House of Wax is a campy thriller/horror movie with a creepy atmosphere.
The movie isn't scary by today's standards, but makes use of mystery, suspense, and high-tension thrills.
The early 1900's setting of New York makes great use of vivid colors and dark shadows.
I love the images of Jarrod's wax figures melting faces as his museum burns to the ground.
Director André De Toth zooms in with his camera on the various creepy lifelike burnt and melting wax figures' faces.
The dark and fog filled rooftop and the streets of New York sequence with Vincent Price as Jarrod chases, Sue (Carolyn Jones) in the shadows is perfectly shot.
Vincent Price would become a big star after the success of this movie at the box office and for good reason.
Vincent Price pulls you in with his deceptive cultured demeanor masking his dangerous intentions.
He displays excellent range with his emotions.
He spends a large portion of the film creeping around in black with a very effective makeup job that makes him look really freakish.
He also makes you feel sympathy for him as his movements are reminiscent of John Merrick, "The Elephant Man".
You could say that Liam Neeson's Dark Man (1990) kind of ripped off his appearance when he is running around cloaked in black.
House of Wax features some excellent Rock'em and Sock'em style fights in a couple of scenes.
Most notably the early fight between Vincent Price and Roy Roberts as the wax museum collapses under the blaze.
Vincent Price knows how to throw a mean right punch.
House of Wax has a young Charles Bronson in an early role for him as the mute and a brutish Igor character.
His character is similar to Dr.
Frankenstein's Igor performing some of the same duties.
You will instantly recognize him since he always had rough facial features and the muscular build he is known for.
Charles Bronson also gets a great fight scene at the end between him and the police as they all try to take him down.
The other actors, I found them to be uninteresting in their performance.
The special effects in the House of Wax movie make's use of the 3-D gimmick featured in both visual and sound.
The stereoscopic visual experience has depth to it and the sound being stereophonic is a great experience even in a 2-D viewing setting.
House of Wax feature's a special effect that one might call an early version of morphing.
The scene involving Jarrod envisioning Sue Allen as the Marie Antoinette wax figure has Sue's face transforming into Marie Antoinette.
I love the haunting musical score featured in House of Wax's intro and most intense scenes.
House of Wax's booming soundtrack sounds great on my HD Receiver with Dolby Pro Logic II/Dolby Digital/HD DTS/HD PCM 7.
1 Multichannel system.
All the dialogue, screams, and laughs come out very clear on my system.
The double-sided House of Wax DVD version that includes Mystery of the Wax Museum distributed by Warner Brothers does not play in my Samsung BD-D5100 Blu-ray Player.
I was reading on some sites on the net that the DVD disc doesn't work on a home Blu-ray player and you have to use your computer's DVD/Blu-ray drive to watch it.
Warner Brothers will be releasing House of Wax on Blu-ray along with its predecessor, Mystery of the Wax Museum on October 1, 2013.
The Blu-ray version will feature 3D and 2D restorations, including special features.
There is a loosely based remake of House of Wax that came out in 2005.
It is centered around teenagers with Elisha Cuthbert, Chad Michael Murray, and Paris Hilton in the cast.
Driven by a strong performance by Vincent Price, House of Wax is well deserving of the respect it gets.
Director André De Toth and the screenplay writer Crane Wilbur created an enjoyable movie to watch.