If you're expecting a straight-forward remake of the now classic 1953 film starring Vincent Price of the same name you might want to stay far away as Dark Castle Pictures have re-invented the movie as a pretty standard teenage slasher flick starring some of the "hottest" current names in the age demographic. And admittedly, House Of Wax, is more enjoyable than I expected especially when you consider how badly the movie kicks-off.

Elisha Cuthbert (of TV series, 24) and Chad Michael Murray (TV's One Tree Hill) head-up the cast as a group of friends are heading off to a football game only for them to end-up with car troubles after they stop by a nearby town to camp out. When they go for help in the town things just aren't right as the place seems deserted and it's main attraction is the huge "House of Wax" museum. But things start to get even more "not right" when all the cast members start getting killed-off one-by-one and turned into exhibits at said museum.

Now you know the main reason you want to see this movie in the first place is to see how non-acting, hotel heiress Paris "How did I become popular?" Hilton gets killed off. Let me assure you, it's probably the best death here. But the deaths in general are decent and this slings a lot more blood than most modern Hollywood movies have been lately.

If you go into this not expecting anything more than a mildly entertaining slasher flick you should enjoy yourself for the most part. Like I said, it starts off quite badly but it does get better and the finale that reenacts the "meltdown" finale of the 1953 film isn't too bad either, if you can forgive just how implausible and silly it is.

House Of Wax isn't the greatest slasher movie ever made, in fact it's not even close, but it's a lot better than most teen oriented ones and it wasn't a complete waste of an admittedly overlong running time of 113 minutes(!). (Chris Hartley, 5/31/05 - DVD, 10/27/05)

Directed By: Jaume Collet-Serra.
Written By: Carey W. Hayes, Chad Hayes.

Starring: Elisha Cuthbert, Chad Michael Murray, Brian Van Holt, Paris Hilton.

Picture Ratio: 1.85:1 Widescreen.

Picture Quality: It's a new movie so of course it's going to look good and the transfer here sports rich colour, above average clarity, and no print damage.

Extras: There's a handful of special features here but most of them are so throwaway they're barely worth viewing.

We get a trailer, a brief promo spot from on set with producer Joel Silver, a gag reel (I grow tired of these things), an alternate opening that adds another death scene to the movie and is probably the best extra here, a visual effects featurette called "House Built On Wax", the "Wax On" featurette about the production design, and a video commentary that has co-stars Cuthbert, Hilton, Murray, and Jared Padalecki making all sorts of innocuous and uninteresting talk over behind-the-scenes and blooper footage.