so lifelike. Of course, there's a reason for that as Wade, Carly, and the rest of their friends soon find out.

You would think that the worst part of this movie would be Paris Hilton. That's really not the case. Her character is very wooden with hardly any emotional depth, but that's exactly how her character is supposed to be. There's a fair enough amount of suspense and just enough gore to give the film an overall eerie mood.

The film has one huge weakness: the stupidity factor. I realize that horror films in general require a huge suspension of disbelief and almost always have characters doing things very, very stupid. However, in HOUSE OF WAX that seems more prevalent than normal. For instance, take the character of Wade. As an audience member, you're supposed to like Wade. He's Carly's boyfriend and is supposed to be a nice guy, the kind a girl can take home to her parents are ask move to New York with her to begin a new life. Yet, Wade once Wade meets the guy who picks up road kill, he turns rude and abrasive. I couldn't wait until he got killed because the whole time he was in Ambrose, he was a complete jerk: smarting off to strangers, breaking into closed buildings, searching through people's personnel items. Or take Paris Hilton's character, Paige. At one point Paige is being chased by a killer and arms herself with a pole, but eventually leaves the pole behind. Or how about the fact that while wondering around the town the only person anyone ever sees and meets is Bo? I grew up in a town smaller than Ambrose and even late at night your bound to see cars driving around or someone walking around.

Overall, despite starring Paris Hilton and filled with bad acting, HOUSE OF WAX is a better-than-expected suspense-slasher movie.

The DVD special features include an alternate opening scene, b-roll and blooper video with cast commentary, Joel Silver revealing HOUSE OF WAX (watch Joel get ran over by a car), "Wax On: the Design of the House of Wax" featurette about how the town of Ambrose, Louisiana was created, "The House Built on Wax" featurette about how the actual wax house in HOUSE OF WAX was created, and the theatrical trailer.

A decent slasher flick underneath all the wax
2008-11-08 - If you scrape at the surface, House Of Wax doesn't look very promising. Paris Hilton, Elisha Cuthbert and Chad Michael Murray could all compete for the Most Arrogant, Least Believable and Stuck-Up Actor Awards in my book. The story itself is something we've heard and seen a thousand times before, and it's flavored with nu-metal and strip sequences. But surprisingly, it's actually a really decent film.

The first thing I notice is the opening sequence. It's startling, catches my attention and even throws me out of the loop a little bit. The way we're presented to the characters is not much of a big deal, it's actually quite ordinary. It may be hard to relate to them all, but I've seen a lot worse set ups in my time. At least the film moves forward to a new place without wasting all too much time.

Later we are given hints of something mysterious going on, and when the violent and effects-driven parts of the film kick in, it's all driving, well-made and a strong slasher film with a few small surprises to spare. The nature of the story makes it stand out, giving you a traditional movie in an unusual environment. Before it's all over, I'm definitely entertained.

Great Item
2008-09-29 - I ordered this DVD on a Saterday & recieved it in the mail Monday. When I watched it it was in great working order & I was pleased. I'm a movie lover & I buy many movies so I would recomend amazon.com to anyone who is a movie lover.

One of the better films of my generation
2008-08-12 - Unfortunately, my youth is corrupted by stupid horror films such as 'Saw' and the remakes like 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)', but there were some goods as well. I liked the remake of Dawn of the Dead, House of 1,000 Corpses and some other movies from the earlier 2000's, may of them remind me of middle school and early high school, but one of my faves was House of Wax. I saw it one night and fell in love with it. It's creepy and it's actually a pretty good new look at an amazing 50's classic. The cast included some decent actors (please note Paris Hilton does actually deliver an almost convincing role for the first time ever) playing...herself more or less...and the atmosphere and suspense were solid. Definitely one of the best horror movies of the 2000's, which of course, isn't really saying all that much...because the 70's and 80's were much more effective with horror flicks. A good film though :)

A triumph of style over substance
2008-08-10 - It is almost a shame that they decided to title this film "House of Wax," for it caused many, like myself, to see it in terms of the 1953 "House of Wax," Andre de Toth's 3D Magnum Opus. Credit is given to Charles Belden, author of "Mystery of the Wax Museum," the 1933 film that both "Houses" are based upon, which both surprised and pleased me. The script follows a well-worn path, first beaten down by "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre," but is given new life by the lively direction of Jaume Collet-Serra and Stephen Windon's slick cinematogaphy. The performances are solid, for the most part, with Elisha Cuthbert stalwartly working amid gooey wax and animal carcasses. Brian Van Holt does double duty as the twins Bo & Vincent--but which one is the crazy one? Jared Padalecki endures the most uncomfortable scene (and makeup) in the film; I have a feeling that if he was in the position he is in now in film, he might have gotten a meatier role. Chad Michael Murray makes a good latter day Steve McQueen and although most people have jockeyed for first position to badmouth Paris Hilton, she does fine for the part she was given to play. The real star is Graham "Grace" Walker's wonderful production design of the creepy little town and in the center of it all the House of (literally) Wax. Another high point is John Ottman's evocative score, which is often spoiled by the overlapping of some fairly obnoxious modern "music." All in all, a fun and appropriately icky horror film for Our Modern Audiences.