House of Wax
Warner Bros. Pictures | Release Date: May 6, 2005 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
41
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 36 Critic Reviews
Positive:
5
Mixed:
21
Negative:
10
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
Washington PostStephen Hunter
This movie gives it to you, as no movie has in some years. Okay, if that's not your part of the swamp, don't go into it. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
After a month, no one will talk about this movie, ever again. Still, with a picture like this, there's really only one question: Is it any fun? Yes. Lots. Definitely. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
As a frightfest it's better than today's average. Read full review
63
Miami HeraldConnie Ogle
House of Wax won't give you nightmares, but it upholds teen horror traditions with flair and energy. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerDavid Hiltbrand
A sturdy and cohesive representative of what tends to be a flimsy and tawdry B-movie genre. It even has a moral: People who live in wax houses shouldn't start fires. Read full review
60
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Formulaic but fairly well-done. Read full review
58
Portland OregonianM. E. Russell
Sadly, director Jaume Serra has taken the Gothic premise of a madman casting his living victims in wax and, no doubt at the behest of copycat-hungry producers, turned House of Wax into yet another teens-versus-hillbillies slasher flick Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
The problem is that the writing is too weak for me to come close to recommending it. Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
It's a good thing Jaume Serra's House of Wax wasn't shot in 3-D like the original 1953 horror classic - Paris Hilton is in it and she doesn't have a third dimension. Read full review
50
New York PostKyle Smith
Treats us to some feverish decapitating, juicy stabbing and non-anesthetized fingertip removal. Read full review
50
Film ThreatPete Vonder Haar
Works best when it sticks to some of the tenets of successful horror; namely, gore and surprise. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
House of Wax is not a good movie but it is an efficient one, and will deliver most of what anyone attending House of Wax could reasonably expect, assuming it would be unreasonable to expect very much. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
The original was shot in 3-D; this, by contrast, is 1-D all the way. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubNathan Rabin
Like too many horror movies these days, House of Wax goes for scares, but settles for being gory and deeply unpleasant. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneRobert K. Elder
Gratuitous gore and young, nubile flesh bind together a cardboard plot. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
Acting is similarly routine with the glorious exception of Hilton, who is so bad she steals the show. Read full review
50
Village VoiceBenjamin Strong
Only a nominal remake...Nevertheless, for gore aficionados (and probably no one else) the murders are worth the wait. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyGregory Kirschling
Except for when Paris is on screen giving us the winking sex eye, Wax is just a museum of gory, joyless, easy shocks. Read full review
50
The New York TimesDana Stevens
The set design is fairly elaborate by the standards of the genre, and the victims don't die in precisely the order you might expect, but everything else goes pretty much according to formula, including a last-minute plot twist that opens the creaky door to a sequel. Read full review
40
Wall Street JournalJoanne Kaufmann
This is slash and burn strictly by the numbers. There's never an ounce of doubt where the movie's going; the only suspense is how long it's going to take to get there and how high the body count is going to get.
40
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
It delivers some bracingly nasty gore scenes, but there's no spark left in the run-scream-repeat formula, and a movie whose biggest draw is profoundly untalented hotel-fortune heiress Paris Hilton is in desperate need of some juice. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleMarrit Ingman
Expect lots of Slasher Movie 101. Read full review
40
SalonStephanie Zacharek
Paris Hilton is the big draw in Jaume Collet-Serra's not-really-a-remake horror-slasher thriller House of Wax, and she'd have to be: There's so little else going on in it that you find yourself waiting for her few brief scenes. Read full review
40
SlateDavid Edelstein
Isn't bad as these things go, although these things go nowhere a healthy individual should want to. Having never claimed to be a healthy individual, I found it tolerable. Read full review
40
Dallas ObserverJean Oppenheimer
Manages to be gruesome and grisly, but not particularly creepy or frightening. Read full review
40
L.A. WeeklyChuck Wilson
Boring. Read full review
38
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
For Hilton haters, the stupid and grotesque remake of House of Wax will only stoke their schadenfreude. Read full review
30
Los Angeles TimesKevin Crust
Related to the 1953 Vincent Price film in name, embalming technique and Warner Bros. pedigree only, the new House of Wax is a dreary, predictable tale. Read full review
30
Washington PostDesson Thomson
You'll be rooting for these people to get slaughtered out of sheer boredom. Read full review
25
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean Axmaker
Overlong, unscary, poorly paced and banally written. Read full review
25
USA TodayMike Clark
When the cast starts wondering where the roadkill is, someone says, "Follow the smell." Good tip: That's how you'll know where Wax is playing. Read full review
25
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
Barf-bag baroque. Read full review
25
PremiereAaron Hillis
A sadistically bland entertainment that oversells its reveals and lets its suspense drip so long that it would be nice if something (anything!) happened. Read full review
25
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Purists, be warned: This scare-flick quickie has as much relation to the 1953 Vincent Price classic with the same title as Paris Hilton does to acting. Read full review
25
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
Weak, obligatory stabs at humor make it more generic than it might've been. Read full review
20
VarietyScott Foundas
Direly predictable, with candle-drip pacing and a pervasive unpleasantness. Read full review
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