English (PVR Cinemas, Innovative Multiplex)

Cast: Elisha Cuthbert, Chad Michael Murray, Paris Hilton, Jared Padalecki

Director: Jaume Serra

There is just one word to describe House of Wax — Ewww. Director Jaume Serra has remade the original 1953 movie, but in the process has chopped, maimed and decapitated the story. And I’m not just speaking figuratively. The movie is a gore fest.

Six teenagers are on their way to a football game when their car breaks down. They stumble into the ghost town of Ambrose looking for a mechanic. While looking around, they chance upon Trudy’s House of Wax, a spook-filled mansion that contains life-like wax figures. It’s anybody’s guess why the figures look so real. Although Trudy is dead, her twin sons have been killing all the people of Ambrose and dipping them in wax in an attempt to fulfil Trudy’s dream of making a Town of Wax. When the kids begin snooping around, the twins decide to add them to their montage of wax zombies.

Then begins all the blood and gore. The raving twins leave no stone unturned in attacking their intended victims, be it chopping off fingers, slicing a head off or driving a rusted iron pike through a head. However, the macabre twins meet their match in Carly and her brother, who uncover the truth and manage to kill both of them, not before another gore-filled battle featuring baseball bats, knives, red-hot wax and fire.

After two hours of sheer nausea, one might wonder why the subtle horror of the first movie was buried and forgotten in the second. While a sophisticated Vincent Pryce in a black-and-white movie was enough to scare the daylights out of anyone, two nondescript disfigured characters miserably fail in their attempt to elicit fear by brandishing a few knives.

Serra nearly puts us to sleep with long overdrawn dialogues and endless conversations. The painful histrionics of the underage cast doesn’t help much either. Chad Michael Murray tries to shed his pretty boy image with a rugged look and the results are disastrous. Watch out for the totally gross demise of Paris Hilton. However, the only saving grace of the movie are the special effects. The scene where the entire House of Wax melts down to nothingness, taking with it its creators — the psychotic twosome — is cutting edge.

The verdict — if you like melting wax and lots of blood and flesh being ripped open, by all means go watch House of Wax.