House of Wax

by Warner Home Video

$14.98
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Average Rating: * * * * half star
Sales Rank:7713 (lower is better)
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Director:André De Toth
Release Date:2003-08-05
Label:Warner Home Video
UPC:085391105428
Binding:DVD
Published By:Warner Home Video
ASIN:B00009NHBC
Category:DVD

Actors and Actresses

Editorial Reviews and Product Descriptions

Description

Museum fire turns handsome man into human monster who steals bodies from morgue to create lifelike images in wax.
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House of Wax brought Vincent Price into the horror genre, where he fit as snugly as a scalpel in a mad scientist's hand. A remake of the 1933 film Mystery of the Wax Museum, this entertaining Gothic shocker casts Price as a sculptor of wax figures; his unwilling victims--er, "models"--lend their bodies to his lifelike depictions of Marie Antoinette and Joan of Arc. The film was one of the top 10 moneymakers of its year, thanks in part to the 3-D gimmick, which explains why so many things are aimed at the camera (why else would the paddleball man be there?). Footnote to history: director Andre De Toth was blind in one eye, and thus could not see in three dimensions.

Not at all a musty relic of the early-sound era, the original Mystery of the Wax Museum (shot in a soft, trial version of Technicolor) is saucy, pre-Code fun. As corpses disappear from the morgue, Lionel Atwill's wax museum adds to its displays. Coincidence, or the work of the hideously deformed fiend stalking the Manhattan night? Most of the snappy dialogue comes courtesy of reporter Glenda Farrell, a vintage wisecracking dame. --Robert Horton

Customer Reviews

Awesome vendor! - Reviewed on 2008-10-24
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1 customer found this review not to be helpful.
Very quick delivery. Well packaged. I'm very pleased with my order and will order again from this vendor. Thank you!
Tepid Remake of the l932 Original - Reviewed on 2008-10-21
* *

Once you've seen the gloriously depraved and wicked l932 original--Mystery of the Wax Museum--this remake is terribly anemic and vanilla. In Mystery of the Wax Museum, you had a horror masterpiece made during those notorious pre-code days. Themes of necrophilia, drug addiction, prostitution are all crucial elements of the story in this fascinating tale of a sculptor who is hideously disfigured by a fire. Yet, he survives to rebuilt his wax museum by encasing corpses in wax and transforming them into historical figures. Lionel Atwill made a terrifying monster and he had the gorgeous Fay Wray as his terrified heroine. Better yet, it was filmed in a beautiful early Technicolor process, with the pastel shades of blue, red, gold and green giving it an eerie dream-like effect.

Switch to the House of Wax and you see a movie that's been squeezed dry of everything colorful. The heroine does all the stupid horror heroine things and everyone seems to move in slow motion. When the heroine wakes up to find the monster hovering over her, she shrieks, yet remains in bed after he flees. Her next door neighbor enters the room slowly and pipes: "Are you having another bad dream, dear?" and casually sits down beside the heroine who says nothing about her ghastly intruder. She doesn't even try to jump up and lock the French doors where the monster entered. None of the characters are colorful or memorable as found in the l932 original. If you've never seen the original, then by all means do so and then compare it to this remake--which was remade in 2007 starring Paris Hilton.
Grab Your 3-D Glasses for This One! - Reviewed on 2008-10-01
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1 customer found this review helpful.

Vincent Price's "House of Wax" (1953) is a striking 3-Dementional movie adaptation of Lionel Atwell's classic "Mystery at the Wax Museum" (1933)- the '33 flick is on the reverse side of the 2003 DVD. As an emergent technological wonder, the 1953 version used interlocking 35mm camera filming on mirrors from 45-degree angles to make the movie. At the theater, the dual projection system showed its startling effects to 3-D glasses wearing viewers.

This macabre tale of beauty, death, and evil psychosis features spears thrown towards you, paddle balls slapped at you, doors open upon you, blood flung on to you, and (just before the closing credits) a young Charles Bronson's wax head thrust at you... all in frightening 3-D. Phyllis Kirk, the beautiful heroine, is chased through the rainy midnight streets of 1902 New York City by the murderer madman (Price) his sliding gape always close behind her- clip-clop. Her first visit through the dark and fearsome museum, featuring cadavers waxed into history's evil people, is equally gripping. As the wax begins to pour towards her you will feel her fear.

You'll want to grab your 3-D eyewear for this horror classic. If you don't have 3-D glasses red and blue, or green, cellophane will suffice (one color for each eye).

There is no foul language and only implied nudity is this fun flick. This 2003 DVD version is very clear and well presented.

The House of Wax's demented mad man, still in love with beauty, who is willing to kill any to make his wax displays is very frightening and will be entertaining for all horror film aficionados. This is a movie you will want to show, particularly to the new generations of horror fans, at Halloween parties.
would buy from them again - Reviewed on 2008-09-15
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1 customer found this review not to be helpful.
i do not like your new rating system at all, the last one was much better, and i will not fill out the new ones because they take too long, very disappointed you changed the rating system
Arguably the best 3-D movie--ever! (Even without 3D) - Reviewed on 2008-08-10
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The fact that this is one of the few 3-D movies that plays just as well WITHOUT 3-D, says something. A great, grisly story (based upon the 1933 "Mystery of the Wax Museum" which is found, coincidentally, on the other side of this DVD), and a magnificently oily performance by Vincent Price make this a great ride. Andre de Toth, the director, was blind in one eye, so was probably not interested in doing a lot of 3D gimmick shots. In fact, the only scene that really gives away the film's 3D heritage is the paddle-ball sequence at the beginning of Act Two. Rumor has it that Warner Bros. is considering a digital 3D re-release of "House of Wax" for Halloween 2008. I've got my glasses ready!!
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