The film stars Elisha Cuthbert (TV’s "24"), Chad Michael Murray ("A Cinderella Story"), Brian Van Holt ("SWAT"), Jared Padalecki ("Flight of the Phoenix") and Paris Hilton (TV’s "The Simple Life").
"`House of Wax’ puts a modern spin on the slasher movies of the 1970s and 80s," says producer Joel Silver, who launched Dark Castle Entertainment with partner Robert Zemeckis in 1999. "It’s a rollercoaster ride that taps into our most primal fears of being hunted down and trapped, and then thrusts you into a nightmarish scenario where nothing around you is real and escape is not an option."
"House of Wax" draws its name from the 1953 horror classic starring Vincent Price as a talented sculptor who curates a wax museum featuring eerily lifelike displays. "There’s something really fascinating about wax figures," Silver suggests. "They’re unsettling, they’re kind of creepy, but you can’t stop looking at them."
The story takes a chilling turn when it’s discovered that Price’s character has hidden real corpses within his precious wax creations. Beyond this basic premise, Dark Castle’s production bears little resemblance to the original film. "We loved the idea of a wax museum with real people encased in wax, so we used that as a jumping-off point and created a totally new story that takes the concept to a truly terrifying level," says Silver.
"We really pushed the envelope in terms of working with the wax medium," director Jaume Collet-Serra agrees. "Blood and wax make a great combination of sexy and scary, and we did things with wax that have never been done on film before, from creating an entire town filled with wax figures to engulfing our cast and the House of Wax in flames in our spectacular finale. After this movie, you will never look at wax the same way again."
The screenplay by twin brothers Chad and Carey Hayes pits a group of friends en route to a college football game against monstrous twin brothers working together to trap and kill their prey in a bloody quest to make them permanent citizens of their ghoulish hometown.
"Chad and Carey created a truly original story with interesting character dynamics and unique set pieces," says producer Susan Levin. "The horror genre traditionally favors stories about strong women in peril who kick ass. Our film puts a twist on that convention with our protagonists, a sister and brother who are at odds at the beginning of the story and have to come together to fight for their survival."
"Horror movies are typically about external forces that change your life, and either you deal with them, or you try to escape," Jaume observes. "If you try to escape, you usually die, but if you confront the situation, you usually survive. In this film, we have a brother and sister (played by Murray and Cuthbert) whose biggest problem isn’t the deadly crisis they’re facing–it’s their own relationship. They have to not only find strength in themselves; they have to confront the issues between them, learn to trust each other and work together as a team to defeat the killers."
Self-described "evil twin" Nick’s combative rapport with his "good twin" Carly is paralleled by their tormentors’ complex and twisted relationship, as both sets of siblings struggle with issues of identity, inferiority and trust. "Chad and Elisha created a really convincing brother-sister bond," Levin notes. "You can feel the tension and history between the characters, and at the same time, it brings a strength and depth to their connection."
"I didn’t want this film to have a slick look," Jaume explains. "I wanted to create an unstructured, almost documentary feel for the beginning of the movie, and then as the story progresses and the characters begin to realize the horrific truth of their situation, the visuals become more controlled and stylized–but never to the point that they overshadow the characters or the story."
House of Wax opens in Metro Manila theaters on May 25.