House of Wax

For an interesting twist, I write the few things that were interesting in the movie, then slash it to pieces as per normal. It had a few red herring curves and it had some potential for haunting scenes and the night scenes added a bit to the allure. There was a scene where they showed Paris Hilton dance a little, down to her undies. Finally, someone recognized that Paris Hilton couldn't act to save her life and wisely gave her very few lines in the movie. She more like a late Monet in the background ... captivating, until you look at it closely (finding there is flatline brain activity) then it loses it's wonder.

I wouldn't bother watching this sophomoric attempt at the horror genre, but the director has some potential to do better. I applaud the attempt to use wax museum, as they faded into obscurity in the 70's, much like is stated in the movie, and it is difficult to go back in the past. The "horror" bit of it is B-horror movie antics mixed with Saw and Dawn of the Dead music inclusion to thunder your way into being scared. The brutality goes between old Friday the 13th epic slaughtering, near cartoonish to bloody (aforementioned horror movies).

The dialogue wasn't that interesting and some of the "unusual ways to die" weren't original. The talking with the guy who wants to kill you bit; why are you talking to him. This movie has no re-watchability. With some of the errors in it including, but not limited to:

Gee, he's a creepy guy, but he's offering us a lift. Okay, but only if I sit my girlfriend next to him in the truck cab.
First stab him, then hit him with a rock, then tumble him down the stairs ... no, wait; that's not right. Wait 'til he stands then hit him with a rock.
Let's make the shadow protagonist a complete ***hole who you'd rather see slaughtered in "many nasty ways, "Brave, Brave, Brave Sir Robin"+
Gee, one black guy ... think he'll get it? They avoided the obvious problem of one skin tone only (although there were wax persons of some varying degrees of skin color). It wasn't simply a matter of press and spray.
Hey, teens and young adults! We'll show you that you picking a random spot in the wilderness and dropping trash and bottles friggin everywhere is justified. I think it was a bad message to send.
Oh, yeah ... we were going to a football game without tickets, right?
No ... no ... no similarity at all to Evil Dead, well, a little ... maybe more than a little.
Superglue on mouth, then ripped open -- nope, uh ... nope ... but if you have a mind, you know that's not right.

[SPOILER -- the whole city being desolate was much like Hills Have Eyes and really expected after they walked through the town; hint -- old pumps at gas station and no sermon at church]

I would rate it about a 2.5, but not higher. I was interested in seeing more of Elisha Cuthbert after watching the movie. She looked pretty cute.

+ Monty Python, Holy Grail