A Lifetime of Happiness: Movies, TV, and Video Games

House of Wax (2005)

• Steve Bennet-Martin, Stephen Martin-Bennet • Season 1 • Episode 172

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The Steves discuss the 2005 remake, House of Wax, along with what's making them happy in pop culture today!

What's Making Us Happy?

  • Ru Paul's Drag Race All Stars Season 8 (Paramount+)
  • The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Switch)

Movie Discussion

  • Names and numbers behind the scene
  • What they did right- the gore, horror, plot twist, and special effects
  • What they could have done better- the characters
  • And much more!

Ending- Any music or audio clips were borrowed from the original source material.

Support the show

Steve:

Hello, returning Happys and new listeners. This is Steve Bennett Martin. And this is Steven

Stephen:

Martin Bennett, and welcome to a lifetime

Steve:

of happiness. The podcast where we take you on our journey through some of the movies, shows, and other bits of pop culture that are helping keep us happy, while hopefully you bring a smile to your face along the way.

Stephen:

And today we're joining Paris Hilton on a trip to a wax museum where nothing could possibly go wrong with the 2005 remake House of Wax. That's

Steve:

hot. Yes. But both. Well, yes. And why does House of Wax make you so happy?

Stephen:

So, I've always been fascinated by wax museums. To be able to take like recognizable figures and recreate them out of wax, I think is really fun. Mm-hmm. And we had such a good time at Madame CUSO's Yeah. In New York City. And dad took me to Madame CUSO's in San Francisco when I was like nine or 10. And I just, you know, you know, I love old movies. Yeah. And so of course I've seen the original with the incomparable Vincent Price as the Star. Mm-hmm. And I also just love a good slasher. So this is a fun movie with an interesting premise and the isolation of it all makes it so much creepier because, you know, help is not coming.

Steve:

Yes, that does make it scary and I love it, but you know what is coming? No drag queens because they're making me happy right now in pop culture today. Do tell. Well, it's RuPaul's Drag Race All-Star. Season eight has kicked off. Ooh. And we are a couple weeks in right now. What are your initial impressions on this

Stephen:

season? So I will fully admit when I first heard the cast, I was like, oh, okay. It seems heavily weighted towards three individuals. Yeah. And then whenever the people came back, I was like, I did not give all the girls enough credit. Mm-hmm. Because there are some incredible talents this season. Yeah.

Steve:

They might have become all stars after they were on the show. Yes. Even though you never saw them as all stars in the show.

Stephen:

But of course, I'm rooting for my favorite shunt and shuffle. Heidi in closet. Heidi in closet. She's just fantastic. Yes,

Steve:

and I'm a Jimbo bimbo. And what else has been making you happy?

Stephen:

Well, for dozens of hours already, it feels like I have been playing Zelda Tears of the Kingdom on the Nintendo Switch, and it is. Everything I could have hoped for. Yeah, a must play. Yes, 100%. And tell me a little bit more about this House of Wax movie. Well,

Steve:

house of Wax is a 2005 slasher film directed by Jean Collette Sarah in his directorial debut. He's the person who later went on to do 2000 nines orphan, and 20 sixteens the shallows, which you liked and I liked as well, correct.

Stephen:

Yes. I mean, that's some pretty good horror pedigree. Orphan had that amazing twist and The Shallows is just a fantastic movie. And you know how that scene from the Conjuring made me jump outta my chair, literally

Steve:

at the theater? Yeah. We have the same writers do Behind the Conjuring doing this. Chad and Carrie w Hayes. Yes. And they're twins, not lovers. Well, good to know. Yes. And it's stars. Alicia Cuthbert, Chad, Michael Murray, Brian Van Holt, Paris, Hilton, and Jared, pa, pki, Padalecki, whatever you might know. Eli. Alicia. Alicia if you're a Canadian, cuz that's where all of her shows and movies are from before this.

Stephen:

But she also really came to fame on 24. Oh, okay. That was where I knew her and. She was the daughter. She was the daughter on there, and then she also went on to This great sitcom on ABC called Happy Endings.

Steve:

Okay, cool. And then I know Chad from Onetree Hill growing up. That was one of the CW shows that I watched like every other show on the wb. It was back then, except that one, and I don't know why, but I watched all the other ones on the station so much that I feel like I know basically what happened on the show because I saw every preview.

Stephen:

Yeah. Bethany Joy Lens, who was also on there was one of my favorites from Goding Light. Yeah. And. I'm shocked. I didn't watch it either. Knowing how much I enjoy her.

Steve:

Yes. And Peck is from the Supernatural, all 75 seasons. Yep. And you should all know Paris Hilton by name or shame on you. And Brian

Stephen:

Van Holt went on to be idiot. Bobby Cobb on Cougar Town. Oh, you love that one. I love Cougar Town.

Steve:

Yes. And funny story about this pair we have, Jared. Padi, who is one foot taller than CoStar, Alicia Koh Bart to make herself appear taller in scenes where she and he would be filmed together, she taped two inch blocks of wood to the bottom of her boots. This was only done during the scenes where they would be shot from the knee up because you didn't wanna see her running around in those and have to explain it. Yeah. But that also explains why her height changes in relation to the other characters elsewhere.

Stephen:

Jared Padalecki and Paris Hilton leader appear in an episode of Supernatural Together, also centered around a wax museum. And there's even reference to this movie in the episode. I've never seen

Steve:

Supernatural. No. But now I wanna watch this episode specifically just to see. The, that story. Yeah. And Brian Van Holt plays the roles of both Beau and Vincent Sinclair undergoing an extensive hair and makeup transformation for the latter. Or the former, depending on how you're looking

Stephen:

at it. Yes. It had a budget of 40 million in a box office of 70.1, so it did just fine by box office standards. Yeah,

Steve:

but if I ever managed to turn 40 million into 70 million, please consider it a success. A huge success, yes. Now, aside from the title and the setting of the WAX museum, apparently this has no connection to the original film House of Wax from 1953. Is that. True. I didn't realize you had watched it.

Stephen:

I have. I love Vincent Price. Funny story cuz next week we're doing House on Haunted Hill. Vincent Price was also the star of the original house on Haunted

Steve:

Hill. There you go. So Im DB said that one was about an associate burning down a wax museum with the owner inside who survives only to become vengeful and murderous. Does that sum it up?

Stephen:

It kind of does, but I am DB's also kind of shitty because that's the twist on the movie because someone be, is murderous. Oh, but you don't know who. No, and because we see Vincent Price and his face is completely fine. Yeah. And the murderer does not look like that. So like you don't think it's Vincent Price until the end. When his wax face is broken and the horrible, disfigured burnt thing is underneath. So, okay, I am db. Bad on you, you fail.

Steve:

Well also though, at the same time, playing devil's advocate is I think that 80 years is past the spoiler zone

Stephen:

probably. But I mean, I still wouldn't put it in a, like a twist in the summary. Yeah. Yeah. That would be kind of like, like having scream be

Steve:

just like the one where Billy, yeah.

Stephen:

Where Billy Loomis chases his girlfriend and her friends. You're like, thanks. I am db.

Steve:

Yeah. Okay. True. Touche, Shay. Now what happens with this movie?

Stephen:

Well, the movie begins with a scene set in 1974. A woman is boiling hot wax to make wax masks. Say that five times

Steve:

fast. Oh, thank you.

Stephen:

With her young son, he who is eating his breakfast and a high chair, and their faces all remain intentionally out of the camera. Suddenly the father comes in holding a near hysterical second son who is kicking and screaming wildly. The second kid has to be strapped down into a highchair due to his apparently violent nature, and we see marks and scars and cuts on his arms and is compared negatively to the other child.

Steve:

Yeah, that brings me right back to what it was like watching them. My, my parents get Mickey into his highchair.

Stephen:

I think you need to explain that more.

Steve:

No, I'm kidding. It wasn't like that at all. He was a little bra sometimes, but by no means was he a monster. Okay. And for this movie, is this enough of a backstory?

Stephen:

It's pretty quick. So usually I would say no. But with it being a horror film, what happens with this is they like to give you a backstory, teaser, and then you get more of the backstory as our heroes are further into the plot and they're figuring out things on their own. So we'll forgive

Steve:

them for now. I don't need to even forgive them for that. I think that it's nice and short and sweet and it tells you everything you need to know. There were two brothers and one of them was probably fucked up. And we'll figure out the rest along the way. That was all I needed from it. Oh, okay. Better than that, than a 45 minute. Who is Michael Myers as a child?

Stephen:

Oh, let's not even talk about Rob Zombies

Steve:

movies. All right, there you go. So we fast forward to the present. Six college students are on their way to a highly anticipated sports ball game. Carly Jones is an ambitious young woman who's planning to move to New York for an internship with In Style Magazine, but her boyfriend, Wade is a small town boy who's hesitant about moving to the big city and is totally over having Carly's twin brother Nick in the picture because he's a delinquent, they're joined on their trip. I called Carly's friend Paige Edwards, who may or may not be pregnant with her boyfriend, Blake's child, although she hasn't told him yet. If she's not yet, she's trying to get pregnant with him, by the way. They're constantly all over each other. Nick's comments to the group about how their parents say Carly's the good twin and he's the bad twin. And I have a feeling that we're going towards a twin theme here. Yep. He also brought along his rather annoying and immature friend Dalton to act as a shield just in case they get attacked. First impressions of these characters. So

Stephen:

Nick is instantly unlikeable from the way he treats everyone. Dalton also because he just parrots what Nick says and laughs at whatever Nick says. Blake seems more concerned about his car than about Paige, as if she were an afterthought. Carly seems nice enough and she and Wade seemed good. But you can also tell that the internship was a plot device just to create some tension with them. And nothing more because they seem pretty solid. Fine. Yeah. And yet, and fine. So in terms of cannon fodder,

Steve:

they all work

Stephen:

well, I would say especially Blake. Paige and Dalton seem like cannon

Steve:

fodder. Yes, correct. We'll see though. Maybe one of those is our final girl. You never know. Now, when night falls, the group decides to set up camp for the. F next morning in a field after a detour derails their plans of a shortcut through the middle of nowhere. What could go wrong? Yeah. They see a sign for Trudy's house of Wax, which sounds nice.

Stephen:

Is it cuz her name is Trudy?

Steve:

Yes. Yes. Carly tells Paige that Blake's parents will never let him marry her even if she is pregnant, because they're different skin colors.

Stephen:

And also I take it to be Blake is better than extremely, extremely wealthy. Yeah. And Carly or Paige is probably. White trash.

Steve:

Yes. We also learned that Nick got arrested for sailing a car, to which we're not surprised. The wind blows in the smell of death. Confirming they chose the perfect spot to rest for the night. Yes. Now have you I have never gone camping, so ever, ever, ever. So do you have any experience, scary experiences, camping? I mean, I would assume that. You must have like a what? A 50 50 chance of getting murdered in real life. Okay,

Stephen:

so first growing up in West Virginia and being in Cub Scouts, I went camping several times. Mm-hmm. Even one family camping trip where Mama Martin slept in a tent. Mm-hmm. So, That's saying something. Yeah. Also, there was a lot of backyard camping at friends' houses for birthday parties and things where, because everyone lived on the edge of the woods mm-hmm. You just set up a tent somewhere in their acreage of backyards. Yeah. And sometimes mom and dad le let us sleep out on the trampoline in the backyard in the summer, which is kind of like camping without a tent.

Steve:

Yeah. And you're less likely to get

Stephen:

murdered then. But, and to answer your question, no much less murder happens in camping than is suggested. I would say I was only murdered three or four times, so that's less than half the times

Steve:

I was camping. Well, there you go. Sounds fair. Yeah. All right. Well, I say that if you wanted to do meditation retreat, we should find where we can go glamping in the mountains.

Stephen:

That's kind of what I did in North Carolina. Yeah. Well, we'll

Steve:

find one where I can talk.

Stephen:

Okay. Well, there are ones there where you don't have to be silent with.

Steve:

All right. That's where you lost me. Now they all are making out when the campsite is visited by a mysterious estrangement or truck who shines his light at the campsite, but refuses to leave, speak, or turn off his lights creepy. Nick, an expert at first impressions, throws a beer bottle at the truck, breaking the headlight, and then poses with the group ready to whip his stick out before the driver backs off and drives

Stephen:

away. Yeah. Like the way that they were all standing at, like in and towards the truck. I know. I'm like, are they all,

Steve:

are they all gonna stand on each other's shoulders and show the truck that they're bigger than it? Yeah. Like it's not a bear.

Stephen:

They're, they're about to do Muppet man.

Steve:

Yeah, exactly. And car. Later that night when everyone's asleep, Carly detects someone enters their camp, but Wade gaslights her into thinking it's nothing

Stephen:

convinces her. He didn't

Steve:

gaslight her well. He's like, it must be nothing. And like, obviously you're camping. I would send you a little further. Now. Carly was correct and someone gets Dalton's camera and films them sleeping now watching them all make out or watch. The couples make out, like around the campfire brought me back to a certain time in my life where that was acceptable. Was that something that was just in a circle of friends in my time, or did you go through a phase where

Stephen:

No, that's totally a college thing. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Okay. It's just not a thing you do in normal. Every day life once you're out

Steve:

of college. Yeah. I was just watching it. I was like, I can't even imagine making out with you in front of any of our friends or family right now. No, it's just rude. I know. It's just weird that when kids go through an age, they're like, let's all fool around or in front of each other. Yeah. Weird. I'm

Stephen:

glad I grew up. Well, the next morning at 2:30 PM in the afternoon, yes. Wade discovers that his fan belt has been torn or cut. Mm-hmm. We're just broken. Carly and Paige, meanwhile, Discover a large ditch filled with lots and lots and lots of roadkill, and where she gets her hands stuck in it. And Steve thinks that that is the coolest, most awesome scene in

Steve:

the movie. No, this was the worst part. I hated it. I could barely watch it. I was crawling out of my skin, like show me people getting sliced up or turned into wax or murdered or whatever, and I'm fine. But like the idea of having your hands slide and slip through like a pile of roadkill and like getting stuck in it is just not a place that I want to be. Yeah.

Stephen:

Now 2:30 PM

Yes.

Steve:

I know that kids at that age sleep late, but can you imagine, go like having been a camper, could you like with all the daylight things that happen in day sleep until 2:30 PM on a camping

Stephen:

trip? No. They would've had to have been. Drunk Beyond Belief and passed out to, and have stayed up till like dawn to have slept until 2:30 PM Like I've stayed up till dawn before and things, but I've never been able to sleep till two 30 the next afternoon. No, that's

Steve:

wild. Okay. Well, a disheveled man with poor hygiene shows up in a truck and tosses a deer carcass into the already overflowing pit. Mm. The group points out a human hand in there. He walks through the muck and pulls it out and it's a mannequin hand. Ah, he offers to drive Carly and Wade to the nearby town of Ambrose to get a new fan belt while the rest of the group goes to the football game. However, the rest of the group Soons finds themselves in a traffic jam and decides to return to the campsite to wait for a wade in Carly to return from Ambrose. Well, maybe if

Stephen:

they hadn't slept till two 30, they might have, they would've made

Steve:

it into the time. Yep. It's all their fault and they would've never have gotten murdered then probably. Wade and Carly are creeped out by the roadkill transporter and get out and walk to Aus on their own during the last round the corner offending the driver. Yep. Now, would you want to get, get outta that car? I'm not saying that I wanna make friends with the guy or trade phone numbers or Facebook information. Yeah. But he didn't seem anything other than a pervy creepy redneck, right? No. Yeah, I

Stephen:

would've let him drive me there. I saw him as weird, but not dangerous. Their friend group knew exactly where they were going. Could describe the man and his truck. Yeah, probably someone took down the license plate. I think they were completely safe. The creepy line that he had though was you can get used to anything if you're around it long enough.

Steve:

It's been working in our marriage.

Stephen:

Yeah, it doesn't work with the Ultra MAGA though, and certain members of the family. You never get used to that.

Steve:

Unfortunately. Now they all really wanna see that football game. What's the furthest you would travel and what kind of event would it be for? I'm guessing it would not be sports ball. It is

Stephen:

not sports ball. So if you count our trip to New York to see Mulan Rouge six, that's a long way to go for. An

Steve:

event, did we go to New York specifically to see Broadway? I did. Okay

Stephen:

then short, yes. You went to see your friends? Mm-hmm. From the group I went with you to see Broadway. Sure. True. True. Now we have driven four hours to see, four and a half hours to see Adele in concert.

Steve:

Yeah. So like would you say though that it, who would it take for you to drive 12 hours for to see them in concert? Oh, fuck. Is there anyone in the world front row, v i p

Stephen:

seats and getting to hang out with him afterwards? Yeah. Paula. Okay. Adele. Okay. Adina. All right, Madonna.

Steve:

There you go. You didn't even buy tickets to the Madonna raffle? I had. Oops. We could have had a round trip flight to see her in Vegas. Or Nevada or something. Arizona. I

Stephen:

know, I meant to. Okay, there

Steve:

you go. Now the town seems almost like a ghost town. Well, no, it is a ghost town. Yeah. They see a sign for the Miss Ambrose pageant, a movie theater playing whatever happened to Baby Jane. And they have a perfect pet store that mean and Grumpy Wade doesn't let them go into. Hmm. They decide to head for the church, which is full. They meet Bo a mechanic that is an asshole to them because they didn't realize they were walking into a funeral. Not like there was a sign outside saying A funeral playing. Yeah. He'll, he says he'll meet them at the gas station in 30 minutes and so they spend their time visiting the now defunct wax museum while he finishes up the ceremony. And it's entirely made of wax, like the walls and everything. Yeah. And we also get to see Peak of them disturbing a man in the basement working on his next wax figure. The couple sees the hide chairs from the beginning learning. One of them belonged to Vincent Sinclair. Wade briefly plays the piano, which does not appear to be made out of wax, but who knows? That's right. Scared by the rather eerie wax figures in the sudden appearance of a creepy man outside the window of the museum. Wade and Carly go back to the garage. Now, would you want to visit a wax museum made out of wax if it wasn't filled with like famous people in it?

Stephen:

So it depends on how large it was. Yeah. And how many exhibits there were, how intricate it

Steve:

was. But like this house, like I don't, I see myself like walking in, walking around the house like. Quickly, not quickly running, but like I would say about faster an hour. I think I would get through that faster than I would've gotten the through the Tiffany exhibit.

Stephen:

See, I would've gone through this and looked at things because just the craftsmanship and the artistry to make everyday things out of wood, like the whole damn house out of wood. I think it's fascinating. All right. Oh, you, yeah, wax. Sorry. I know not wood.

Steve:

I know what you mean. Now gimme a house made outta wood. Oh wait, that's like most houses.

Stephen:

So they go to the gas station? Yeah, there's still no bow. Yeah, they can't find the belt they need, but they

Steve:

have like every single other size in stock except the one specific.

Stephen:

They have like 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18. Yeah, no, 15. So he decided to take the 16 and which you know, later makes me wonder. Did they get rid of the 15 because they knew they'd be coming? Yep. And Bo shows up asking if they were gonna steal that, and Bo tells them that the size of the belt they need happens to be kept at his house. And he tells them the story of the Sinclair's, the former owners of the wax museum while they walk there. Apparently Dr. Victor Sinclair and his wife Trudy, moved to Ambrose when Victor was fired for performing experimental procedures on patients. Once in Ambrose, his wife Trudy, discovered a passion for sculpting wax figures, but eventually fell ill with a brain lesion and died a depressed victor and then committed suicide, leaving the Children's Sinclair as orphans and wards of the state.

Steve:

And does that make a good backstory for why this Sinclair orphans are killers?

Stephen:

So, so there's definitely more to the story, but yeah, it's good to get more pieces. We've now connected that Trudy Sinclair was the woman at the beginning. We figure that it's probably Vincent in the basement and at the window.

Steve:

Yes. Now Wade wanders the house and finds the room where Trudy was kept while dying. Like in both story. He's not putting two and two together quickly enough to know he is in danger. While Carly waits in the car outside of Bo's house, she discovers that the headlight of Bo's truck is broken, realizing it must be the same truck that bothered them the night before. So she tries to warn Wade by blowing the car horn. However, as Wade is trying to leave, someone comes from below and cuts as Achilles tendon crippling him. Weta subsequently stabbed and knocked out by the man with lung hair and a wax mask while Carly leaves a voicemail to Blake asking for help. Now I can we consider at this point he's a gunner. Did you think that he was the type of first victim type? No.

Stephen:

I mean, he obviously wasn't supernatural Jared Padalecki at this point. He was Days of our live star, Jared Padalecki at this point. Mm-hmm. And or soap Opera Star, whether it was Days of Our Lives General Hospital, I don't remember. But he was a soap opera star at this point. Also the love interest. Yeah. You don't see that the first person killed in a movie like this is one with had most of the screen time. Yeah,

Steve:

so I was shocked. Now I was shocked initially, but upon thinking it through and watching it critically, it does make sense because they've established already the twin. Angle that they're working with the movie. Between having the twin brothers at the beginning and having her be a twin and having her relationship with her twin being strange estranged, that it makes sense from a writer's standpoint to kill off the love interest because it takes away her one protector or her one ally that she would consider her go-to in this upcoming event of crises. So she has to reconcile and work through her things with

Stephen:

her brother. And since the writers are also twins. Yeah. Which set of twins do you think that they associate with more?

Steve:

Probably the, the evil ones. The Sinclair twins? Yeah, the Sinclairs, of course. Okay. Yes. Now revealing his true intentions, Beau begins chasing Carly and she eventually ends up in the church and discovers that all the funeral guests she saw earlier are actually humans turned into wax figures. She's captured by Beau, who admits he's one of Trudy's kids and. Is imprisoned in the cellar of his gas station with her lips glued together. Bo's brother Vincent, the creepy man Carly saw outside the museum who captured. Wade Is embalming a still alive? Wade in wax. Now waxing a human alive looks just as terrifying as it sounds, right? Yeah. But you also can't argue with those results.

Stephen:

No. I mean, the form is gonna be perfect. Yes. And it's also interesting that he waxes off wade's entire eyebrows so that he can use his real eyebrows to put on over the

Steve:

wax. I know. It's really interesting.

Stephen:

It's also here that we see the scars on Bo's wrists and realize he's the hellion child. From the high chair

Steve:

in the beginning. There you go. Now Nick and Dalton soon arrive in Ambrose to look for their friends. And upon encountering Beau, Nick asks him whether he's seen Carly or Wade. Carly hears Nick's voice and tries to get his attention by sliding her fingers through the greats leading Bo to cut off a fingertip. Ooh. Yeah. Carly manages to rip her lips open and scream for help. Double. Ugh. Yeah. Knocking. Bow over. Nick rushes to the rescue and freeze. Carly, the siblings discover the rest of the Ambrose population is dead. Wax preserved and displayed and rigged to make it appear that the town actually is living residents. Look the noisy neighbor at the window pulling back the curtains. Ugh. Now, when did you realize the whole town was? What? Dead wax figure is your first go around?

Stephen:

Not very early, like whenever she broke off the arm at the church. Yeah. I still honestly didn't get it fully there. It, like it was starting to click, but I, because I saw this before I saw the original. Mm-hmm. So. I thought that they were just wax figures and I didn't get, whenever she broke the arm off in the church that it was Yeah. Blood. I knew that something was wrong there. Yeah. And I didn't see this in the theater, so I think I watched it with Brady and we rewound it and he was like, I think that's the inside of an arm. And like we both got it at that point. Well, but it was like, Trying to figure out what was important

Steve:

about that scene. Yeah. And so just question, do Bo and Vincent take care of the puppies themselves then? The puppies are waxed too, but the puppies were always made from wax and they weren't actual puppies, right?

Stephen:

Correct. Those were, those are just sculptures. They were never real puppies, embalmed, and waxed. You pinky promise? I pinky promise. Do you know how hard it would be to get the fur off of. A dog like that from waxing it, it wouldn't work. Okay. Well, I, and it would be so horrible to try to sit there and like glue the hair on piece by piece.

Steve:

I'm sure people would do it, but I don't, I don't want to think about it. Okay. I don't, they're not

Stephen:

real.

Steve:

Okay, good. No puppies were harmed in the making of this film.

Stephen:

No. So I think we also need to take a moment to talk about. How Carly ripped her lips apart from the super glue. Yeah. That bothered me more than the carcass fest. Ugh.

Steve:

Yeah. I mean, this film isn't gonna win any awards for its acting, or its story or its narrative. Yeah. But in terms of if you're coming here for gore, like it, they deliver on more than just the, the murder scene, so to speak. Yeah, there's definitely the body horror, the body horror. They do a really good job and is very effective here.

Stephen:

At the same time, Dalton enters the house of Wax and finds Wade covered in wax. Wade is still alive because you can hear him going, Hmm, but he is unable to move Dalton thinking he's doing the right thing. Attempts to free Wade by peeling off the wax. Ah, as he's doing this, he realizes that he's peeling off Wade's skin off his face, which somehow fused with the wax. Oh, he's tearing off the skin down to the muscle. And tears are just falling down Wade's face in streams. Vincent finds Dalton and starts to Chas him and slice off a part of Wade's face in the process, which causes Wade to finally die from shock. Thank goodness. Dalton falls down the stairs and Vincent decapitates him. And nobody thinks twice about Dalton ever again.

Steve:

Not even his parents. Nope. Now again, talking about the body horror, the idea of Wade getting his face peeled off while he was alive in there is just. So gross and terrifying. Yeah. Now I don't understand the logic behind any of this, nor do I want to for that matter. Yeah. But do you think at that point that any medical team alive could have saved

Stephen:

Wade? So I wondered that the first time I saw it. Could he have been saved? And so I actually took some time to think about this yesterday and I think that the hot wax melted with his skin and it became one, like, it was so much that it like melted his skin and they solidified together. Yeah. And so without being able for his skin to breathe like a burn victim Yeah. Will die because their skin can't breathe. I think he probably would've died within a day or so on his own, even if they had gotten him. Out and gotten all the wax off, he would've been down to muscle. And you can't recover

Steve:

from that.

Stephen:

No. No. There's no, there's not enough skin grafts in the world to have made that work.

Steve:

That is gross. Now we're reminded that Paige and Blake are still alive and exist because we They're characters. Yeah. And I wouldn't go that far, babe. But they are two people who are in the movie. In the movie. And having sex again or fooling around still. Yeah. Who knows if they ever stopped and. Vincent arrives at the campsite to kill them successfully. Yep. Vincent stabs Blake in the neck and then chases Paige to an old warehouse. She finds hundreds of cell phones and dozens of cars all from previous victims. Vincent finds her, they struggle, she damages his wax face, but he ultimately wins by impaling her on a metal pole making any potential pregnancy. A bit of a moot point, correct. Now while we knew they were going to die at some point, did they end up having any point or impact on this plot?

Stephen:

No, honestly not at all. Like we needed them for a higher body count. A bigger chase scene and Paris's name recognition. But for plot, no, they were not

Steve:

necessary. I agree. But I enjoy Paris Hilton's effort and her

Stephen:

presence, and the more that I've seen this, the more I'm like, she did not do a bad job in this movie, so I think she

Steve:

did the best with what she was given. Yes. Now back in Ambrose, things are going smoothly and they're all living happily

Stephen:

ever after. I mean, it's a town of wax people. What could go

Steve:

wrong? No. Carly and Nick break into a sporting good store to get them weapons, and Nick sees a sign for Trudy's town of Wax,

Stephen:

so everything is starting to make

Steve:

more sense. Yes, Bo finds them and shoots at them. They hide in the movie theater forever playing whatever happened to baby Jane, confirming at least one of their brothers plays for our team. They face off against Bo shooting him with a cross bow twice and taking his keys, but leaving him unconscious. But alive, which seemed weird because at this point, if this was us trying to get out of this town, we would kill him to death. Right?

Stephen:

Yeah. So we've shot him with an arrow twice. He's laying unconscious on the ground. We either would've taken the, the butt of his rifle and beat his face in or shot him. We would've taken, well, they didn't have any bullets. Oh. We take the arrows out of his body. And jammed them through his, his face. Yeah. Like we don't leave him alive. He's tried to kill us multiple times, multiple times. This is self-defense.

Steve:

Yes. Now heading to the brother's house to look for a wade in Dalton, they overhear a conversation between Beau and Vincent who were the Sinclair children's scene in 1974, just in case you haven't figured it out yet. Yes. It turns out though, that Vincent is the good twin who is seen behaving well in the opening scene and simply just wanted to continue his mother's work of creating wax figures. But it was Bo, the evil twin who had been violent and was. Tied down in the opening scene that manipulated him to start murdering people to make more realistic wax figures out of their victims. Carly also finds new newspaper cuttings that report how Dr. Sinclair separated his Siamese twin sons at birth, leaving one Vincent badly. Discu. Disfigured. So I do like the twist that it wasn't the disfigure child that was the inherently evil one. Yes. So what do you say about a climax being twins versus twins?

Stephen:

I did like that aspect very much. And it's funny how this, in Friday the 13th reboot, ultimately were about a brother sister duo trying to survive.

Steve:

It is a nice change of the, the final girl and boy. Yeah. Now Nick finds the trap door and the tunnel. He and Carly attempt to escape, but they can't see anything. They start flipping switches, turning on and off lights throughout the whole town, alerting Beau and Vincent as to where the twins are, and having Steve still worried that the puppies are real. Chase wants more by Beau and Vincent. They eventually end up in the wax museum. Nick and Vincent fight and accidentally turn the heat and fire up. That can't lead to any problems in a housemate of wax. Not at all. Nick dumps some of the wax and it starts a fire in the house of wax, and then it begins to melt as Nick and Carly try to escape. They knock over people, sculptures, and they break apart. Bo gets his head beaten the fuck in by Carly with a bat for the win. Yes. His injuries now match Vincent's face, which I didn't notice could catch. Yep. Upon seeing Bo's lifeless body, Vincent in anger becomes fixated on killing Carly in revenge despite her trying to reason with him over his family's history of corrupt ways. You're not

Stephen:

a freak. You're an

Steve:

artist. Both can be applicable at this point. Yep. He chases her upstairs to a bedroom with a wax replica of the conjoined twins in the wax crib, and I love, as he slices it

Stephen:

down, yeah, he slices through the door, cutting the twins again. There's more fighting, and Vincent is stabbed by Carly. And pushed through the wax floor to his death by Nick where he lands on his brother's corpse in the same position that they were conjoined. That's called symbolism folks. Yep. The house is melting around them. They can't get to the front door to escape. They can't really get back up the stairs cuz the stairs are starting to melt. And Carly and Nick then managed to dig their way out to safety through a second story wall. They emerge inside the house of wax sign and they're burning themselves repeatedly on the liquid melted wax as they slide out to safety. The smoke from the blaze eventually draws outside help, and the siblings discovered that the town had long ago been abandoned, and then it wasn't even on a map any longer. As the ma ambulance carries Carly and Nick away. The sheriff learns that there were actually three Sinclair children. What I know, the film ends with a shot of the roadkill transporter petting Bo Bowen Vincent's dog, and waving to Carly and Nick as their ambulance leaves Ambrose leaving audience to think if the seemingly innocent man is one of the Sinclair brothers. He was,

Steve:

yeah. Thoughts on the ending?

Stephen:

It was a very cool visual of the house and its contents melting during the fight. Like that was fantastic. Mm-hmm. The floor melting under their footsteps and sucking down Bo's body and the people on the house falling apart as they crawl through the wall as it collapses. So, very cool.

Steve:

Yeah. And I also love the twist of the third brother. Yes.

Stephen:

And like, It was all very well done, and I think the thing that we can all take from this movie is it's Blake's fault for trying to take

Steve:

a shortcut. Yes, it is. And also don't go to football games. Yeah, I agree. All right, now, The one thing I would say about this movie, as much as we enjoy it and it makes us happy, is that, like I mentioned earlier, the characters lack extremely. Yeah. Do you feel like Nick grew at all through this experience or that either one is gonna come out of the other side better than they came into it? Well,

Stephen:

Carly's not gonna feel guilty about leaving Wade to go to her internship.

Steve:

No. But can she still sew her? Whatever she does with. Out a

Stephen:

finger. I don't know what she was gonna do for like in Style Magazine. She may have just been a writer. Okay. Nick definitely got early redemption when we found out that he didn't actually steal the car that Dalton did, and he just took the blame for it since he already had a police record. He also admits that Wade isn't a bad guy. Doesn't matter now. And that he actually acts the way he does because of a self-fulfilling prophecy situation with his parents saying he's always the bad one. So we might as well be, we see he truly loves his sister. He put himself in harm's way to save her. In the end, I do think this changes him permanently and probably puts him on a better path. You know, living, het

Steve:

he living, he won't be another bow. Nope.

Stephen:

Maybe he'll live somewhere nice. With one tree on a hill. There

Steve:

we go. Ugh. All right, my love. Well, any other final thoughts on the movie?

Stephen:

It's fun. I like that they didn't try to do a total like remake Like they did with psycho, where it was almost a shot for shot remake that this, they took the idea of someone being demented and making people out of wax and really changed it around. So I liked that it was a fresh take on the original idea.

Steve:

Yes, I agree. So, you know what I also agree is awesome and makes me happy.

Stephen:

It's probably our

Steve:

listeners. It is. And we would love to hear what you think of the House of Wax as well as this episode. You can always email us at Happy Life pod@gmail.com

Stephen:

or you can get in touch with us on all the socials, whether that is Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or TikTok at. Happy Life

Steve:

Pod and until next time, everybody stay

Stephen:

happy. Happy and stay out of abandoned towns

Steve:

if you can.