House Of Wax - Ep. 110

Time to go out of its sleep and get ready for some Hey everybody, welcome to the Alone in the Dark podcast, episode 110, House of Wax, the 2005 remake. I am Matty, of course, and I'm here with my buddy Mike. Mike, what's up, man? Matty, what's going on, bud? Well... May is going on and it's going quickly. Matt, I have a question for you. Yes, sir. If you were walking through an abandoned building, let's say, okay, and you saw a wax version of me,

Would you take a selfie with me or would you slowly peel off my face? I would peel off your face to try to... But once I saw that it was actually peeling your face off, I would stop doing that. Okay, okay. Good. All right. I just wanted to check. Yeah, I wouldn't pull a Dalton and just keep peeling, but that's just me. Excellent, Matt. So, House of Wax. House of...

Yeah, before we get into it, we kind of always like to talk about it. There's a whole lot been going on on my side. It's one of those things that I've viewed, and I know you're really pissed at me. I'm not pissed at you. I'm envious of the fact that you get... You just go all the time to the movies, and I don't have that luxury exactly, and you've seen a lot of good stuff. Or maybe not. Wow.

My son's home from college, so he's kind of always been my movie partner. You know what I mean? I always take him, and we always go to movies. I love Mike. Mike apologizes. By the way, those of you that don't know, Mike apologizes. He's like, listen, I'm going to... Is they going to go and see him? Yeah, that's the thing. I invite you every time. He texts me, and then he's like,

Yeah, but I'm still going to go. I'm hoping I'm mad. Yeah, but you make it seem like I leave you out of it. No, I said you text me. Yeah. And I say, because you text me sometimes you're the most organized guy and you like to know everything like two or three weeks out but you text me the day of a lot of times so I'm thinking of going tonight well that's usually how my brain works that's alright that's fine so what have you seen or what do you want to talk about

So I really, I just want to focus on, I mean, it's not even a horror thing, but Ari Aster, who did A Midsummer and Hereditary, and Bo is Afraid. Dropped his new trailer for Eddington. I don't know if it showed it South by Southwest. It's not even a horror film. But you just know. It's like a small Texas town, and, like, Joaquin Phoenix is a sheriff. It's got, like, Pedro Pascal. It has Emma Stone. Okay. It has a really good cast.

It's almost like a western drama, but you just know with him there's going to be some horrific elements to it. Plus, it's kind of like a monsters are doing Maple Street. I think the people are turning on each other. Oh, okay. Yeah, it's an interesting premise. That's cool. Even though it's not horror, I did want to bring attention to it because the trailer is so odd. Yeah. But it's really cool. I mean, I'm in. Awesome. I'm in on anything.

That's cool. I'm excited. That should be interesting. So if we have 10 minutes, we can go through stuff you've seen. I'm not going to give a lot of details, but I will say I did see Clown in a Cornfield. Yes, sir. And I enjoyed it. It was fun. It's definitely worth seeing, you know what I mean? It's just... In the theater, too. Yeah, it's fun. You know, it's fun. It's nothing that... I wasn't, like, super psyched. Hey, pan, corn syrup.

Right, yeah. It's a really cool premise. It is. You're reading the book right now? I am, yeah. You're almost through it? I'm halfway through it. All right, cool. And you're enjoying the book? I like it, yeah. That's cool. That's cool. But you told me that there's more books. There's two more. And he's writing a fourth. The one thing I think I told you after I saw it was how are they going to make this into a sequel? But anyway. Is that a spoiler?

It's not really a spoiler. It's just I didn't see how they could continue it. Did you think they were going to continue Friday the 13th after they killed off Mrs. Voorhees in the first one? I don't think anybody. I mean, even though she says the boy is Jason, but we didn't.

You didn't know. I mean, obviously we're too young to see. We knew. When we saw Friday the 13th part. We knew there were seven sequels. Yeah, there were seven movies out. But then I'll end with this. I did see Final Destination. you did and I love that you prepped Mike did a little disclaimer before we went on the air and I want to share it with you because we like to share

I got something to say and you're not going to like it. And I said, I already know what you're going to say. I don't know what he's going to say, but I know where he stands. Let's just say that. So go ahead and say that. No, I really enjoyed it. I think it's probably since the first movie. Wait, hold on. This is going different. Zagging when I thought you were going to zig. You liked the movie? Yes. Oh. You didn't think I liked it? No, I thought you were...

Freaking hated it. No. So what I was going to say was, besides the first movie, I think this is my second favorite. Really? Yeah. It's almost matched with the first one. That's a bold statement. It was really well done. I'll just say that. I don't know who the filmmakers are. Do you know? CGI fact?

There's definitely some practical stuff in there, but there is some CGI. I don't know, one of our listeners, I guess Melanie St. George, I believe she said, when she DM'd us on Instagram, she said that she liked it a lot too, but she said the CGI. Yeah. Now, I just like the story. I thought it was a really cool way to sort of bring it back to the beginning. So don't spoil. Yes. But they said...

that this breaks the formula of the Final Destination movies. The stuff I've seen in the trailer, both trailers, seems to go pretty much according to plan. Other than the fact that there's an earlier tragedy that doesn't involve The kids, right? It's an earlier tragedy with a grandmother or something when she was younger or something. Is there a flashback? Well, yeah. The big tower, almost like the space needle looking Seattle. Well, that's one character, basically. Okay, yeah. Yeah.

They did tie it to all the movies, which is kind of cool. Okay. So I don't think that's giving anything away. So re-watching all the movies might be a good idea before you see it? You don't have to. Okay. But, you know what I mean? Because I didn't. You know what I mean? Because the last movie ties back. Yeah, that's true. I loved. Yeah, yeah. By the way, 5 I love. That was my second favorite.

and to see Tony Todd Tony Todd has a really you know it's all over Instagram right now like the quote that he says in the movie and it kind of like ruins it for people that haven't seen it but His quote in the movie really ties well with what he was going through in his life at the time. Wow. So it's really nice.

wrap up to his life as well. But I really enjoyed it. I thought it was fun. One last thing before we get to the movie, Matt, I wanted to mention. I just told you about this because I haven't seen this yet. But I literally was like scrolling on Instagram and up came a reel. And it was some, like this girl, woman talking about something, things that you should watch. And she's like, there's a documentary on Amazon Prime right now. called Look Into My Eye.

And she started to describe it, and immediately I was like, holy shit, this is a documentary that's basically disturbing behavior. So explain that. So it's about a principle. I forget where this takes place. The actual principle. Yeah, okay. He would meet with troubled students at his school and hypnotize them without anyone knowing.

So is he trying to change his behavior? He's trying to make them more, like, behavior better and perform better. Like there's some athletes too. But he would hypnotize them, film it, and not tell anyone. But what's mysterious about this story is four of those students that he hypnotized ended up killing themselves. So... it's crazy so I heard that and I was like dude it's fucking disturbing behavior a little bit yeah

So I'm dying to see it. So it's called Look Into My Eyes. It's on Amazon Prime. So I'm going to be watching that probably. So like hypnotic hypnosis type of film? Yeah, I don't know. I've always been fascinated by it. Not like everything I do for you by Brian Adams. It's not going to do that.

I'm going to make a movie for it. Matt, I just noticed something because people, if they're watching our stream here, you are wearing something right now. I am. What are you wearing, Matt? I am wearing your... So Mike did this thing, and he kind of changed the logo and didn't tell me, which was really awesome. Mike has a ton of ideas, but, you know, and listen, I love it, actually. When I saw it,

He's like, I'm so sorry. He was apologizing profusely. I'm like, stop. I said, I really like it. So this is our new logo on a t-shirt. Yeah. And I totally dig it. And it's very simple, right? I wanted to simplify our logo because Our name is so long, Alone in the Dark Horror Podcast, so...

I wanted to simplify it so it's basically like our initials. That's AITD? Yeah, and it's cool. I think it's like a cool retro design. It's like a slashery 80s kind of fun. I like green and purple too. It's cool.

Yeah, it's like a teal-ish. You know what I mean? I love those colors. You know, it's very 80s. So anyway, so those shirts are live in our store. So if you don't know how to get to our store, you can go to our Instagram and we have links to our store there. And we have other t-shirts there as well. So any t-shirt you buy, obviously.

It goes towards the podcast and supporting us as well. But this side is rad. Look at it. Yeah, it's cool. It's awesome. All right, Matt, you ready? Let's jump into the trailer of House of Wax. You see anybody? I don't think anyone's here. Look how detailed this is! Simple Axe, rated R. Starts Friday, Mason. So May 6, 2005. We remember. We recall. Because last time we were like, did we see this together? Yeah. We had to think about it for a second. But let's talk about the nostalgia of this film.

Your grandma's basement? Be kind and rewind back to the time and place when you first experienced More classics. So we had to think about it for a little bit. It follows. We didn't remember. We were like, ah, did we see this together? I know.

And for this one, we actually did. Not for a while. We didn't think of it for a while. But we saw it with our buddy Kev, right? Yeah, our buddy Kev. And we remember the three of us went and saw this in 2005 in May. May 6th, is that what we said? May 6th, yes. May 6th. That means that was a Friday the 13th, because this was Friday the 6th. seven days later will be Friday the 13th that year too. Oh, interesting. But it's going to be June 13th is Friday this year. Wow, look at you doing the math.

Real quick, yeah. So, Mike, the tagline of this movie. I love this tagline. This is one of my favorites we've done so far. Pray, slay, display. I mean, that's like poetry. That's fitting. And I love theirs. There's like a sub. They give you a bunch of different taglines, but the flesh is weak. Wow.

I mean, that's fantastic. I like that. You can't do much better than that. That's good. Their budget was around $40 million. Dude, the budget of this movie. Was that all Paris Hilton or what? No, absolutely not. That's the thing. They opted to build an entire... You could tell, too. They built an entire town of stuff on sets of the Australian Gold Coast. To shoot it. And then a major portion of that was burned.

And they had to rebuild. Oh, wow. There's damages that were like $10 million in damage. Holy shit. So they built all that, and that's where the budget ballooned. Yeah. It probably would have been like $25, probably, maybe $28, somewhere like that. But it went to $40,000 because they literally lost $10 million in damages for all this fire they had. Wow, and they're already committed to it. Of course. Yeah, yeah. The domestic gross was about $32 million, so didn't make their money back.

Worldwide gross is about $70 million. Respectable. Yep, so this was like a big movie in the sense that we had Paris Siltman's promo, right? That was genius. Which was See Paris Die. See Paris Die. They had t-shirts. I think they did. I think Paris actually wore it. Yeah. For the premiere. I think she did. Yeah, it's great. Yeah, it's good. This is definitely, would you say this is a post-Scream?

It's like at the end of the trail, basically. I mean, this is great to the party of everything. We'll talk about all this stuff in the future, but yes, for sure. It's so different, though. My god, I don't even think of it. I think of this movie as extreme. It doesn't even come out of my radar as something to compare it to whatsoever. Yeah. And this is, what is it, Dark Castle? Yeah, so it's the third production, I think, of Dark Castle? Yeah, after...

They did House on Haunted Hill. They did the... 13 Ghosts. And they did this one. Or is this Michael Bay's production company? No, this is Dark Castle. Am I saying that right? Dark Castle? I think it is. Yeah. What's cool is, what MTV used to be called, Dark Castle, yeah. Yeah, Dark Castle, yeah. It's Ramey. I think Ramey's involved somehow. Somebody's involved. That's big.

One of those big guys. More of his producer. Okay. The film was documented in a miniseries on MTV called Movie Life. Hmm. House of Wax. Really? It's a series that follows the cast and crew from pre-production. Oh, that's on the Blu-ray. To the premiere. Oh, I don't know if that's on the Blu-ray, but... Mike, why the hell did this series end? This is, like, the greatest series ever. Yeah, it's a good idea. Like, the actors are sitting there, they're interviewing, they're on set. Right. Right?

They're watching it go from like the time, like the rehearsals. With them through everything. Yes. That's kind of cool. Yeah. How many of these did they? First of all, I want to find out how many they made. Maybe they did more and we just don't know about it. I don't know, man. I just know it hasn't been in a long time. Yeah. But this should still be going on. Yeah. that's pretty awesome

A couple other things I want to mention behind the scenes of the movie. They actually made real wax figures. They created about 200 wax figures for the movie. Not with real human bodies, of course. They used real wax and even had a team of special effects artists to ensure that the figures looked as realistic. possible so a lot of that budget I'm sure went towards that as well because I think of all the detail that they had to do you know of course and the fact that Paris Hilton like

made the Watch Paris Die shirts and they made her do that and everything. The fact that that sold more tickets, that's kind of sad. That is sad. So, director, this guy, Huame Colette Sara. Yes. It's his first horror film. He also... This guy's got some pretty good cred, Mike. He did Orphan. He went on to do Orphan and The Shallows. Oh, cool. And by the way, what you're going to hear me talk about several times in this is this fucking guy can direct a movie. Oh my God. The chops he has.

I'm blown away by his talent and what he did in this movie that I think I appreciate so much more now than I did 20 years ago. Because this is the 20th anniversary, by the way. Oh, yeah, that's right. Just passed, right? Yeah, just passed. Because it was 2005, it was 2025. It's interesting that Elijah, Alicia, is that her name? Alicia Cuthbert. Alicia Cuthbert. She's the one in The Girl Next Door, right? Yeah.

She got stuck repeatedly in melting wax in the bed while they were filming the final scenes of the movie. Good thing it was peanut butter. Oh, is that what it was? So I would have been like, excuse me, Mr. Sarah, you can just leave me here. It's peanut butter. I'll just lick it off. Let's go again. Let's just do more takes. More takes, dude. So, Mike, I want to read you this review. Sure. Because this is, I mean, this was, I don't know where these people come from.

This thing is like a moron's guide to crap filmmaking. Whoever did this has no idea. This is the toxic internet culture is all this is. Inbred southern grid. Stupid but attractive leads. Knives aplenty. Gore aplenty. stock menacing truck I could go on after watching this film I began to really appreciate Jeepers Creepers and I thought the film that film sucked save yourself and avoid this crap fest at every cost. Wow. That's pretty harsh. Like, what inspired?

This kind of vitriol and hatred. Like, somebody that run out of their ED pills. That's terrible, dude. Like, no, seriously. Yeah. Did the penis pump malfunction? Like, what happened that they got all pissed off? Like, this is personal. Right. Yeah, that's pretty harsh. It's just sort of knocking the directing team. I mean, put your energy into getting angry at real issues. This is ridiculous.

And by the way, it's not true, any of it. No. It's not true. None of it's true. Hopefully we're going to... talk about tonight. Yeah. Because I don't believe one bit of that is true. They used a lot of practical effects in here. This is early CGI. Instead of using CGI, they went with practical, which I really appreciate. I think the effects that we're going to talk about tonight. They pulled off some really cool stuff. They did.

I'm going to slip this in here too, Mike, because somebody else knew what they were talking about. House of Wax is pretty much everything I like in a horror movie. The killers are creepy and freaky, but not too over the top. The murders were genuine and realistic looking, while the cinematography was great. Finally, someone knows what the hell they're talking about. That's a good review. That is a great review. It's short. It's concise.

And it tells the truth. Yeah, that's good. They pointed out, even if you don't like this movie, you cannot say the cinematography is brilliant in this movie. Right, right. It's gorgeous. Yeah, it really is. The location's so great, you know what I mean?

So, Mike, I have a trivia question right before we get started. Sure. And the settings and locations. What teams are playing in this college football game the year that the group is going to... That they're so desperate to see. Yeah, do you know what teams are playing? No. Do we know? I don't... Well, yeah, we do know. Because it's here on the right... Louisiana? It is Louisiana. Okay, because I know that's what they're supposed to be. And it's versus Florida. All teams are on the field.

Here's the problem I have with it. I don't know when Louisiana, if there is a Louisiana University, there's LSU, which is of course, LSU is known as Louisiana State University. That's the famous one. Everyone knows that Louisiana State and Florida. are both in the SEC. They both play each other. So I don't know if they just blew it, if that was just an oversight on the detail, but Louisiana versus Florida would not be...

A huge event game. It wouldn't? Not if... No, if it's LSU, yes. That's what I mean. But everyone calls it LSU. They didn't call it Louisiana State, because it's LSU. It's not just Louisiana. Do you think it's this...

Do I think it's a mistake? Could be. The director that sort of like screwed up? Maybe. I don't know. I'm just saying I called that as a sports fan. Like if you're a pretty big sports fan, you'd be like, who calls it Louisiana versus Florida? Yeah, yeah. Anyway. Do you want to get to the settings and location? Well, I had a couple other just like... facts about the movie yeah go go for it

So the location we talked about was filmed in Australia. Yes. And the Max Museum set was built from scratch. Like you said, the whole town basically. Crazy. And it was designed to look down like an old, run-down building, which was really cool. And then we talked about Paris Hilton. The fact that she was in it played a significant role in sort of the casting and sort of... And the marketing. And the marketing. Correct. seats. And then Chad Michael Murray had an injury. Mr. One Tree Hill. Yeah.

He had an injury on set, and he actually kept working through it. Really? Yeah. I forget what the injury was, but he continued going after it. You could see the hurt and the anger in his face the whole movie. Yeah, probably. I think he used it. He probably did. I don't know. I think he did. One thing I forgot to mention about the Dark Castle movies, they're all remakes. They are crap.

Which is cool. And this is a very loose remake of the original House of Wax. There's no way Vincent Price was doing any of this in the 50s. Yeah. And we'll talk later. I have a movie. We talk about our pairings. Yes. There's a movie that I think you probably know. We'll see if our audience can guess. That is more, this movie is more like to me.

I already know what it is. We'll see if our audience can guess before I say it later on. We're going to get into the settings of the film, right? We are indeed. Let's go. Firemouse, a summer camp. Alec or Dark Basement for visit some of this. So Ambrose Ambrose. That's a town that they built from scratch, basically. Yeah, yeah.

So, an abandoned town that's actually built out of wax. The entire town. Yep. Right? Yeah. The whole entire, they find out all the buildings. Well, the main building is the House of Wax. The House of Wax is built out of wax. But I don't think the other buildings are. The gas station. building. You would assume. Yeah, yeah, it is. They'll go scraping on them. Right, right. But how cool is

I don't know about you. When I was a kid, I used to love finding abandoned places. You know what I mean? Yeah. And there's a ton around here. There's like an abandoned, remember the abandoned asylum? Oh, God, yeah. As teenagers, everyone would go. There was the Halloween 4 place. That's what I thought it was. And then across the street was the old slaughterhouse.

And you could drive down the road at night, and it was like a dare. You'd try to walk up to the building, and there was always stories of some big guy in overalls came out. There was always something. Some guy came out and went, Jesus, ain't got nothing to do with this place. And the coolest part. I don't know if you know, next to that mental institution,

There used to be, I don't know if it's still there, but there used to be an abandoned neighborhood. And supposedly, the story... Are you making this up? No, I swear to God. Because it was there. You could see it. So it was like all overgrown. Supposedly the story was it was like an outpatient version of the mental institution. So when people were like ready to go move out. So that was like the bridge to get them out. Yeah. So they live in this neighborhood for like six months.

But supposedly someone went nuts and killed everybody, and then they shut it down, and all the buildings stayed there. So, when you used to drive by, what was that, 520? 520, yep. You'd look to the right, you'd see it. Like, you'd see the road, but it's all overgrown. It was like, reminded me so much of this film, you know what I mean? It's incredible. Yeah.

So what did you think of this location, Matt? So in Australia? It's Village Roadshow Studios? Very desert-like, you know? Definitely. You can tell, like I said, there's a couple of shots, especially at the end. when the car is driving away and the camera is pulling out. I think it's a crane shot probably. It shows the whole town. Of course, the house is no longer there, but we'll talk about that later.

It looks a little bit like a western town. Yeah, it does. You know what I mean? Yeah. Like stuff's been erected, and it has that look to it. But when you're in the town, I think they did a good job of it. They did, especially at night. Yeah. It's very creepy. It is. Yeah, super cool. And cool buildings, too. The gas station's cool.

The House of Wax is, like, probably the coolest set piece. I wonder where that deer carcass pit was, where they filmed that. I guess it was in Australia, too, you think? Yeah. I think so. Most of it was. Yeah, they probably, all on that same road, they were probably filming all that stuff, the campsite and everything. Yeah.

I would think so. The church is probably... The church, yeah. That's built too, right? That was built as well. The church is super creepy. There's a reason why it's creepy. And the old movie theater. That's amazing. Yes. And that reminds me, this is the year, Matt, that I'm taking you to Nightmare of Gravity. Oh, yeah.

but they have the movie theater set piece in there, and you walk into the movie theater, and in the seats are a bunch of dead bodies. Are you kidding? Dude, I've told you this like a million times. This is this movie? And so when I see this movie, I'm like, holy... shit. That's one of my favorite parts of the whole movie. Yeah, it's very cool. It's absolutely stunning. It's great.

Yeah, and obviously, like, the isolated woods and the back roads, you know what I mean? It's very, like, Texas Chainsaw. Like, it gives lives. This whole movie definitely has that, you know? Yeah, that one shitty review I read before, that guy just eviscerated the movie. He did say grit, and I think this does have some of that. This definitely does. It's juxtaposed with this beautiful polish, because it looks...

It's some beautiful movie. Oh my god. What is it with early 2000s movies that have that grit? Was that just like a... sort of like a... A thing that people were trying to do at the time? I don't know. Was that like the theme of the early 2000s? It was like gritty horror films? I don't know. I mean... Because when was the... Valentine's early... Oh, sorry. That was 03. Yeah, so it's right around that time. But if you're remaking Texas Chainsaw, you probably want to put a little grit in it.

But it's still polished. There was a ton of other movies that came out around the same time that all had that same kind of feel and look to it. Polished but gritty. Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead. Yeah. Cabin Fever. Yep. All around, right around this time. Yeah. So that's what I'm saying. Yep. Yeah, totally. Absolutely. So Matt, what are we talking about next? Let's go with the scenes, man. Let's go with our best scary scenes. Alright, let's go into it. Just stand on They made Maddie.

All right, Mike, let's talk about the intro scene. Okay. Love this scene so much. 1974. Yeah. Got the two... children that are being, one is being like an angel, right? Good twin, we find out. Yeah. The other one is just Losing his mind. Yeah. Completely losing his shit. They have to duct tape him down. Duct tape him down to the chair. And he's kicking and he's writhing and he's yelling.

It's painful to watch. As a parent, we've all been there, you know what I mean? As inches away, feet away, is boiling water. Yeah. That's because the mom is in the kitchen. Trudy, we find out. Yeah, and that's what she does. She makes wax figures. It's like a family business. It is family business. She's found her passion, her talent. Yeah, this is her art. Yeah. by the way I just want to mention this

If I happen to go under the table at any point during this podcast, I'm just getting my lip balm. I just want to say that right up front. I just wanted to get a disclaimer to everybody. It's just my lip balm fell and I'm going to get it. Nothing else is going on. I just want to put that out there.

I love the beginning because right before the title card hits, it's a dunk, dunk, dunk. It's like this Danny Elfman, like huge orchestral build. I think John Ottman is the score guy, right? Yeah. It's beautiful in this beginning section. It is. It is cool.

It's funny because like, you don't see this intro coming right because you've seen the trailers and you've kind of like when this movie came out you were all like oh it's power signal but a bunch of teens and like all of a sudden you're like wait am I watching the wrong movie I think I had a nearly wordless sequence Yeah. Right? But it tells such an interesting story. But there's great shots. There's like a top-down shot of the two kids. Crazy. Yeah.

you don't see their face at all no they don't the way it's shot it's very mysterious and like very cool and it sets up and they do what's cool is they do call that back later because when they go they do see the chairs right pushed off yes that's right they're still there absolutely family like that you don't get

So I like that it wasn't just a thrown-in scene. Yeah. It was actually, there's purpose to it. There's a reason. Do you know there was a different opening to this movie? No. There's a cold open. to this movie where a girl gets killed. Okay. That would work, too. And I don't know if this scene was in there. Is it on the Blu-ray?

It's on the Blu-ray. It is? Yeah. So it's worth seeing. It's really cool. I have this, too, because I've got to watch this. Yeah, yeah. Watch that opening, and if anybody else has this, go check it out. It's interesting. It would have been a different movie. I'd much prefer this. But I think maybe it was like one of those reshoots where like,

The production company was like, you've got to have a heavy kill right at the top of the movie. Yeah. I just love how things are building with the kids, and the pot of wax is boiling, and it's just like everything is boiling over towards something. I love the symbolism of that.

Very symbolic. And I do, I dig that. But I do see how a cold open would work, though. Yeah, yeah. Because this is what the kids are heading into. Right, exactly. You want to scare them before. Exactly. You know what I mean? So, Mike, I have the next scene I have, and this is, I guess, the point where we're going to be talking about.

How long this movie is. Yeah, because there isn't a kill for a while, right? No. This overnight camp found footage film. Yeah. Like stuff that, because Dalton's filming, right? Dalton's filming everything. Yeah, he was filming in the beginning too. Yeah. when they find out that Nick is coming along and Blake can invite him.

So, who's working the camera peeking in on the sleeping friends? We don't know. Someone, yeah, we got the tent and the camera's floating around. I have nitpicks about this. First of all, I think this scene, if you're going to cut anything out of this movie, it's an hour and 50 minutes. This is the part I think they could have tried.

Yeah, but there's a lot of them playing football and drinking. I know they set the tone here, but you could have trimmed probably a couple of minutes. Yeah, I agree. I agree with that. But what I was going to say was the filming. All plays into the end. No, no, you couldn't cut that out, right? But you could have done that quickly and gotten out of there.

I woke up next morning. There was a lot. Camera's missing. It was definitely so top-heavy, you know what I mean? Very top-heavy. I have a nitpick about the overnight camp found footage thing. There's There's an awful lot of camping equipment set up. Now remember, they pull over late. And they're just in two cars, right?

tired of shit. Yeah, they don't have a camper. Basically, they built the whole Queensland town of Ambrose in this little field in a camping form. They don't need to go anywhere. How do they do this? They're rushing to get to a game. But then they found a time to party after. So they set all this stuff up, which probably took them like two hours. And then they played football and drank. Yeah.

So they wake up next morning, did they say it's like 2 o'clock or whatever? 2 in the afternoon. Matt, who the fuck, I don't care how much you drank the night before, who sleeps till 2 when you have to make a football game especially? I know, but they...

like I said, setting this up. There's half the night to set this camp up. Then they drank and they partied and they did some football. So let me ask you, it's two in the afternoon. How long does it take them to break this thing down? Right, that's my question. It's fucking, now it's, Then it has dinner time. You might as well just keep partying. Oh, man. They have time to explore, too, by the way.

Yes, that's true. Because they wake up. That's the next scene. It rolls into the, I call it the roadkill landfill. Yeah. Right? Yep. Carly does, right? I love how they set it up because it keeps smelling something horrible. Yes. Like, what is that? Yeah, and it's like blowing in the wind. Right. Yeah. I was like, this is the happening part two, what's going on here? When they got to start, they freeze when they breathe in the toxic fumes.

But they have all this time to go exploring in the woods. I'm like, what is this? So then you find, of course, it's a dead ditch full of roadkill, dead animals. And it's horrifically gross. And we meet, what's the other? He's nameless. Does he have a name? He has a name. I do not know his name. Yeah. Because it's Bo and Vincent and then the other guy. I'll look it up. Yeah, look it up because it's the guy who's very unkempt and very dirty. And he goes and plucks the finger. Yes. In the road.

And I tell him, and he goes and plucks it and goes, and takes the whole fake arm off. Yeah, yeah. And he's like, see? Yeah, I found this. Yeah, he's playing with them. But like me, having hit a deer when I was 18 years old, for real, in real life, with Charlie Herzer, telling me I just ran somebody over. it was horrifying i always assumed that these poor creatures like went to some great peaceful pasture to this

Right? They can graze forever on lush grass. Not an Ambrose. Not an Ambrose. I was wrong. Apparently they end up in a pit of death, carelessly piled on top of other rancid animals and other poor little deer. My innocence was shattered when I saw this movie. It brought me back to that horrific accident. Oh my god, I can't even imagine. How do I come back from this, though? I don't know. It's terrible. I'm going to have to take a break here, maybe. Let me compose myself.

This is bothering me when she slides head first. Oh, God. I mean, jeez. That did it for me. That would be one of my worst nights. That would be gross. Very gross. So, another scene. Do you have a scene? I'm trying to think. You know, I've kind of jumped around a little bit, but, you know, I really want to get to the good stuff. Well, Wade and Carly explore the House of Wax. Yes, which is really cool. Now, you want to see how great this director is? My God.

There's that fucking overhead shot of them right before they go. Well, yeah, but this is life. It must be like 40 feet in the air. It's like the top of the building height. Yeah, when they're walking up to the floor. Right, when they're walking up the steps, right? It's so high up. And it actually happens when they come out, too. Yeah. Later. When... Bo chases Carla out. You see the same direction. It's beautiful. Yeah, it's very cool.

It is absolutely stunning. And then, not only that, then it tracks them from that height until we're looking at an angle at the beautiful, like, that sign. But you're all the way above it. I know. And you're looking at it at this beautiful, like, bird's eye view, but down at an angle. So cool. It is stunning shot. So cool. It's unbelievable. So this person that talked about craft and, like, that it looked like crap, like, what were they watching?

I don't know. I don't know. I mean, it's incredible. It's just, like I said, it's perfect craft. It's really, like, crafted. I mean, it's so well made, and oh, it's beautiful. Yeah. But then, Mike, everything they see, like...

is made of wax and then of course the dog isn't they have some jump scares in this movie come out of nowhere there's a real dog but the real dog jumped I love how Wade is like loves this like house of wax he's like freaking out he's like this is the coolest thing ever he's like so excited

Yeah, doesn't somebody comment on that later? Like, so you like this? You're into this? He's like, yeah, so what if I... I think it's in the car, and they're like... Right, yeah. So you like this stuff, or whatever? Like, yeah, sometimes I do. Yeah, yeah, it's kind of... He's a little freaky, Wade. A little bit, yeah. Some stuff about him, I don't know.

But then Carly's looking in the mirror and then she sees the reflection of Vincent. Yes, in the back. In the back window and he just jets. He jets away. Yeah. There's this little Hitchcock moment after Wade goes outside to see about Vincent and Carly looking at the different wax figures and weird poses.

It starts out, it's like shot, reverse shot. It's almost like Cary Grant in the cornfield in North by Northwest. That's typical. You show the person, you show what they're looking at. That's that shot, reverse shot thing. But then the camera dollies in close on the wax figures like it's panning up to their faces instead of like just doing the typical shot right she's standing right

It, like, creepily goes all the way. And, like, it shakes a little, almost. Like, it's tense. It's so damn good. Oh, that is cool. Yeah. It's so Hitchcock. It just reminded me. It is. So much of this movie reminded me of Hitchcock. Yeah. It is very much. Yeah, you can tell he's a big fan. Dude, let's get, like you said, the meat. Like, the meat and potatoes of this.

I'm going to say in quotes, I know. Wade's death scene, it's not really a death scene. No, it's like a transformation of him being encased in wax, right? Isn't technically dead, but that's the worst part of this. Oh, my God. Yeah. I mean, Vincent comes up to him behind him in the dark. First of all, the lights go out. Again, I'm off exploring. Yeah. Being where he shouldn't be. Just being an idiot. Just being an idiot. Broken, yeah. Again, Hitchcock tension all over.

Wait. But then he severs his Achilles tendon. Yeah. Remember? Yeah. Like, that's the first thing he does. Right. And it's like Gage Creed, Judd Crandall shit. Yeah. Like, it reminded me of Pet Sematary. I'm like, oh, God, he went for the frickin' Achilles. Wait, did they go in the church before all this? Oh, so you want to talk about that scene? Well, that scene's really clever, because...

The church is before this. Yeah, as a viewer, they walk into the church, right? Yes. And there's literally like a ton of people. A funeral going on. And a funeral. And they're like embarrassed that they've like interrupted this. So they jet out real quick. But there's one person who moved. You know what I mean? The priest is giving them an awkward look. Yeah. Yeah. And they leave. You know what I mean? Oh, it's so crazy. It is great. It is great. It's quick.

And then Bo comes out, right? He lets Bo come out. Bo's the guy that works at the gas station, so he's like, yeah, I'll help you out in a minute. They're like, yeah, we're looking for this. What is it, like a filter or something? They need something. Yeah, a fan belt. But what's crazy is when you go back and watch this after you know what is going on in this church,

It's interesting, because I went back and rewound and watched it, and I was like, holy shit. It's literally just wax figures everywhere. I know. I know. And the priest. The priest. Like, in my head, I was like, the priest. Well, the glasses are, like, resting on the end of his nose, and he's looking like, what are you doing? But, like, I was convinced that people were moving. Of course. And nobody's moving. It's so well done. It's so well done.

So, Wade's wax transformation. Mike, when he starts basting him like a turkey. Oh my god. He's like putting the stuff on his face. All over his face. He rips the hair off. It's agonizing. We're essentially weighing the audience. You're watching and you're agonized. And you're almost like him. Yeah. Like this is happening to you. You're frozen in your seat. You're forced to watch this. Yeah. And you can't move just like Wade can't move. I know. It's crazy. Yeah. And then, to top it all off,

He's trapped in that medieval torture device. Well, it looks like Pinhead, basically. Dude, it's like A cross between like an Iron Maiden and an acupuncture machine. And like an electric chair. It's like these three horrific things. I know. And then he takes a hot wax shower. Oh my god. Yeah.

They're all just... It just shoots out and you're like, what in the world is going on? And then we're like, what's going to happen to him? Yeah, done. See you later. We find out later, yeah. We find out. So, my favorite part of this movie, other than the movie And the kills are great, and we'll talk about that. But the town coming alive. Oh, my God. So Carly escapes Bob. Like I said, they revisit that same ridiculous high angle shot where he chases her and tackles her in that high shot.

Um, But before that, She escapes him, but she's in the middle of downtown Ambrose. All the lights suddenly go on. So the movie theater comes alive. The gas station. It's amazing. The barbershop thing starts turning. And then she goes to the church. And that's the reveal. of what you just said. She walks in and it's exactly the same. The funeral mass is the mom, Trudy's funeral mass apparently, redone in wax figures.

Right. Right. Including Trudy. Yeah. In the coffin. Yes. Which is open. Yes. So it's like a wake. Right. Frozen in time. Frozen in time. Uh, it is twisted. It's twisted in the sense that you know... that Bo is like mourning his mom maybe it's the anniversary of his mom's death or something who knows but he's

in this made-up scenario that he has created. Norman Bates-esque. Very much. Right. Yeah, he's talking about Hitchcock. Definitely some of that, because the grief, that just, you never got out of that stage. Yeah. You stayed frozen in that grief stage. Right. And you had to recreate it? Because let me ask you a question. He didn't know that they were going to pop in.

Bo didn't know that they were going to pop in. No. So he was literally doing something at that moment. He was like rehashing this moment in time. You know what I mean? Yeah, for sure. Right?

Which makes it even freakier. Yeah, what was he doing? You're right, though. What the hell was he doing in that? That's what I'm saying. Well, he could have been putting a new figure in. He could have been touching something up. But maybe it was the anniversary of his mom's death or something. It could have been. Which would make sense.

why he was there and you know maybe they do that every year but you know vincent wasn't there so it doesn't really but then it becomes this cat and mouse between Bo and Carly she's behind so in the church because

Then she hides behind the priest's robes. Yes. Remember this? Yes. That's really cool. Yeah. Because he's, like, creeping all over. And that scene takes time, but I love that. Yeah. Like, I don't want that to speed up. I don't need that to... I wouldn't cut a frame of anything. Of that sequence, yeah. The cross-cutting is ferocious too because remember when that's going on you have Wade becoming wax at the same time.

You also have Carly discovering the church, but then you have Dalton and Nick that are driving to meet them. Yeah.

by that pass but I love that cross because it keeps you like you stop the scene in the middle and you have to come back so it just builds all this tension but you're right like this movie if they cut out all that beginning stuff they literally could have like broken down you go get a fan belt I'm gonna go walk up here they could have just done that and this movie would have been way tighter, right?

Maybe if they like some of the beginning stuff. Yeah, they could have just that was for character development Yeah, but they could have done that in the car as they were driving You found out in the beginning. I know I got that but it would have been a lot of exposition Yeah, whereas they kind of show you through the characters

Like, why is Nick here? Okay, Carly screwed him over. Whatever happened, she didn't defend him, she didn't talk out for him, speak out for him. There's a lot of stuff that's weird, like the whole car stealing thing. Is all that needed really though? I don't know. Story-wise, I don't think it really has anything to do with anything. I agree with you. I think it was trying to make the characters three-dimensional in some way. Maybe. It was forced to me. Maybe. Yeah, I could see that a little bit.

So now Dalton finding Wade and his death scene. Oh my god. So again, this is what you were talking about before. Would you ask me a hypothetical question about what I would do? Yeah.

He comes in and recognizes him. Because he's at the piano. He sees him. He's like, oh, wait, what are you doing there? He's like, oh, shit. And his eyes move. Yeah. Oh. underneath the wax and Dalton's like what the and then he peels and then he could hear him going oh well he's like I'm gonna get you out of here buddy yes just calmly as Wade is just dying every which way slowly he wished he was dying quickly and then the best freaking thing you want to talk about Hitchcock yeah

He approaches in Wade's eye. You see Vincent approach behind. It's like Mr. Himbury, Principal Himbury. And it's like a Hitchcock shot. It's so beautifully done. It's very cool. It's like the glasses in... What's that movie? Strangers on a Train, which drops the glasses and the murders happening. It's kind of like, oh my gosh, she's gorgeous. But then Dalton...

Dude. Yeah. What is the double knife thing? It's like a sickle, sort of, like a double sickle or something, or like edge trimmers, yeah. It's like he digs, he goes like this, like this, he digs them in like fist over fist. Right. And then, of course, pulls away the body. He pulls away the body, head stays. But you know what I didn't like when I wanted to ask you? It's so cheesy. He like blinks his eyes. Which, do we really need to see that?

I don't know. That ruins it for me. If he was wax, it would have been fine. But he wasn't at this point. No, he's dead. He's a human. So what is that supposed to be, like a snake gets cut in half and they keep moving kind of thing? I don't know. It looked like they fucked up to me. They didn't, but I could have done without that part. Just you knew that if you're seeing his headless body get dragged away, it would have been perfectly enough for me. Right, right.

But then dude, when this movie takes off though, It does. Blake and Paige's death? Yeah. Holy mackerel. Well, I got this total My Bloody Valentine 3D vibes on Paige's death. Yes. Oh, yeah. Because she lands, the pole goes through her head. Yeah. And then goes down. It's almost Friday the 13th. Friday the part four. Yeah, part four. Except she slides down and it stops. Yeah, yeah. Halfway down. Yes, and what does Vincent do? What is it to do? Doesn't he push her more onto the thing or no?

No, you're thinking of You're thinking of Blake. Blake, that's right. Oh, that's right. He's got the knife in his neck. He kicks it into it. He walks by him and he freaking kicks the knife all the way into it. You think he's going to pull it out of his neck. That's what I thought. Yeah, and he just shoves it in even further. That was absolutely ridiculous. Yeah, you're right. I was getting that confused. That was amazing. It's so gnarly, but here again.

So, we're at Paris Hilton. A little bit of prom night in it, like when the one girl's running away into all the rooms. Kelly or whoever, not Kelly. Is it Kelly? The one who runs the big long scene where she goes into her. Yes, where it's dark in the back area of the school. Exactly. So I saw a little bit of that. So was it worth it? Was Paris' death worth it? I think it kind of was.

You know, I think it could have been anybody, you know what I mean? I think the problem is they wanted to get people in the seats, and that was their only way to do it. Oh, come on, getting javelin spirit through the eye and then falling, like sliding down the... It was a good kill for her. Yeah, they gave her a really good one. They did. Yeah.

That was good. Definitely. I mean, I think it was worth it. I liked it. Yep. Second favorite part of the movie here, wax figures watching the movie. Yes. Incredible. Incredible. Um, and the film actually parallels House of Wax because you have troubled siblings in On screen? Yep. And then you have, of course,

Nick and Carly. Troubled siblings. You have Bo and Vincent. This movie is about twins. It is. I didn't get there because we didn't talk about characters yet. We will get there. I'm planting a seed for that for later. It really is.

But then how she's sitting in the movie watching the... Well, she's hiding. Yeah, yeah, but it's great, though. She's like one of the audience members. It's great, but it's kind of stupid if you think about it. Why? Because don't you think they know every single wax figure that's in that movie? Of course they do. so she can't hide it's going to be so obvious like hey that's that's not one of the wax figures I mean, he knocked over a wax face.

I don't know how well they... There's enough people in there, if you memorize. I mean, you might cross over. You know these guys, the detail that they have gone to. They know every single intricate person that's in this house of wax. Now you're right.

So, I don't know if you have any more, but I want to go to the finale here. Yeah, let's get to the finale. I mean, the finale is one of the biggest set pieces I've ever seen in a horror film. It's very cool. You've got fucking wax. Everything's melting. crazy they're fighting it's literally collapsing collapsing around fire everywhere yeah fighting full-on two males killing going to kill each other who goes first vincent Vincent goes first and he's laying on a table.

In the basement or wherever. Right. Yes. All the way down. And this is so clever because Nick... Then she runs up the stairs. Yep. Of course, Carly runs up the stairs. Carly does, yeah. Before the stairs melt. And then, of course, when Nick goes to run up after her, he gets stuck. Yeah. Right? Yeah, because the stairs melt. But meanwhile, Bo's upstairs. Yeah. Wait, no, Vincent's upstairs, sorry. Okay. Because Bo fights and he's down and he gets killed or whatever. Right.

And then he falls through the floor straight down to the basement on top of his brother. slapped down like boom but exactly like conjoined twins which they were because we find that out that's a beautiful recall because right before that I remember upstairs They have the twin thing. Yeah.

There's like some device that comes back and slices down like just how they got separated. That's how they got separated, yeah. Correct. And then you see what Vincent actually looks like. Right, exactly. The mask comes off, yeah. And they're digging through the wall to escape. Remember that one scene? Yeah. That is phenomenal. Yeah, because they come out. And then the wax signs, like the sign house of wax is all like...

Remember? They're stuck inside the thing and it's melting down. Yes, yeah. And it basically gets them safely down without collapsing. Yeah, they kind of ride it down. They do. They ride it down like a wax wave down to the ground. It's really cool. It's really cool, yeah. It's so great. And then we get a twist at the end, right? We do get a twist, Mike. Yes. And it's told to the sheriff or whoever over his...

CB or his talkie or whatever. That there was more than, there wasn't just the twins. There's another brother. There's a third son. Yeah, and we kind of know it when they say that, and then you see him at the end. When they're passing out of town, Carly and Nick, he kind of waves to them. He waves. And he has a dog. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He has a dog. He has a dog. And I know he has a name, but I didn't look it up. I do not know his name. I will not find his name. It's all good.

But I think, yeah, we're going to take a little break. We'll be right back. contact. so if you like what you hear you can always join us on patreon right maddie absolutely support the podcast and get a free bonus show every month plus some extra

episodes as well. Our last episode was we did a special episode for our urban legend here we did uh and his name is Ouija Wood and we did a special episode he gave us a list of movies and we picked one that we hadn't seen called Clown yeah Eli Roth presents Clown from 2014 yeah and we sort of talked about it was good yeah it was cool

So we did a big kind of deep dive into that film and gave our thoughts on it. Kind of a Christmas evil type of a movie, right? I think it really paralleled that movie well. Yeah, it was cool. It's a lot of cool stuff. Yeah, so we do that and we do other bonus episodes.

We have a series called Diner in a Movie that we're doing about four times a year where Matt and I go to a diner and we order food, have a whole meal while we discuss a film. So we have another one coming out this summer. It's going to be super fun. besides the bonus monthly episodes we have that and some videos also we throw up on there as well

So please, if you like our content and you want more, come join us. Support us. We love the support. Patreon.com slash Alone in the Dark Podcast. You guys have got to decide a lot of things, so meet us over there. Absolutely. So we're going to be talking about our characters, right Matt? Best part. Let's go.

All right, Matt. Characters. Blake. Yeah. Blake. We just call him Paris Hilton's boyfriend. Yeah, he kind of just, that's what he is, right? Well, it was his genius idea to bring Nick on this trip. Okay. It's a good thing he did. Yeah. he's the one who brings Carly's delinquent brother along and because he sprung for his bail. Right. To get him out of jail. This is where we talked about this. Yep.

crazy story about a car and stealing a car or something. I don't know. I don't know what all this has to do with anything. I really don't. They could have just said Blake sprung him from jail because he likes hanging out with him. Yeah, I don't think any of this needed to be in there. Maybe not. But Blake wants to do two things, Mike. He wants to go to this game. He really wants to go to this game. Yeah. And he wants the bank page. Those are the two things he has his mind doing.

Meanwhile, how about throwing a little Friday 3 pregnancy horror in here? Well, that's another... Right? We didn't talk about this, too. We didn't. We're at the page soon, but... But this is thrown in there as well. She could be. I mean, I don't know why.

Isn't it? And I don't think it needs anything. I don't know if it needs it either. It just gives it a different flavor. Yeah. But it's just, it's strange. Paige is like, I don't know if I'm going to tell him tonight. Right. And she's about to tell him. She is. And that's when they both get it. That's right around that moment. Anything else about Blake? He's just sort of like... I mean he's an athletic guy, knows what he wants.

Kind of pissed off and like ready to fight that one dude. Yeah. That's trying to let the headlights on them in the field. Yeah, the other brother. I'm about to go kick some ass, whatever he says at that point. But yeah, he gets fired up.

I mean, like I said, he really, his mind is set on this game. This Louisiana State versus Florida. This is all his thing. Yeah. This is a big football game. They played at the camp, right? Yeah. As exhausted as they are. Yeah. They still have energy to play football. They do. Yeah.

Paige, should we talk about her next? We can go to Paige. Paris Hilton? Sure, we can go to Paige. So, besides her pregnancy possibility, She's sort of hand in hand with Blake and we get a really good chase scene right with her which is pretty cool we do so she's in this movie the one thing i was nervous about when i heard about parasol being in this film is that it was going to be like a scream thing where she was going to be killed like immediately you know what i mean well

Here's the thing about Page and Parasol. I don't think she ruins this movie at all. I don't. I remember when we were all going to see it in theaters. I was like, she's going to be so annoying. I was so sick of her. But she is fine in this movie. She's fine. She actually acts pretty well. You know what I mean? But I actually feel bad for her.

Because she won the Razzie for Worst Supporting Actress. I know. It's just because of her. It's just her name. Right. And it's nothing to do with this movie. They didn't watch this movie. It's not fair at all. Because she's fine. I mean, is she great? No, but she certainly is fine. Yeah, I agree. She's serviceable. She does a good job. I almost wanted her to be bad. Yeah. Because that's what they're going for.

Because I really thought she was an annoying celebrity at the time. I did not like her. It's like putting a Kardashian in where you want to see her die. You do. You really would. You wouldn't need a t-shirt for it. They'd just be like, please kill Kim Kardashian now. Could you imagine House of Wax, too, starring Kim Kardashian? But I think she got the raw end of the deal on this one. But I like that she was game about it. No, I think she was cool that she wanted to do it.

But the pregnancy thing, man. It's so rare. It's so rare. I don't know if they just said, you know what, this is barely done ever in horror films. Why don't we just do this? I just think the screenwriters were really trying to force a lot of stuff in there to sort of... give these characters some dimension that they didn't really need it the sad thing is mike and the irony The audience really didn't care if Paige might be carrying a life inside her.

They just wanted to see her life snuffed out. That's true. In the most gruesome way imaginable. Simply because she's Paracel. Yeah. And that was it. That's the sad reality. That is. Of the moment. Yeah. I'm sure she looks back on this as affection though, that she had a good time doing this. Yeah, definitely. So Dalton, this dude is like useless.

His whole character, other than filming, might be really useless. I don't know. He's an annoying friend. Nobody really likes him. I guess they do, but... He's the butt of most of the jokes, but he elevates his own importance by... having this job to do. I've got to film. I've got to document this. Did they do that? Were they trying to do the whole Blair Witch thing? Were they trying to connect it? Because they did connect it at the end. There's a whole thing about

You know, the camera nixed the camera back. But this is evidence now. he wants it back and then all of a sudden he has it in his hands which doesn't make sense either he's a criminal so he Obviously gave the guy a bum camera. But did you notice that? Yes. The cop literally was like, no, we're taking this. And all of a sudden, two minutes later, Nick has it. And you don't ever leave him. So when did he leave to go take it? Nick is a thief. He's a very good at what he does. He's a magician.

He is. He's a magician. So yeah, Dalton, kind of pointless. And, you know, we get a fun kill. We do. We do get a fun kill. Wade. We'll get to Wade. Carly's boyfriend. Small town dude. Doesn't really care for Nick. He's Carly's brother. Maybe that's because, Mike, I'm going to start talking about this. We need to talk about this. I think Wade really doesn't care for Nick. Maybe that's because Siblings Nick and Carly have

A bizarre, incestuous tinge to have chemistry. I'm telling you right now. You watch this movie. You tell me Nick and Carly don't have chemistry. I didn't pick up on that. Mike. I didn't. You didn't? No, I didn't at all. You're just doing that to fuck with me. No, I'm not. I really didn't. Mike. Carly's gorgeous. She is, yeah. And the one guy Wade should not be jealous of Is brother Nick. Twin brother Nick. I understand. Right? So why was he jealous? I think he is.

Yeah, no, I agree with you there. I just don't see it. It's in the looks that he gives her. It's in the way they talk. I know twins have this thing. People out there are going, oh, but twins. I get all that. But there is more here. But let's get back to Wade. He's kind of the good guy. Would you agree?

Yeah, he's put out that way for sure. Although he's a horrible boyfriend. No, he's terrible. How many times are you going to leave Carly alone to go explore? Oh, yeah. Oh, I love this vacuum. Let me go here. Yeah, yeah. When he goes to the house. Right. Let me go.

Take a piss. Yeah. I'll leave you for a minute. Oh, and the door's open. I'll go in this room and check this back. Well, he basically, you know, he's caught. She's alone, though. Yeah, he left her alone constantly. I mean, he sucks as a boyfriend.

But every time Mike Wade is in the vicinity of Nick, you're just waiting for a giant cockfight to incite. You're just waiting for it. And it's crazy. Yeah, they're definitely bonkers. But Wade does not deserve the end he gets. No, he gets probably... Does not deserve this. sure as we mentioned before so so mike this film is about twins we need to talk about carly and nick Bo and Vincent Sinclair.

Mike, the writers, for Christ's sake, this is written by twin brothers. Did you know this? I did know that. It's co-written by Chad and Carrie Hayes. Well, that makes sense. They're twins. That makes sense. That's, you know, you write what you know. Are you kidding me, though? But that's cool. I like that. That's really cool. That's crazy, though. How do you make that happen? I don't know, but that's pretty cool. So let's go back. We talked about Nick, Bo and Vincent Sinclair. So...

It's amazing because when they're walking, when Bo is walking with Carly and Wade through town, he basically tells them this whole family story. Dad was a doctor. Victor performed experimental procedures on his patients. Mom discovered passion for making wax figures.

and sculpting them soon got sick and died. Yeah. I imagine probably from inhaling the chemicals. Yeah, I think so. Yeah, exactly. By the way, kids are in the kitchen while mom's doing wax. Maybe they probably have problems too. Well, they probably have issues too. They're so psycho. Grief-stricken Victor killed himself, the dad, and the twins were left as orphans in the house.

Okay? That's crazy. Yeah. It's a crazy scenario. It is. Now, at the time, they don't know that he's talking about them, though, does he? Does he... Did Carly and Nick? No. Did Carly and Wade? No. He's just talking, he's like just the guy that works at the gas station. Yes, yes, yes. He's like telling it like it's a story about the town. Yeah, it's like a folk story. It's his family. Like, if I had a hot take about this movie, I'm going to say this again, you're going to be pissed off about it.

The weirdest sibling relationship is not between Bo and Vincent. The Wax Museum Curator. It's between Carly and Nick. I know you're going to die on this. I'm going to die on this hill. I am definitely dying. I want people to really shout at us really loudly, and you tell me that there's not a weird incestuous chemistry between Carly and Nick. Just tell me. Or if it's just twins being twins. I don't know. Yeah. So Carly and Mike, we've been talking about her all night here.

What do you think of her? I think she's a good final girl. I really like it, and I like the fact that her and her brother sort of make it out so they can start a family and have kids together. Yeah, like uh... Kind of like Jimmy and Lori in the TV version of Halloween 2. There you go. Not the original guy. No, I just made the joke about it.

I like, listen, I... You believe it so much. I believe it so much it's not funny to me. Like, this is what I'm saying. Yeah, it was a great joke, by the way. I want to give you credit for it. No, no, it's okay. But I'm glad you're buying it. No, I like her as an actress, and I think she does a really good job in this, and...

You can sense her fear in her acting. I think especially that final battle is just amazing. What she probably had to go through. In the bedroom with Vincent? Yeah, it's awesome. I think she's good. Do you think she's a good actress? Yeah, no, no. I was raised a gentleman. But I have to talk about this, too, because the highest form of beauty is always going to be the inner beauty, right? Mm-hmm. But Alicia Cuthbert, man, she... Of the 2005 moment...

I mean, of course, I was 30 at the time, but... You get some crush when you're 30. Sure, why not? She was my major crush at the moment. She's like eight years younger than me, which is fine. A beautiful woman, yeah. God damn, this is a woman. You know you can measure true beauty of a woman. Here's how you do it. You can have her tumble headlong into a pit of hundreds of desiccating roadkill corpses, sliding arms first into gore.

and innards of a rotting animal all around her arms and stuff. When she comes out, She still makes Paris Hilton look like a road killer in comparison. This is how you know how good-looking Alicia Cuthbert really is. No, I'm selling you. I don't know how hard I have to sell you on that. That's tribute to Mike.

That's her in House of Wax. I mean, that is her. Shout out to Alicia. There you go. Oh, my gosh. All right, so we're going to get into some quotes. Do we got Nick, though? Oh, we didn't even talk about Nick. I'm sorry. Yeah, yeah, there you go.

Chad Michael Murray, Mike, let's face it, the oddest thing about this film, it's full of odd things. What's the oddest thing about the film, Mike? The sexual tension between Nick and his twin sister? Well, that's what you're going to say, yeah. It's not subtext. It's right there. Oh, okay, let's hear it. No, it's right there. No, no, it's subtext. It's not subtext. It is right there. He's the bad boy. Nick is the rebel.

He's kind of an asshole. In the beginning, you don't like him. And you're not supposed to. No, you're not supposed to. You're supposed to not. In other words, Mike, Nick... is the one women everywhere hitting the pause button so they can pleasure themselves to him. He is the guy that every woman, because they love bad boys. Yeah, of course. But then, of course, a poster tiger beat bad boy like Chad Michael Murray, my God.

That's the thing. This movie has Alicia Cuthbert for the men, and maybe for the women too, who knows. But then you have both sides of it. You have Chad Michael Murray. So you have something for everyone. Right, exactly. He definitely has a He blames her.

Right? There's some anger he has towards her for not sticking up for him. That's true, yeah. That whole little sub. But again, you think that's all you... but don't you think that drives a little bit of the tension between them initially I think that's good actually it's just it's so deep and it's so detailed I don't think they needed that they could have done

It could have been something else about their childhood or something like that. Just a line, like you could have sprung me out of jail, you could have left me, like there's something like that. Just thrown out, tossed off like that. Just like you, you know, mom and dad always liked you better. It could have just been something simple like that.

Kevin Williamson would have probably done it simple like that, but I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. Yeah, but very, yeah, he's a cool guy. Like you said, the bad boy. The bad boy. Yeah. Let's get out of here. Yeah, all right. Ready for some quotes? We are. So Carly, right? Go for it. This is one of my favorite. This is right after she realizes the truth that the wax figures in the town are actually people. And she says, they're not wax. They're real people. It's good.

It's simple, but I don't know why I'm laughing. Yeah, no, it's not funny. No, you got another one. I got to go on in this one. when they're in the car and they're driving. Dalton actually goes, wait.

What did you do, go to the barbershop and ask for a He-Man haircut or what? He does. That's right. He has a fucking He-Man haircut. Doesn't he say it again? It's the greatest quote. I think he says it more than once or something. It's so good, though. I don't mind him saying it more than once. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because when I saw it, I'm like...

Oh my god, it is a He-Man haircut. Oh my gosh. Oh, it's classic. And then Dalton has, of course, the follow-up line when they pull up next to the car. Oh yeah. What, is she flossing herself with that thing? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's so good. That is good. Do you really think she was blowing him? Or do you think she was really getting her... They play it off like she was. Yeah, but like... Even though she goes, guys...

I was just grabbing my chapstick. But maybe she really was. Maybe she was grabbing my chapstick. I don't know. I think that was me and the filmmakers to make her do that. Guys. How about when Nick says, you're bleeding. Wax doesn't bleed when he sees the blood on Carly's face and she fights with Bo. Yes. That's good. Bo, dude. You're walking on a funeral for a freaking family.

That is a great line. You're like, wait, what? It comes out and you walk in on a funeral for a freaking fan bell. Oh, my God. Oh, Jesus. Paige to Blake, you brought me to a town that isn't on the map. You really know how to show a girl a good time. Yeah, that's a good one. Yeah, it's pretty. There aren't, like, these unforgettable holy shit lines in this movie. No, it's just, it's more just kind of relating to the story. Right.

here, basically. Like a simple one from Bo. I'm sorry, Mama. Some people just have no respect. Yeah. Like, right? Yeah, that's awesome. I think that's a funeral. They're in the funeral, right? Yeah. In the church. Yeah, it's great. It's a great little line. And it's kind of like a throwaway, but you're like, no, that's a good line.

Do you have any others? And just the last one, as Dave, the voice on Sheriff's Walking, where he goes, Sheriff ran the Sinclair family through the CEIC. Trudy and the doctor didn't have two sons. Oh, there you go. That's a good line. Yeah. And you're like, oh, shit. Yes. All right, Matt. Music. Let's do it. Did you hear that sound? No, not the screaming. stabbing scents and haunted strings. It's time to discuss the music from the film. Score by John.

The man who did H2O. Lake Placid, Urban Legend, Final Cut. Some good stuff. Yeah, I think he's good. Effective, but not like super stand-up. Oh, I like the score in this one. Yeah, it's good, but it's like subtle, right? It is. I would like, this is a good background, like writing music. Yeah, it's not in your face at all, but it's definitely creepy and has like a cool vibe. Maybe Halloween, like if you're scaring kids. Yeah, that's true. It could be a good one.

Soundtrack? The soundtrack, holy shit. It's heavy. Yeah, very early 2000s. Very heavy. The needle, matter of fact, the Marilyn Manson needle drop of dried up, tied and dead to the world. When Bo has captured Carly and he's like slung, like he's carrying her over her shoulder. opens the door to the garage at the gas station, and just boom, the Manson song drops. It's great. It's really awesome. And of course the title.

My Chemical Romance song. The Helena song. It's one of my favorite end credits songs. You have the Prodigy's in there too. But when he says so long and goodnight, it's like a perfect thing to send you out. By the way, good... Good luck getting asleep after watching this nightmarish film. So long, good night. See you later. Thanks, Gerard Way, Mr. Singer of My Chemical Romance. Oh my gosh. Mike, if you had to get a tattoo of this film, what would it be? I would get. I'm prepared.

I would get the House of Wax sign. No question. Yeah, with the 3D details and everything. No question. And kind of pinkish wax. The title card, the sign. So cool. Absolutely, 100%. You know what I love about it? It's like very, what's that? Is it Art Deco style? It's like that very 1920s kind of thing.

40s, 50s. I don't know. I can't figure out what decade I'm thinking of, but it has that sort of look to it. It's like New York, early 1900s. I love typography. You know what I mean? In a lot of the work that I do, it's like... Choosing fonts for videos and that kind of stuff. So I love a cool font like that, you know. Very cool. You get the same? Oh, absolutely. Yeah. No question. Cool. I might get that that day. Really?

If I were to get a tattoo? Your first? I don't think that would be your first. That wouldn't be a good one for me. No. What would be your first tattoo? I have no idea. If you, like, honestly. I honestly don't know. I have no... I've not thought about this. It would have... Because I'm... Listen. It'd be Michael Myers or something, wouldn't it? No. It wouldn't? That would be so predictable.

Really? Would it be a horror tattoo? Yeah, of course. Probably. So it wouldn't be Michael Myers? I don't think so. Interesting. All right. We'll find out later. Good. Yeah, that would be the best tattoo. Yeah, that would be cool. Are we pairing this or are we playing a game? Let's play the game. All right. You ready for this? Oh, I like this. Is this the score? No. Oh, okay. Matt versus the Wax House. You ready?

Can Matt's the Moors of Ambrose or will he be the next figure alright so so if I get them wrong I become like more wax I guess we could just say that's kinda cool All right, so I'm going to ask you a series of trivia questions about House of Wax. Which I'm not going to know. Go ahead. And you're going to get a point for each one, and we're going to keep track, okay? Spokane Nick's going to kill me, by the way. She loves this movie so much. Yes.

Yes. And I don't know it as well as she does. So she's going to be yelling at them, listening to me, screaming at me. All right. So... If you get zero to four correct, you're museum material now, man. Pick a dramatic pose, okay? Okay. Five to seven right. you escape but not without a melted sneaker and trauma for days and if you get eight

To ten correct, Matt is the final boy. He lights the match and walks away from Ambrose like a boss. There's ten questions. I think so. Yes. I might get two right. You ready? Yeah. Ask me the third brother's name. Don't tell me what to do. I won't know it already. What year was House of Wax released? 2005. You got one right, Matt. Good job. May 6th. What's the name of the town where the Wax Museum is located? Ambrose. You got two.

Who plays Carly, the final girl? Alicia Cuthbert. See, Matt, you're doing better than you thought. All right. What classic horror film is playing at the Ambrose Movie Theater? I know this. What happened to Baby Jane? Whatever happened to Baby Jane? Yes! Four right, Matt. You're doing really well. Number five.

What pop star's death scene was a huge promotional tool for the film? Okay, I didn't know your answer. Easy questions. Paris Hilton. Good. Alright. At least I got five. So Matt, you are... That's round one, alright? Okay. So now it's going to get tougher. Ah, I see. I thought so. Here we go.

What happens to Wade that keeps him alive but helpless during his wax transformation? What happens to him? What happens to Wade that keeps him alive? Or what do they do to Wade to keep him alive? Don't they shower him with wax? And it hardens. Well, how do they keep weight alive? I actually don't. How do they keep them from escaping? Oh, they cut his Achilles. That's why he can't escape. He can't run anywhere.

Nope. The guy slices his Achilles like Judd Cran. Sorry, Matt. You get one wrong. He's paralyzed with a syringe. You don't remember? He shoots him with a syringe. I do remember now, but... Sorry, Matt. Alright, here we go. I told you. They're tougher here. What's the... A disturbing twist about the Killer Brothers. There's three of them instead of two.

Oh, because the whole time you're thinking Bo was the good one all the time, and he's really the fucking freak show who kept getting screaming in the beginning. I'll give it to you. The answer really is that they were conjoined twins. Well, yeah. Okay, so I'll give it to you. That's six. All right, here we go. But also, they do play it off like Bo is the control one at the beginning. Yeah, yeah, they switch it. Yep. What tool does Bo use to silence Carly? Oh, damn.

Oh, he puts crazy glue on our lasers. Yes, you got it. All right, five, six, seven. Maybe it's waxy, but it's crazy glue. Who makes a cameo as a wax figure? I didn't know this, but... Somebody makes a cameo? Yeah. No hint? It's a producer. Michael Bay? No. Joel Silver. Joel Silver, okay. Alright. I like that. That's a good call. Last question, Matt. Alright.

How many Sinclair brothers are revealed by the end of the film? Three. So I got seven, right? You got seven. So Matt, you're... I burnt sneaker? You escape, but not without a melted sneaker and trauma. Some trauma. For days. Alright, that's not bad. That's not bad, Matt. You did really. There's some good questions there, Mike. You tripped me up a couple times. You did well. Good job. So before we get to Nightmare Index, you want to talk about our pairing.

We're usually just last, but yeah, we're sure we can do it now. Let's do it now. Mike, I guarantee you have the same one as me. Okay. 1979. Yes. Tourist Trap. Absolutely. Dude, this movie is Tourist Trap. It is. Kind of, in a way. It's more Taurus Trap than the original House of Wax. Yeah, there's no question. It's on the nose to do it, but it's a really good pairing. There's road movie vibes. The kids are going down to do something else, but they pull over and they see Slauson's.

Yeah. You know. Yeah. Very similar. Yep. Stranded in a strange location, wax figures on display, mannequins, whatever, puppets. Yep. Disturbing, reminiscent of the creepiness of the, you know, like Celestin's Lost Oasis. It's really... By the way, the director admits fully that he was much more influenced by Taurus Trap. Oh, was he really? It's pretty obvious, for sure. Excellent. Yeah, that's good. We did the tattoo. I do have another pairing. Texas Chainsaw Masquerade.

Yeah, that's pretty odd. Because both teens are on their way to an event. Oh, that's true. Right, Texas Chainsaw, they're going to a Leonard Skinner show. And this, they're going to a football game. Oh, that makes sense. Both are remixed to classic horror films. that I rewatched. Way more than the originals, by the way. Watch these remakes much more than the originals.

And neither was reviewed very well upon their initial release? That's funny. That's perfect. At first I was like, that's obvious, but as you gave your reasons why, that totally makes sense. All right, ready to write this thing, Matty? I am. Let's go. How does... All right, Matt, where are you going with this one? This is only because of you. What? Yes, I am. If you recall the last episode...

Can we give, like, a quarter, three quarters? Oh, so you're going to do one of those? I didn't want to. Okay. But I'm going to explain why I am. All right, let's hear it. So I originally had three out of five. I bumped this up to three and a quarter. Okay. I could potentially give it three and a half at this point. Alfred Hitchcock would have loved...

Yeah, I agree. It has so many nods to him. It's pure cinema. All those overhead shots, the reflecting shots in the eyes. It's insane. The moving camera, it's beautiful. This film... It takes its time, Mike. Yeah. It's been doing its Kegel exercises. There's no premature ejaculation here. I had to bring in the Kegels. I had to. Running time, almost two hours, which I'm not opposed to as a cinephile, but...

I slightly downgraded it from a three and a half to three and a quarter. The reason I'm bumping it up to three and a quarter is because how do you not have the most gigantic ending? Just that production value and the hugeness of that end. I mean, it's... It's unbelievable. I had to give them extra practical points for that. It's crazy. There aren't many great lines you can walk away quoting. It's a bit of a bummer song. Yeah, we had trouble with that for sure. Yeah.

I'm going to use a bold statement here. I think, honestly, is this, I'm going to ask you a question, really, is this the most well-made horror film of the whole decades? Really? I'm asking. To me, I am so stunned at some of the shots in this. I'm just so impressed.

It's incredibly, incredibly crafted and made. So when you say well-made, do you mean just like... I don't mean the best movie. Cinematography. Yes, I just mean the way it shots, direct... Yes, it's just an incredible well-made movie. I can see that. I'd say it's probably the largest. uh horror film of the the arts decade they are but considering like this is the era of the remake right hello amityville horror the fog released the same year right

Considering that torture porn is taking over, wrong turn, hello. It's all hostile. This little moody throwback slasher, it splashes of 70s exploitation to me. You've got this giant, glossy... 2005 movie. Yeah. But it has this 90s gloss, right, some to it. 70s exploitation grit and vibe to it. But it's beautiful to look at. Yeah. It just makes it such a rare thing for me. It's a film out of time.

If it was released 8 to 10 years earlier, I think it would have been a much bigger deal. Right. I don't know, I just do. Yeah. Like maybe like... Like around, remember when I did it last summer? Or sort of like in 98, 97. That era I think would have been awesome. Right. But as it is, Mike, in 2005, House of Wax, to me,

was a welcome sight. Because you had Valentine in 2001, and it didn't have a lot going on in that span. So to me, I was like, wow, I was so impressed. And who doesn't love A Diamond in the Rough? A movie that dares to be late to the party, but it comes dressed to impress. Beautiful actors, creepy practical effects, a brilliant ace up its sleeve, marketing plan, come and see Paris Hilton get killed. Mike, I'm here for all of this besides

Even though I'm a fan of Ryan Reynolds and the 2005 Amityville remake is anything. Anybody talking about the Fog remake? No. At this point? No. Yeah, the less said the better about that film. It stands out and honestly it sticks the landing completely. So, we're both pretty close on this. I gave this a 3 out of 5. Good. Watch where I was originally.

so I thought about the production and the ending and you know me I'm just a huge fan of locations so Ambrose as a town the fact that they built it up the sort of like the detail that goes into this and all the creepy elements all the wax figures The only thing I would say that I knocked this down a little bit was because of the story stuff. And the length. The length, the beginning. trimming down the beginning

The car stealing thing, the pregnancy thing. Stuff that didn't need to be there, it just kind of ruined it for me. I really wish they just would have gotten right to the action. It didn't ruin it for you, but it knocked it down for you. Yeah, yeah. But as you said. This ending of this film is worth the price of admission because of how huge it is and how big budget it is. And how well pulled off it is. It's crazy. The amount of things that are happening.

and these people are fighting and trying to save their own lives to get out and like all this shit is happening and the way that It sort of concludes with the two brothers landing on each other, too. Yeah, right back to where they started. And then we get that twist at the end, too, which is kind of cool as well. A little added bonus. Yeah, it's super fun.

Yeah, three for me. It's a solid three. You know what I mean? It's just one of those films. I own it. It's sitting right here. You own it as well. I do. I'm asking you this. What's the rewatchability factor? For me, it's probably every couple of years. It's not every year for me. It's definitely not one of those.

I got to be honest with you. When I watched it this time, I was so impressed. And I'm like, I should watch this one. So you're going to add it to your life? I don't know if it's going to be annual, but it'll be by annual. It'll be every other year at least. I do want to, because I'm just so blown away by it.

And it's crazy for me to say House of Wax because this movie probably is a joke to a lot of people. Not maybe that listen to our podcast. But no, I think a lot of people don't think it is anything special. I'm not trying to force anybody's hand or anything. I'm just, it is such a well-made movie. I'm just, I'm blown over. I'm personally, I'm saying it because I'm so surprised at how I'm reacting to this. Because I enjoy the movie and I think it's so creepy, the setup. just a whole

Every time you have some kids go to a strange place and get trapped there. Especially the lengths they go to to craft this whole town of wax figures. Even the woman... We didn't even mention the woman peeking out the curtain who we think is real. She's like a mechanical thing.

Who has a little thing pulling the track or something. Crazy. So cool, yeah. I love that. It's a creepy movie. It is. And then when the violence hits, it hits hard. It hits hard. It's like a roller coaster going downhill. So it's fun. It's a lot more fun than I... Thought it was last time I watched it. It gets better every time I watch it. Well, it was fun talking about it with you, man.

Yeah, absolutely. I'm glad we decided to do it. Yeah, so we're going to go off and shoot our reel to promote this thing, which I don't know if anybody's caught on, but if you join us on Instagram, we do a reel to kind of reenact the scene from the movie. And we have something special for you guys. This is our version of Paris Hilton. See Paris Hilton die this week. This is how we promote our podcast. No, we're not doing that. But it's going to be fun.

We had to special order something from Amazon to make this little gag work. We hope you guys enjoy these. This was our episode for May, and we're so excited to... Give you some other stuff in June as well. We got some special things. Special guests. Yeah, we got a special guest episode coming up. Yes. Do we tell people or no? Why not? All right. We're doing a Nightmare on Elm Street ranking with our buddies.

Poor Dads. John and Jamie. Here we come, baby. So look for that in June as well as our other regular episode. We have another movie that we're going to be reviewing. Oh, yeah. So we're excited for that, guys. And thanks for listening. Thanks for supporting. And we'll see you guys in June. Take care. Take care.