I saw this movie because my father told me of a horror movie which scared the heck out of him and his friends when he was 16 years old... that movie turned out to be a Vincent Price movie... this one. After much searching, we finally found the film, and so we sat down to see the movie. He saw it in order to find out if he would still be scared by it, after all these years... I saw it in order to find out if it was really that good. My father tends to have great taste in movies, but occasionally he just gets drawn in by a theme or plot that he loves, and forget to think about the quality of the film. I must admit, I hadn't expected that much from the film... I was surprised by how effective and exciting it was. I haven't seen too many movies featuring Vincent Price, but now I may just have to. His acting was the best in the movie and he stole the show for every scene he was in. The plot is pretty good, though the story is pretty much just a reworking of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde(gentleman by day, monster by night) with a wax museum curator instead of a doctor. The pacing is very good. I was hardly bored for a second during the whole movie, which is surprising for such an old film. The acting is decent, with Price being the only actor to truly transcend above mediocrity with his performance. The characters are well-written and credible, with a few glaringly obvious exceptions(you'll know them when you see them). The dialog is fairly well-written and interesting, not long-winded and dull as one might expect from a slightly unknown horror film from that time period. I can't help but compare much of the dialog to the dialog of more modern films, and immediately see that this film(among others) has had an impact on film-making that is still clearly visible today. That's quite impressive, I think. Only a few other films can claim that. The horror and suspense in the film is quite good, and there are plenty of genuine(unforced) scares in the film... Vincent Price really brings the character alive, and few have managed to startle me as much as him. The makeup work was quite impressive as well, considering the time it was made. The film has a few nods to Hitchcock, but they might have been coincidental. For such an old horror film, it's really good. It's rarely dull, has some good scares and the story is pretty good too. And if for nothing else, watch the film for Price's great performance. I recommend it to most fans of horror movies, as long as you keep in mind when the film was made. Don't expect too many intense cuts or a particularly original story. The base of the story is basically the story of Jekyll and Hyde. Keep that in mind, and you'll probably enjoy the film immensely, as I did. 7/10
Review of House of Wax
