![]() We are helpless as a terrified Vincent Price races around the museum trying to save his precious children. Everything oozes and puddles on the ground. It’s a gruesome scene as we see eyeballs and skin pop and boil. We watch as every piece of artwork melts to the ground. The movie is worth watching for this phenomenal scene alone. Production of the film lasted only 29 days, 5 of which were used to film the incredible opening scene alone, the burning of the wax museum. This system only required an attachment to existing cameras and after the company partnered with Polaroid, 3D suddenly became a viable option for studios to gamble on because they could get their product to audiences everywhere. ![]() Luckily a pair of brothers developed Natural Vision 3D, which was able to overcome these issues. ![]() In the years before Wax, 3D had been held back due to the eye strain it caused the audience and its use of cumbersome equipment that wasn’t compatible with most movie houses. Movies were battling the surge of television popularity and the studios needed a reason for the audience to still come to the theater. The film was filmed almost entirely on the Warner backlot (like most films of the day) and the schedule was rushed because Jack Warner wanted to make sure his studio was the first to release a successful 3D film, which is exactly what ended up happening. Everyone believes that Vincent has died in the fire, but he survives and is looking to get revenge for the murder of his only (wax) children. He burns the place to the ground with Price inside. But when business begins to dry up, his associate decides it’s time to destroy the museum to collect the insurance money. The good news is this film has so much more going for it than just cheap gimmickry so it has kept it’s rightful place in cinema history after all these years.įor those of you who were like me and missed out on this classic all these years, here is a brief overview of the plot: Vincent Price stars as a wax sculptor at a museum who has dedicated his life to his craft. I have a feeling that his inability to see what he was actually capturing played a big part in hindering the final product. I find that when you watch the film, some of the 3D completely misses the mark while other times it’s the perfect addition. The ironic thing about this is that the director Andre De Toth was actually blind in one eye, so he was completely unable to see the effects himself. That was a real treat! House of Wax was the first 3D color feature film to ever be released by a major studio. Because we were working on the 3D version, I had the pleasure of seeing the flick for my very first time as Andre De Toth had originally intended, with my 3D glasses and all. To say that my exposure to horror was limited would be an understatement.Īll that changed in 2013 when I was told that our next documentary would be for the 1953 House of Wax 3D rerelease. Knowing absolutely nothing about horror at the time I would usually end up in the new releases or occasionally pick out the movies that were frequently referenced on TV like The Shining. Armed with only my VideoHounds Golden Movie Retriever Guide (Remember that?!), I would wander around the video store searching for the the perfect group of movies. I had to physically search for the next round of movies to watch. Now you have to understand that when I was a kid, the internet wasn’t what it was today. Since I was the aspiring filmmaker, it was always my job to select the movies. It was called our “Halloween Horror Movie Night” and it was held on one weekend in October when my best friend and I would camp out in front of the TV and watch back-to-back horror flicks. My family didn’t like horror films so there was only one night a year I would really watch them. The sad fact was that not only had I completely missed the boat on House of Wax (even with the horrible 2005 rerelease), but I had yet to see Vincent Price star in a film. One of those classics was the 3D release of the Vincent Price version of House of Wax. The wonderful thing about my job was that it exposed to me a lot of movies that I hadn’t yet had the pleasure of experiencing. As some of you might recall from my previous posts, I used to work in home entertainment as a producer creating the bonus feature documentaries for a lot of great pieces of cinema.
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