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House of Wax (1953)
Topic Started: Jan 7 2015, 06:13 PM (297 Views)
JustAnotherWriterGirl
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House of Wax is a 1953 American horror film starring Vincent Price about a disfigured sculptor who repopulates his destroyed wax museum by murdering people and using their dead bodies as wax displays. It is a remake of Warners' Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933), without the comic relief featured in the earlier film, and was directed by André de Toth. In 2005, Warner Bros. distributed a new film called House of Wax, but its plot is very different from the one used in the two earlier films.

House of Wax was the first color 3-D feature from a major American studio and premiered just two days after the Columbia Pictures film Man in the Dark, the first major-studio black-and-white 3-D feature. It was also the first 3-D film with stereophonic sound to be presented in a regular movie theater. It premiered nationwide on April 10, 1953 and went out for a general release on April 25, 1953


But I am here to post about perhaps the more famous one, the 1953 film in which the legendary Vince Price stars in.
It also stars a then unknown, Charles Buchinsky who was better known as, Charles Bronson, (Death Wish series).

What's everyone take on it?

(I apologize in advice if this was posted before).


Edited by JustAnotherWriterGirl, Jan 7 2015, 06:13 PM.
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It's time for a new dance to begin... the Dance of Death!

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The Walking Dude
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Love this film to death. When Jarrod does his tour early in the film,it always makes me think of Vincent's Devil's Food monologue on Alice Cooper's Welcome to my Nightmare album.

Was absolutely stoked when they released the 3D blu ray a few years back. Although I have watched it many times over the years,it felt like I was watching it for the very first time.
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Vanessa
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This movie and I are on a break. It's on television constantly, and I think I was watching it so often that it was starting to lose its impact.
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Baby Firefly
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Fun fact; Bela Lugosi attended the premiere of this.

I keep forgetting that this was a 3D film.

I really liked the cheesy but cool opening credits (and the font/color made me think of The Devil's Carnival's trailer while the 'pop out' look made me think of Friday The 13th Part 3). The wax figures in this were gorgeous and it actually made me a little sad seeing all of them burning and melting away. Burke was SUCH a scumbag and Cathy was insanely annoying (that laugh!!) at first but she grew on me after a couple scenes. It was kind of disappointing that
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Sue was great<3. Really likeable, pretty, and was a nice, sweet lead but wasn't as boring of a final girl as many others. Her chase in the dark streets was well done and the deformed/burned appearance
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was pretty damn effective. I liked Igor and Leon but I wish we had learned more about the two of them.

Randomly timed intermission ftw!

The tour of the "Chamber of Horrors" is one of my favorite scenes. The rack, guillotine, tub death, hanging<3. I want to go to something like that. Vincent was perfect for the role of Jarrod. It was twisted that he used
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for the Joan Of Arc figure and pretty much rubbed it in Sue's face. The reveal (face) at the end, yikes! (shock) I don't like that women were always fainting in this. It was only funny once. The way
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died seemed really painful. The epilogue was okay but a little too 'cute and happy' for my liking.

Overall, this was pretty great and I feel bad for not seeing it sooner.

6.5/10 quality, 8/10 entertainment.
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GL84
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This is a prime slab of early classic horror that is extremely interesting and packs a couple more thrills than it should for its time. With this one single film, we are introduced to the wondrous Vincent Price as a horror icon, and this is one assured debut. Price is in top form here, and the fact that we can see his work for the first time in a horror film makes this one an extra special film. Even without that recognition, it's an entertaining 50's cheese-fest that features a lot of great moments. The beginning of the film is one of the film's best features, as a fire destroys a wax studio in a nice action set-piece that normally doesn't have these big scenes in movies and it's a wonderful, eye-opening first sequence. There is also a long and extended chase scene through the dank, fog-laden streets of London that really drives home some suspenseful moments. The murders are cool and violent for the time being while not overly stepping over any bounds of decency in place then. The other chase sequences are just as striking, with the last one being the top one in the film. That leads up to a spectacular conclusion that is so incredibly action-packed here with plenty of full- on struggling and brawling around in the wax lair that's fun on its own even before the utterly spectacular fire that spreads throughout here leaving the entire building in flames that makes the film all the more fun. The final revelation of Price's character is also one of the classic moments in the history of film, and it's just as shocking today as it was then. It gives some great chills, and the method used is pretty creative and unique. These here are all more than enough to hold this up over what is basically just one really lame and utterly bland flaw. Basically, most of the 3D sequences in here were pretty cheesy. That's not to say they didn't work in the film, just that they were pretty cheesy, easy-to-spot and not at all that convincingly done either. For the time, they might've worked but for the most part the gags haven't aged well. It's a toss-up as to which ones don't, but they're so noticeable and replayed throughout nearly every single 3D installment that they're not all that difficult to find faults with them. The only other small flaw is we saw the skin of Price's after burns much too early and often. It works wonderfully and has some fantastic abilities to shock, but too much is seen of it for it to be of much use in the scare department. It should've been hidden better to have an effect. Otherwise, for the film that introduced Vincent Price to the horror community it deserves some recognition.
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Neurotic Chainsaw
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I love this. I love Tourist Trap. I love the remake. I love Mystery at the Museum of Wax. They're all great, wonderfully fun movies.

This will forever be a classic, man. Forever.
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