House of Wax (2005) - Appreciation for Collet-Sera's horror debut

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A nubile young female is naked and covered in running wax on this eerie and sexually charged poster for Jaume Collet-Sera's House of Wax

A teenage outing strands in a small, deserted town, which has been made by Siamese twins - in wax ...

 

House of Wax is written by brothers Chad and Cary W. Hayes (The Conjuring (2013)) and directed by debuting, great Spanish filmmaker Jaume Collet-Sera (Non-Stop (2014)). It is a remake of the 1953 3D hit of the same title, which seems to only maintain one thing from the original: The culminating wax fire!

The story has several narrative holes, SPOILER and the otherwise cool ending, in which the entire house melts, gets a unnecessary third brother twist added to it, an obvious ploy to entice audiences for a possible sequel. But the special effects are cool and gruesome, the town is cool, and House of Wax is a fun film to watch, even if Collet-Sera doesn't manage to impress as a great director yet here.

 

Related post:

Jaume Collet-Sera: The Shallows (2016) or, Stuck on a Rock 

Non-Stop (2014) or, The Text Messaging Terrorist! 

 

Watch short red carpet interviews with the film's young stars at its premiere here

 

Cost: 40 mil. $

Box office: 70 mil. $

= Flop (returned 2 times its cost)

[House of Wax premiered 26 April (Los Angeles) and runs 113 minutes. Shooting took place from May 2004 - ? in Australia. A massive fire destroyed most or all of the Warner Bros. studio in Queensland, Australia, and resulted in a 2006 negligence lawsuit to the tune of 7 mil. $. The conclusion is not readily found online. The film opened #2, behind fellow new release Kingdom of Heaven, to a 12 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it left the top 5 in its 2nd weekend and grossed 32 mil. $ (45.7 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 5.3 mil. $ (7.6 %) and Spain with 3.3 mil. $ (4.7 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 2/4 star review, translating to a notch under this one. The film reportedly earned more than 42.1 mil. $ on VHS/DVD rentals. Collet-Sera returned with Goal II: Living the Dream (2007). Chad Michael Murray (Colors of Love (2021)) returned in Home of the Brave (2006); Elisha Cuthbert (The Girl Next Door (2004)) in The Quiet (2005). House of Wax is rotten at 26 % with a 4.40/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of House of Wax? 

He Was a Quiet Man (2007) - Good performances elevate Cappello's dark romance

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+ Best Box Office Disaster of the Year

Christian Slater looks astonished, holding a giant bomb to his chest, on this curiosity-sparking poster for Frank A. Cappello's He Was a Quiet Man, which has a tagline and title that eerily echo what neighbors and co-workers to sudden homicidal maniacs often utter in the aftermath of carnage

Bob Maconel is a middle-aged, ugly man, who is planning a small massacre at his office workplace, when a colleague beats him to it, and he instead starts dating the paralyzed colleague hottie, whom he had saved in the attack.

He Was a Quiet Man is a psychological romance-drama written and directed by Frank A. Cappello (No Way Back (1995)). You might call it a different kind of office drama.
Christian Slater (Breaking In (2011-12)) and William H. Macy (ER (1994-09)) are really good here, but especially Elisha Cuthbert (The Ranch (2016-18)) as the paralyzed love interest make an impression and actually act here. (I have previously lampooned her for the often grotesque situations her annoying character found herself in in her most famous outing as Jack Bauer's daughter in 24 (2001-10)).)
Cappello treats the story as a playground for especially digital effects and inventiveness (such as a talking fish), and most of it works for this small, dark pearl of a film.

Related posts:

2007 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2007 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 

Watch a TV-teaser for the film here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: 83k $
= Uncertain - but certainly a box office disaster
[He Was a Quiet Man premiered 11 March (South by Southwest Film Festival, Austin, Texas) and runs 95 minutes. Shooting took place in California, including Los Angeles, for 21 days. The film opened #84 to a tiny 2k $ in 3 theaters in North America, where it was pulled after just one week's release. This was the film's smallest out of 6 markets. The 3 biggest were South Korea with 41k $ (49.4 % of the total gross), Turkey with 17k $ (20.5 %) and Italy with 12k $ (14.5 %). The film's budget is unknown, but if it was made for a modest 1-2 mil. $, it would rank as a box office disaster, since it almost made no money at all theatrically. Cappello only returned as a director 8 years hence in 2015 with 2 video shorts. He has directed an episode of Malibu Gothic (presently unreleased) and upcoming hitman-focused feature Steele Wool. Slater returned in Slipstream (2007); Macy in The Deal (2008) and Cuthbert in My Sassy Girl (2008). He Was a Quiet Man is fresh at 79 % with a 6.2/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of He Was a Quiet Man?