House of Wax (DVD)

Paris Hilton has gotten engaged to a Greek shipping heir, broken up with him, kept the ring, hooked up with a different Greek shipping heir, changed her hair, and shot another movie since her starring role debut in the House of Wax remake in late April. I’d rather follow her personal life to the last detail than have to watch House of Wax again, but we can’t always get what we want (unless it’s to see Ms. Hilton get wax… er, axed in this otherwise dreadfully dull flick).

A remake in name only, this House of Wax starts off with a group of friends hopping into a car and going on road trip. Things take a turn for the worse for Carly (Elisha Cuthbert) and Paige (Paris Hilton) when the group decides to camp out for the night instead of finding a handy hotel. They wake up the next morning to find that their car won’t start, so they accept a creepy, toothless local’s invitation for a ride into Ambrose, the only town for miles. Once there, they are drawn to Ambrose’s main attraction: Trudy’s House of Wax, which is filled with remarkably life-like sculptures… hm… what could they be made of?

The movie is clichéd to the gills and incredibly slow-paced at first, but if you stick with it you just might start to feel entertained about halfway through. The pace accelerates from there, but House of Wax ultimately melts under the weight of poor direction and an even worse script.

The DVD offers up a nearly half-hour making-of featurette which is basically a commentary over b-roll footage and is not unlike sitting with a humdrum gaggle of strangers talking and tittering over their own tedious home movies.

There are also couple of featurettes about the real star of the show: The House of Wax. One covers the design and building of it, and the other covers its fiery demise. There is also a gag-reel and a rather gory alternate opening, and the disc is rounded out with a short William Castle-styled promo featuring producer Joel Silver.

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Reviewed by Staci Layne Wilson