It’s always interesting to watch the second lives of horror films. This is a genre where a movie can flop, become a punchline, or simply get overlooked—only to pick up a devoted audience years later. We love cult cinema here, and 2005’s House of Wax fits that trajectory perfectly.
A remake from Dark Castle Entertainment based on a William Castle classic, the film earned massive publicity 20 years ago largely thanks to Paris Hilton’s high-profile casting. Her role made the movie an easy target for critics and horror fans at the time, boosting its box office but sinking its reception. Now, with the film streaming for free on Tubi, you can revisit it yourself and see why it continues to win over new viewers two decades later.
The film opens with a classic teen-horror setup. A group of friends, led by Carly (Elisha Cuthbert), pulls off the road to camp for the night during a long drive. By morning, someone has sabotaged their car. Stranded, they head to the nearby town of Ambrose—an almost completely deserted place with an unnervingly frozen, ghost-town atmosphere.
Ambrose’s main attraction is an elaborate wax museum filled with figures that look disturbingly lifelike. Unnaturally lifelike. Like they aren’t just modeled after real people, but preserving them.
House of Wax Endures
Is this a predictable setup for a horror film? Sure. House of Wax was the third film adaptation of Charles S. Belden’s short story “The Wax Works,” following Michael Curtiz’s Mystery of the Wax Museum in 1933 and Castle’s own House of Wax two decades later. Of course, the beats are well-worn, but like other Dark Castle remakes, this House of Wax succeeds by pushing all of its tropes as far as possible for what’s meant to be a millennial crowdpleaser. In his directorial debut, Jaume Collet-Serra pushes the gore effects to the max, up to and including bodies getting full-on melted by wax, and the Gothic atmosphere is persistent and all-encompassing. Is it a groundbreaking movie? No. Is it a hell of a lot of fun? Absolutely yes. And as for Hilton, she absolutely nails her role.
Critics were unkind to House of Wax upon its release, but appreciation for the film continues to grow. Earlier this year, Dread Central’s own Chad Collins argued that the film is due for even more love, writing: “Even 20 years out, the thrills and chills are perfectly preserved, almost like they’ve been coated as Grand Guignol perennials in a wax museum of their own. The slasher subgenre is luckily in the midst of a resurgence, too. This generation is liable to find a House of Wax of their own, and two decades out, they’ll be singing that film’s praises. Horror is history, and more than fifty years’ worth is housed here. Long live the wax, forever and always.”
House of Wax is streaming free on Tubi right now.
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