Official Synopsis
Professor Henry Jarrod is the owner and figure sculptor in a wax museum whose specialty is historic figures. When he and his business partner, Matthew Burke quarrel over the choice of exhibits displayed, Burke suggests it would be more profitable to burn down the museum in order to obtain the insurance money. As they fight, the museum burns and Jarrod is left for dead. It’s not until much later at a new museum that the fate of Jarrod and the mystery of how the lifelike waxed figures are created becomes gruesomely evident.
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(gotta love the text)
After being presumed dead, Professor Henry Jarrod springs back to life, be it through a wheel chair and charred wax hands, and re-opens a new wax exhibit; this time it’s a chamber of horrors. At the same time, Jarrod’s former business partner ends up killing himself (I say that loosely), and ends up having a wax figurine made of the tragedy — in alarmingly accurate detail. People start disappearing and wax figures become eerily more detailed than they need to be of the missing folks. Eventually, some friends of the actual suicide victims begin to ask questions, which leads to a more horrifying revelation about Jarrod, his creations and his intentions.
House of Wax is what you would expect from the 50s in terms of horror. It’s a bit over the top in some areas, campy in others, but mildly scary throughout. If I had watched this in 1953, I probably would have been uncomfortable the entire time. The real essence of this horror film lies within the creation and destruction of the wax figurines, and the movie isn’t shy with that creepiness. At the beginning of the film, we see Professor Henry Jarrod’s (Vincent Price) life’s work go up in flames because his partner in his house of wax business wants to split, and earn some insurance fraud money through burning down the joint. We get to witness a horrifying view of the wax figurines as they melt away under the duress of the flames. Just witnessing the melting faces of his creations will rekindle your nightmares of Raiders of the Lost Ark’s end scene.
And that is where the horror and motif lie, which is within the wax.
The movie flips back and forth, forcing the audience to question what is real and what is fake. The mere thought of live bodies below the beautiful wax exterior is enough to turn one’s stomach. The wax drives the film, keeps that creepy, uncomfortable feeling intact throughout the hour and some change of campiness. You get to see wax in the main villain (as his face has been horribly disfigured by the wax), through the victims and eventually almost through the heroes. The movie lives up to its name and is justifiably true horror in its purest sense through the wax motif. It’s beautiful to see a horror film so focused on its theme. I wish horror films these days would be so dedicated.
Having said all this, the acting is led by Vincent Price, who absolutely owns the screen. No one can compare to this man in this film. He brings the seriousness of his Henry Jarrod to life. What would be hokey, silly sounding lines coming from any other actor, turn to seriously creepy and horror filled dialogue delivered by Price. There’s not a moment in the film where you don’t believe this man loves his work and/or is bat-shit crazy. Price never breaks character or reveals his cards. To put it simply, he is just perfect with this role and how he treats it. Now, other characters worth mentioning are, well, only one… the annoying, giggly floozy Cathy Gray. Why should I point her out? Well, she is none other than Carolyn Jones – or as you may know her, Morticia Adams from the original television show. She may not be that great in House of Wax, but it’s nice to see her morbid desire to be ‘dark’ didn’t end with this film.
Overall, House of Wax delivers on its promise of mystery, suspense and horror. Sure it’s not a blood fest like you would find in movies nowadays, but it does deliver on the creepiness and fine acting (which most horror films can’t claim nowadays).
What about the 3D? If you have seen movies from the 40s/50s that claim to be 3D, but usually turn out to be horrible, then you understand what you should expect with House of Wax. Thankfully, it isn’t simply a hoax to get you to watch, as there was actual technological thought put into it to make the 3D come to life. Using two cameras during filming, director André De Toth’s cinematography crew simulated each eye with each camera to create depth. Depth in 3D is something that hadn’t been really thought of prior to that moment in film, or at least not well. What came out of the two camera technique was visual depth between background and foreground that really gave a feel for the girth of the sets. Most of the depth really becomes evident in the street scenes and house of wax scenery. It’s very impressive for that time period, and even doubly so when you see it in action on 3D Blu-ray. Warner Home Video has gone back and cleaned up the 3D version of the film in an impressive fashion. So, if you are intent on getting this film in 3D (and the 2D version is on the same disc) then just know you’re getting a very nice version of it for this release.
No red/blue glasses needed (because you have new fancy ones).
As impressive as the 3D is in House of Wax, the Blu-ray is definitely the opposite side of that coin. While there are moments of beautiful visuals in HD on this release, for the most part you’re getting a very grainy, artifact-ridden version of the film. In other words, this is not very cleaned up, which makes me a bit sad. That doesn’t mean that you are left with bad colors or color banding, not at all — just really grainy film that has ‘hits’ in it throughout. I’m not sure why there wasn’t more effort put into improving the HD, but at least you get great 3D out of it.
Finally, as for the special features, here’s what you should expect:
– Commentary by David Del Valle and Constantine Nasr
– Newsreel
– Trailer
– Mystery of the Wax Museum
– House of Wax: Unlike Anything You’ve Seen Before!
The commentary on this release is quite solid, but the real beef here lies within the House of Wax: Unlike Anything You’ve Seen Before! featurette. This is a nicely put together featurette that discusses the production of the film, where the idea originated, how/why the director was chosen and gives you a lot of insight on Vincent Price. Riddled with new and old interviews, you get to know about everything you’ve ever wanted to know about this film. It’s a really excellent featurette. As for the other stuff, it’s nice fluff that adds to the feature.