Rotten Tomatoes
Cancel Movies Tv shows Shop News Showtimes

House of Wax

Play trailer Poster for House of Wax R Released May 6, 2005 1h 47m Horror Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
28% Tomatometer 161 Reviews 43% Popcornmeter 250,000+ Ratings
A gang of college friends, including Wade (Jared Padalecki) and his girlfriend, Carly (Elisha Cuthbert), are en route to a school football game when they wind up with a flat tire in a ghost town. They are forced to seek help in the only place that's open: the local wax museum. Once inside the spooky and seemingly abandoned building, they find the works on display are not quite what they seem -- and the group soon discovers it's being hunted by the insane twin brothers who run the museum.
Watch on Fandango at Home Buy Now

Where to Watch

House of Wax

House of Wax

What to Know

Critics Consensus

Bearing little resemblance to the 1953 original, House of Wax is a formulaic but better-than-average teen slasher flick.

Read Critics Reviews

Critics Reviews

View All (161) Critics Reviews
Empire Magazine Rated: 2/5 Jan 7, 2006 Full Review Jamie Russell BBC.com Makes up for its idiot plot with a gallon of gore. Rated: 3/5 May 24, 2005 Full Review Sara Michelle Fetters MovieFreak.com Her demise is spectacularly gruesome, gory and bloody and the filmmakers even throw in an entirely too obvious gag about the hotel heiress' penchant for letting herself get recorded on video tape. Rated: 2/4 May 14, 2005 Full Review Brian Bisesi Horror Movie Club Podcast Despite its annoyingly angsty teen dialogue and incomplete thematic elements, House of Wax successfully expands the legacy of The Wax Works story with interesting ideas and entertainingly grotesque moments. Rated: 3/5 Feb 7, 2024 Full Review Patrick Cavanaugh The Wolfman Cometh Better than it has any right to be, its brutality and absurdity help elevate what could have been a rote rehash. Rated: 3/5 Sep 22, 2023 Full Review Joe Lipsett Horror Queers Podcast A stylish and mean slasher remake (yes, of Tourist Trap!) that leans too much into its twin fixation and breaks up the group needlessly. The production design is the real star here: the melty finale is a true spectacle Rated: 4/5 Jan 25, 2023 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View All (1000+) audience reviews
Kyle M As distastefully gruesome like any unpleasant slasher flicks, your average horror remake under modernized service and subpar energy, aside from Chad Michael Murray’s grit, has a creepy grip that ideally captures the attraction’s uncanny valley with a shock value to boot, amidst an impressive production lore setting that may have added to general discomfort. (B-) Rated 3 out of 5 stars 10/20/24 Full Review Blu B I give it a bit of credit. they didn't just try to do a shot for shot remake with the same characters of the 53' one. There is an actual attempt of doing a completely new take on the material. So much so, it doesn't resemble its predecessor at all. Different era, characters, and take. It's like if someone took the 53' one and mixed it with Texas Chainsaw Massacre, you'd get this. Everything is alright about it but man when this does find it stride it's pretty unsettling and interesting to watch. When it focuses on them in the wax town and getting hunted it's at it's best and kind of good. The gore is really good in this as well and very disturbing. There isn't THAT many jumpscares either. The setting is original, the villains aren't bad, kills are pretty decent especially Wade, and again when it finds it's stride at points its pretty good. Problem is for everything good, there is something not. The ending is kind of cool but instead of being creepy it becomes an action movie almost out of nowhere which really doesn't fit the tone of everything else despite being a pretty cool idea. The worst parts are the opening 15 minutes when there all being the stereotypical unlikeable late 90's-00's teens who are so unlikeable with handheld cam. It's easily the worst part and is terrible. Also, in the second half when Paris Hilton takes over as the main focus, it tanks and can't keep the goodwill and momentum it had going with the others. It feels a bit pointless and should've just stayed focused on the main girl. Direction is pretty hit or miss at times also. This needed to stay focused and cut all other scenes with the other friend group especially Hilton, make the character more likeable in the start, less of a action type ending and more suspense/horror, and more consistent direction. If your a DIE HARD fan of the texas Chainsaw series I would say give this a try possibly. It's so different from the Price one it's not comparable. Most could probably skip this. Ironically enough, THIS version posssibly should get a remake. There's lots of potential here to do this right. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 10/15/24 Full Review Larry L I don't know why this has such a low rating. This is an original classic horror movie in my opinion that I have watched several times and even own the DVD. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 10/11/24 Full Review Audience Member People love to hate this movie, but I personally found it to be quite enjoyable. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 10/02/24 Full Review Stanny R Although forgettable when it comes down to remakes I found House Of Wax to be a fine way to pass 90 or so minutes. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 09/04/24 Full Review Dinos K Paris has better performances on her sex tapes Rated 1 out of 5 stars 08/08/24 Full Review Read all reviews
House of Wax

My Rating

Read More Read Less POST RATING WRITE A REVIEW EDIT REVIEW

Cast & Crew

House on Haunted Hill 31% 42% House on Haunted Hill Watchlist Hatchet 57% 45% Hatchet Watchlist The Amityville Horror 23% 52% The Amityville Horror Watchlist TRAILER for The Amityville Horror Dawn of the Dead 77% 77% Dawn of the Dead Watchlist The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 37% 58% The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Watchlist Discover more movies and TV shows. View More

Movie Info

Synopsis A gang of college friends, including Wade (Jared Padalecki) and his girlfriend, Carly (Elisha Cuthbert), are en route to a school football game when they wind up with a flat tire in a ghost town. They are forced to seek help in the only place that's open: the local wax museum. Once inside the spooky and seemingly abandoned building, they find the works on display are not quite what they seem -- and the group soon discovers it's being hunted by the insane twin brothers who run the museum.
Director
Jaume Collet-Serra
Producer
Joel Silver, Robert Zemeckis, Susan Downey
Screenwriter
Chad Hayes, Carey W. Hayes
Distributor
Warner Bros.
Production Co
Dark Castle Entertainment
Rating
R (Language|Horror Violence|Some Sexual Content)
Genre
Horror
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
May 6, 2005, Wide
Release Date (Streaming)
Jan 1, 2009
Box Office (Gross USA)
$32.0M
Runtime
1h 47m
Sound Mix
Surround, Dolby SRD, DTS, SDDS
Aspect Ratio
Flat (1.37:1)
Most Popular at Home Now