House of Wax Film Analysis

Based on the 1953 version, House of wax is a modern interpretation of this classic, re made in 2005, directed by Jaume Collet-Serra. The film focuses on a group of teenagers, who decide to take a camping trip in what seems to be the wrong area. Due to traffic they are not able to continue on with their journey and are forced to look for car parts after suffering from ‘random’ car troubles, within a deserted village. After wondering around the village, they discover that the village is in fact populated by corpses coated in wax, and these teenagers are seemingly going to be the new

additions. The film is classed as a horror-thriller, though it has elements of the typical slasher film, where a group of teenagers get stranded in an isolated area and gets slaughtered by the killer, one by one.

It can be argued that this film has all the conventions that perfectly follow Todorov’s theory of the films structure. To begin with, we see the teenagers, content with their everyday environment, known as the equilibrium. Examples of this within the movie itself include having a meal at a typical fast food venue, and talking around the camp fire. This would relate to the audience, since it is the typical actions of a group of teenagers, and therefore the audience would relate to this as being ‘normal’ and safe. Following this was the disruption of the equilibrium, this being the appearance of the ‘creepy’ car, or in fact when the teenager’s car is suddenly broken. This alerts the audience that something is not quite right, and therefore is a trigger for all the following actions and activities. The recognition of this within the actual movie would be when Carly Jones, the final girl, realises that the car she is sitting in was in fact the ‘creepy car’ which appeared on their campsite. This works as a trigger for all the following activities that occur, such as the realisation about the wax figures and the deaths of the fellow characters. The audience are then made aware that two of the characters, Carly and her brother, Nick are going to attempt to repair

the disruption. This is made clear by the house of wax eventually burning down. This symbolically resembles the death of all the wax figures and the two murderers themselves, since one was partially made of wax as well. This activity allows the audience to feel relaxed and therefore a new equilibrium is created within the film since the village is now destroyed.

Within horror films, there are many audience expectations which need to be met, one of these being the need for the audience to be shocks, scared and in some cases disgusted. All of these characteristics could be argued to be included within the film House of Wax, since it incorporates elements of a horror thriller and, as previously stated, slashers. The deaths within House of Wax are seemingly simplistic yet creative through the influence of the use of wax to cover each victims dying body. I feel the use of this creativity could be seen as a little unbelievable and unrealistic for the audience to imagine, however on the other hand, this use of creativity allows the audience to open their mind to the typically ‘unbelievably’ situations, and seemingly make them real. By seeing the deaths the audience does not have to use their imagination to piece together what has happened, by instead are shown the full brutality of the situation. This could be both positive and negative since it allows them to know directly what is happening and there is no confusion, however in some situations the greatest tool can be an individual’s mind and the fear of the unknown, which this seemingly doesn’t incorporate.

Following from the expectations within the plot, comes the technical expectations. The film uses a vast amount of low key lighting, since the majority is set at night time. This allows the use of candles to be very effective since it is the only source of hope within the house of wax itself. This then entwines the title of the film along with some of the props as well (candles, house of wax). In

addition to this, the film effectively uses background music in order to express tension and panic, depending on each situation within the scene. This allows the audience to feel the build-up of tension and therefore get involved with the plot itself.

It could be argued that House of Wax takes a prime spot within the ‘gorenography’ stage of the history of horror; a clear representative of this would be the death of Paige (Paris Hilton). Within this scene 2 deaths occur, the death of Blake and the death of Paige. The audience is only clear of Blake’s death after a 2 second shot of his body on the floor with a knife in his throat, which is seemingly contradictory to the next 3 or 4 minutes the audience sees of Paige running around in her underwear before then getting a pole through her head. It could be argued that therefore the audience is predominately male, and therefore enjoy seeing this, which supports Laura Mulvey’s theory on the male gaze. This therefore could prove that the audience enjoys seeing the ‘gory’ deaths of each of the characters, however its gore is not to the extent of films such as Hostel and Saw.

House of Wax does include some key roles within Propp’s theory of character roles, however not all of them are relevant within this film. The film includes 2 villains, Bo and Vincent, the killers

themselves, the hero, Nick, who rescue’s Carly and the helper, who is Carly herself. The fellow character’s do not hold any other important roles within the film, other than the companions of Carly and Nick themselves. The audience are lead to relate to Nick and Carly through their love and family bond, which proves that they will stick by one another.

In terms of binary opposition, there is a clear divide within House of Wax. The audience is able to relate with the good, the teenagers, and the evil, those making the Wax works, since it relates back to Strauss’ theory, as the audience can relate to the teenagers as being ‘known’ and therefore good, whereas the House of Wax is seemingly ‘unknown’ and seen as evil.

In conclusion I feel that House of Wax has many conventions of a typical horror film, as it makes has characters, the teenagers, which relate to the audience, and a clear villain. In addition to this it uses many technical codes and plot lines which are stereotypically used within a horror film, which seemingly will give the audience what they wanted to see, after hearing that this film is a horror. By sticking to the conventions, the audience may or may not be disappointed since it could be seen as predictable, however, it is living up to the name of a horror.

House Of Wax Trailer