House Of Wax

House of Wax was released in 2005 by an Australian – American Film Company and directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, a well known director famous for Orphan (2009) and Unknown (2001). House of Wax was a remake of the 1953 film House of Wax, as well as a remake of the original 1933 film Mystery of the Wax Museum, however the plots differ.
The elements of House Of Wax that perpetuate the genre that it is trying to portray include setting, camera angles and cutting rate, lighting and iconography. The film is set in a rural area, miles away from any sort of town or house, which as an audience creates a sense of mystery and shows isolation, as well as following the conventions of most horror films. In the film one of the killers is portrayed as being deformed and misunderstood. This is used to make the audience question his reasoning for killing, as well as the opening scene where through low medium shots shows him being abused by his parents by physically being strapped to a chair as a child.
The killers face is covered through most of the film by a wax mask perpetuating the convention of a covered/hidden face and ambiguous identity. The use of underground passages where the brothers turn people into wax and control the town is usual of horror films as basements and underground lairs are supposed to connote our primitive instincts.
Technical code such as lighting from unexpected angles, unsettling jumps in editing, the use of ambient sounds such as footsteps and unusual, expressive shots are also made use of in this film and the genre in general to create suspense and shock for the audience House of Wax seems to be a traditional horror film, where the film tries to cause shock value by giving the audience a false sense of security and then blasting them with a mixture of non-diegetic sounds, dark settings and fast cutting rates to scare the audience.

The promotional poster conveys the genre of the film well by its dark colour scheme and general layout of bold text and the additional text of "Prey. Slay. Display". This as well as the main image of a wax woman melting portrays the theme of the film - horror, wax statues - as well as showing that possibly the main protagonist is a female. As well as this the names of some what well known actors and actresses helps to target the audience, which may be between the ages of 15-25, due to the characters, the sex appeal of some of the female and male characters, the genre type and the fact its a remake of a classic horror film.





BBFC Information on the film:

HOUSE OF WAX (2005)

TYPE Feature

APPROX. RUNNING MINUTES 108

RELEASE DATES 01/10/2005, 27/05/2005

BBFCINSIGHT Contains strong language, horror and bloody violence

DIRECTOR(S) Jaume Collet-Serra

CAST INCLUDES Elisha Cuthbert, Chad Michael Murray, Brian Van Holt,Paris Hilton, Jared Padalecki, Jon Abrahams, Robert Ri'chard, Damon Herriman, Emma Lung

SUMMARY A group of friends on their way to a college football game falls prey to a pair of murderous brothers in an abandoned small town. They discover that the brothers have expanded upon the area's main attraction - the House of Wax - and created an entire town filled with the wax-coated corpses of unlucky visitors. Now the group must find a way out before they too become permanent exhibits in the House of Wax.

CUT All known versions of this work passed uncut.