Hear me out: why 2005’s House of Wax isn’t a bad movie
The stars of 2005’s House of Wax remake were all having their moments in Hollywood when they joined the reimagined slasher version of Vincent Price’s 1953 classic. Elisha Cuthbert had just broken out in 2004’s Girl Next Door while Chad Michael Murray was coming off both Freaky Friday and A Cinderella Story. Jared Padalecki starred opposite the Olsen Twins in A New York Minute in 2004 and Robert Ri’chard held his own opposite Samuel L Jackson in the early 2005 drama Coach Carter. And then there was Paris Hilton.
The eldest daughter of Hilton hotel darlings Kathy and Richard had become a household name after an unauthorized copy of her sex tape hit the internet – and subsequently via her silly yet popular reality series A Simple Life, which came out the same year. She and then best friend Nicole Richie were filmed attempting low-paying everyman jobs despite having very little skill (or drive) to do the work. America was severely entertained … but we definitely didn’t expect Hilton to show up as one of the main characters in a film, let alone a killer thriller.
Despite not being an actor by trade, Hilton’s performance in the low-rated film sticks out, and that stems from the fact that the audience can tell almost instantly that she was cast as a parody of herself. Cuthbert’s Carly is introduced as the female lead with prospects – an internship at InStyle in the coming months – and drive, a good head on her shoulders and a big heart. Hilton’s Paige, on the other hand, is relegated to being her sidekick, a friend who is too focused on men to be much or do much of anything else. She even deals with slut-shaming during one scene where she appears to be performing oral sex on her boyfriend, Ri’chard’s Blake, during a drive, a detail that rings differently with Hilton embodying the role.
Even more predictably, Hilton’s onscreen demise comes at the hand of Scream’s most memorable rule. After seducing her man with a striptease in their camping tent, but not before getting to tell him she might be pregnant, Hilton ends up going head-to-head with the film’s antagonist in a brutal cat and mouse game. Perhaps this is where one could say she shines brightest, the five-minute scene in which she fights for her life in a maze of disheveled cars. She employs her smarts and puts up a good fight – and there’s so much damn acting going on on her face that the suspense makes five minutes feel like 50.
Ultimately, Hilton doesn’t give line readings, she doesn’t play the character with a wink to the audience, she doesn’t speak like she all of a sudden doesn’t know how real people talk to one another. She plays both with and against type at the same time, and she takes herself seriously. It almost seems as if she caught on to what was expected of her and made a point to intentionally subvert it when the cameras started rolling. Honestly, that concept doesn’t even seem all that far off, knowing who Hilton has grown into: a global mogul with more business acumen, confidence and near-cunning intelligence in her little finger than most have in their entire bodies.
As for the movie that surrounds Hilton’s performance, there’s much to love in the reboot, despite its abysmal 26% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. In fact, I’ve never really understood the low score. The film might fall victim to some of horror’s most obvious tropes, but that doesn’t erase the fact that the group of leads have chemistry and, yes, even likability. It also doesn’t change the fact that the effects are really well done – the wax museum is creepyand I do not want to think about being caught in a melting building ever again – and the kills? They’re fun and they keep you locked in. The movie is a far cry from the horror renaissance we’re seeing today, or even a remake like Fede Alvarez’s Evil Dead, but ultimately, it’s enjoyable in its own way. After all, there are different horror movies for different times: sometimes you want to be unsettled and driven to madness, sometimes you want to go for a predictable yet exciting joyride
In the end, the movie was (and still is) unjustly overlooked in favor of the other noteworthy horror films of the same year. Amityville Horror, The Devil’s Rejects, The Descent. The truth is House of Wax can hold its own against many of the genre’s most beloved slashers over the years, and Hilton’s oft-ridiculed performance is just one reason out of many to give the film a second shot. Pop it on, light a candle, dim the lights. This one is, without a doubt, more fun – and more messed up – than you remember.
House of Wax is available to rent digitally in the US and UK