House of wax 1953 3d movie#
House of wax 1953 3d full#
House of wax 1953 3d series#

Earning an impressive (by 1953 standards) $4.3 million at the box office, the movie sparked an explosion of similar 3-D thrillers, including The Mad Magician (1954), also starring Price. It also jump-started the career of Charles Buchinsky, who played the supporting role of Jarrod’s mute servant he would go on to achieve international fame as Charles Bronson, star of innumerable action movies. The House of Wax launched Price on his long and successful career as a star of horror movies.

House of wax 1953 3d series#

The 3-D process proved especially effective during the film’s climactic chase scene, in which the cloaked killer pursues Kirk’s character through a series of gas-lit streets and alleyways, with the viewer following along behind them. The lenses were specially tinted so that the viewer would see the right- and left-eye images only with the eyes for which they were intended.

House of wax 1953 3d full#

Moviegoers had to view The House of Wax through special stereoscopic glasses to see its full 3-D effect.

Images from the two cameras were then projected simultaneously onto the screen. The 3-D filming process involved using two cameras, or a single twin-lensed camera, to represent both the right and the left eye of the human viewer. The film’s heroine, played by Phyllis Kirk, eventually discovers that Jarrod himself is the killer, and that the museum’s “sculptures” are all the wax-covered bodies of his victims. Jarrod survives the fire and later opens his own wax museum, featuring an exhibit immortalizing crimes past and present, including the murder of his ex-partner by a mysterious disfigured killer. of their 1933 film Mystery of the Wax Museum, it stars Vincent Price as a disfigured sculptor who repopulates his destroyed wax museum by murdering people and using their wax-coated remains as displays. The film told the story of Henry Jarrod (Price), a sculptor who goes insane after his partner burns their wax museum to the ground in order to collect the insurance payout. House of Wax is a 1953 American period mystery - horror film directed by Andre DeToth. Released by Warner Brothers, it was the first movie from a major motion-picture studio to be shot using the three-dimensional, or stereoscopic, film process and one of the first horror films to be shot in color.ĭirected by Andre De Toth, The House of Wax was a remake of 1933’s Mystery in the Wax Museum. In conclusion, a very good film and a great 3D experience.On April 10, 1953, the horror film The House of Wax, starring Vincent Price, opens at New York’s Paramount Theater. Looking at him also, you'd never guess that it was his first horror role, he looks as though he'd done it for years beforehand.

Best of all is Vincent Price in his first array into horror and for me still one of his best roles, his make-up is exceptional and he is very malevolent and sympathetic, a type of role that always saw him at his best. Frank Lovejoy is great at just playing it straight, Reggie Rymal provides another of the 3D's finest moments with the paddle-ball and Charles Bronson is wonderfully creepy even without uttering a word. The performances are very good on the whole, Carolyn Jones went on to do better things but is interesting to see. The pace is brisk and the direction handles the atmosphere very well.

There are some very effective scenes, such as the sight of the figure in the cloak, Jarrod chasing Sue down the alleyways(pure suspense and horror), the murders especially that of Jarrod's partner, the heart-breaking scene where Jarrod tries in vain to save his wax works and Sue strapped nude on the table in the climax. previously released HOUSE OF WAX on DVD in 2003, not in 3D, but now since the technology has changed. The music is haunting and robust, the writing is sharp and the story is suspenseful and mostly exciting. An associate burns down a wax museum with the owner. House of Wax is fine in 2D, but even better in 3D in my view, and I thought I'd never say that. With Vincent Price, Frank Lovejoy, Phyllis Kirk, Carolyn Jones. Igor appearing to have leapt out of the audience was a standout. In the case of House of Wax however, not only does the 3D look good, but it enhances the scares without making them gimmicky. On the subject of visuals, I had the pleasure of watching House of Wax in 3D, I am not a fan of 3D and find it distracts from the film and doesn't focus on the story enough. Conversely, the Gothic sets look gorgeous and add a real sensual beauty to a lot of scenes. The story occasionally loses bite and Phyllis Kirk is a rather bland female lead(though in all fairness her character is as well). I did prefer the Corman-Price-Poe collaborations Pit and the Pendulum, The Raven, The Fall of the House of Usher and especially The Masque of the Red Death. For me, House of Wax is a very good movie, but I am not sure if it is Price's best horror film.