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House of Wax
Metascore
41 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 36 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 36
  2. Mixed: 21 out of 36
  3. Negative: 10 out of 36
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  1. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Stephen Hunter
    80
    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.
  2. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: David Sterritt
    75
    As a frightfest it's better than today's average.
  3. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Mick LaSalle
    75
    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.
  4. Miami Herald
    Reviewed by: Connie Ogle
    63
    House of Wax won't give you nightmares, but it upholds teen horror traditions with flair and energy.
  5. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: David Hiltbrand
    63
    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.
  6. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Jonathan Rosenbaum
    60
    Formulaic but fairly well-done.
  7. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: M. E. Russell
    58
    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
  8. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Kirk Honeycutt
    50
    Acting is similarly routine with the glorious exception of Hilton, who is so bad she steals the show.
  9. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    50
    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.
  10. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Robert K. Elder
    50
    Gratuitous gore and young, nubile flesh bind together a cardboard plot.
  11. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jack Mathews
    50
    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.
  12. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Kyle Smith
    50
    Treats us to some feverish decapitating, juicy stabbing and non-anesthetized fingertip removal.
  13. ReelViews
    Reviewed by: James Berardinelli
    50
    The problem is that the writing is too weak for me to come close to recommending it.
  14. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Rick Groen
    50
    The original was shot in 3-D; this, by contrast, is 1-D all the way.
  15. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Pete Vonder Haar
    50
    Works best when it sticks to some of the tenets of successful horror; namely, gore and surprise.
  16. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Gregory Kirschling
    50
    Except for when Paris is on screen giving us the winking sex eye, Wax is just a museum of gory, joyless, easy shocks.
  17. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Nathan Rabin
    50
    Like too many horror movies these days, House of Wax goes for scares, but settles for being gory and deeply unpleasant.
  18. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Benjamin Strong
    50
    Only a nominal remake...Nevertheless, for gore aficionados (and probably no one else) the murders are worth the wait.
  19. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Dana Stevens
    50
    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.
  20. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Maitland McDonagh
    40
    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.
  21. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marrit Ingman
    40
    Expect lots of Slasher Movie 101.
  22. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Stephanie Zacharek
    40
    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.
  23. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Chuck Wilson
    40
    Boring.
  24. Dallas Observer
    Reviewed by: Jean Oppenheimer
    40
    Manages to be gruesome and grisly, but not particularly creepy or frightening.
  25. Slate
    Reviewed by: David Edelstein
    40
    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.
  26. Wall Street Journal
    Reviewed by: Joanne Kaufmann
    40
    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.
    All this publication's reviews
  27. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Wesley Morris
    38
    For Hilton haters, the stupid and grotesque remake of House of Wax will only stoke their schadenfreude.
  28. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kevin Crust
    30
    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.
  29. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Desson Thomson
    30
    You'll be rooting for these people to get slaughtered out of sheer boredom.
  30. Rolling Stone
    Reviewed by: Peter Travers
    25
    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.
  31. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Mike Clark
    25
    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.
  32. Premiere
    Reviewed by: Aaron Hillis
    25
    A sadistically bland entertainment that oversells its reveals and lets its suspense drip so long that it would be nice if something (anything!) happened.
  33. Baltimore Sun
    Reviewed by: Michael Sragow
    25
    Barf-bag baroque.
  34. Charlotte Observer
    Reviewed by: Lawrence Toppman
    25
    Weak, obligatory stabs at humor make it more generic than it might've been.
  35. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: Sean Axmaker
    25
    Overlong, unscary, poorly paced and banally written.
  36. Variety
    Reviewed by: Scott Foundas
    20
    Direly predictable, with candle-drip pacing and a pervasive unpleasantness.
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User Reviews

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User Score
5.0 out of 10

Mixed or average reviews- based on 73 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 23 out of 42
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 42
  3. Negative: 14 out of 42
  1. RegOz
    7
    I did like it...I watched it first when it was released and now, again (2012). I still like it! In the beginning it is a bit slow- which was okey, because it builds-up) and there was some unnecessary sub-plots that did not add anything to the movie (e.g. Paris' Hilton's characters'pregnancy)...but overall it was good. Although I am not that fun of gore, I have to say this was smartly used, and even though the movie was quite visual and there was indeed gruesome stuff, it was there when it was needed..Some may argue that there are some parts in the movie that are unbelievabIe... well, if we give real attention to the movie we will realise that these part are not that illogical really and make sense; any case, the movie is a horror movie,and horror movies are not meant to be always 'realistic'-although we would prefer if they were. Of course this is not a 'superior' movie, but it is fun and keeps you in suspense. As for Paris Hilton's performance (everybody seems to have a said about it), I am not fond of her, but I think she did all right. The movies is not about her, so go and watch the movies seeing her just a one more actress and not as a 'socialite' performing in a movie, because if you do, then your own bias would give you a hard time and you would be unfair to her or/and to the other actors involved. In general, the performances were decent, no more, not less.Paris' role was little, not particularly important but since there were only two girls of the movie, her role was complementary to Alysha's. Period.… Full Review »
  2. davenbettridge
    5
    The film makers do a really good job of creating characters whom you wish would shut up and die so when the time comes for their horrific deaths you are relieved. Its also not a good thing that Paris Hilton is the movie's most convincing actress either. The set and props of the House of Wax scenes were pretty good but mostly misused. Just another lamed out horror movie.… Full Review »
  3. Potter17
    3
    The wax statues were well-done as well as the ghost town. And I must admit that I had some chills but, even them weren't enough to compensate the bad acting (except for Cuthbert) and poor storyline.… Full Review »
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