What the
hell? A mainstream slasher starring Paris Hilton? Yep, that's what you can
await when you're entering The House of Ninja Dixon! The thing is that I've
always really enjoyed House of Wax, since I first saw it in cinema and nowadays on DVD (haven't upgraded
it to BD yet - if it's even out on that format?). This is the first time in
years I've seen it again thanks to Kit Gavin, of all people on this earth. He
did some joke about Paris Hilton's brain and that triggered me to give it a new
spin to see if it was as good as I remember it to be.
This House
of Wax differs quite drastically from all the other versions out there and
reminds me more about Tourist Trap than anything else. Not a bad thing if I can
be honest, because this gives nice teen-slasher spin on the classic tale. This
time a bunch of youths comes to small town after having engine trouble and gets
killed one by one by a wax-masked killer. Everyone except Paris Hilton and the
dude playing her boyfriend, she gets killed somewhere else. Sorry for that
spoiler. But before they die they also realizes that the whole town is fake
with wax figures as the only inhabitants... except the killer of course!
Damn, I'm
getting lazy. But it's just so friggin' boring to write down a synopsis of such
a generic storyline, and I guess most of you here knows exactly what's gonna
happen anyway without having seen the movie. But what I want to say is that
House of Wax still is a very good horror movie with very good directing by Jaume
Collet-Serra. This was the first time I saw a more "realistic" style
in a modern slasher movie, and with that I mean more handheld camera,
naturalistic (yes, I think so) acting and a grittiness that haven't been seen
for a while in big budget American horror movies.
Sure, the
clichés is there: horny kids, stupid kids, retarded killer - but its till feels
fresh and most of all, very brutal and nasty. I've seen more graphic movies
with more gore and splatter, but Collet-Serra's steady hand makes everything so
much more violent. The ideas is sadistic and the execution of them is even more
sadistic. It takes us down an unpleasant mainstream-road where few of us have
been before. Compared to some low budget movies, Italian shockers and Asian
weird cinema this movie is a kids movie, frakkin' Teletubbies in comparison!
But still.
One of the
strongest assets of House of Wax is the actors, who's given much more time than
usual to work with their characters and delivers a script with a lot more
character development than usual. Hell, even Paris Hilton is quite good here
and has one of the best deaths in the movie. I love how her character wants to
confess something to her boyfriend, but never gets a chance to say it - and I
guess she's pregnant, which makes her death even more powerful. But the best of
the bunch is Brian Van Holt in a dual role, the redneck-charming Bo and the
fucked-up Vincent. Bo is one of those characters I hate the most. Totally
unreliable, but still damn charming and sympathetic - but you KNOW you
shouldn't trust him and still you do!
The murders
are all graphic and bloody, including a baseball bat toe the face that some
people compared with Irreversible. When I watched it today I can't see the
similarity - except the basic idea of someone bashing a baseball bat in the
face of something - but it still packs a good punch, but is very far from the
gruesome scene in Gaspar Noé's classic.
2 comments:
I think the movie is underrated and worth watching.
"synopsis of such a generic storyline"
That´s how I felt when watching this movie a few years ago...bland, boring and utterly generic.
But you are a ninja with razorsharp sensbilities that I, an evil robot don´t possess...maybe I missed something here.
"Hell, even Paris Hilton is quite good here"
I agree with you....she was pretty good here.
But then again...I haven´t seen that much from her.
"it's never boring."
I thought so then, who knows, maybe I was wrong.
Megatron
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