House of Wax: Critic Reviews

72%

MovieWeb: 2 reviews

25%

RottenTomatoes: 156 reviews

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Gregory Kirschling Entertainment Weekly (Top Critic)

42

A museum of gory, joyless, easy shocks.
Full Review » 7 years ago
A.O. Scott New York Times (Top Critic)

40

The set design is fairly elaborate by the standards of the genre, and the victims don't die in precisely the order you might expect, but everything else goes pretty much according to formula.
Full Review » 7 years ago
Mike Clark USA Today (Top Critic)

25

When the cast starts wondering where the roadkill is, someone says, 'Follow the smell.' Good tip: That's how you'll know where Wax is playing.
Full Review » 7 years ago
Desson Thomson Washington Post (Top Critic)

You'll be rooting for these people to get slaughtered out of sheer boredom.
Full Review » 7 years ago
Stephen Hunter Washington Post (Top Critic)

This movie gives it to you, as no movie has in some years.
Full Review » 7 years ago
Wesley Morris Boston Globe (Top Critic)

63

The acting in House of Wax ranges from bad to worse.
Full Review » 7 years ago
Benjamin Strong Village Voice (Top Critic)

First-time director Jaume Collet-Serra lingers over the victims at lengths discomfortingly gratuitous even by slasher standards. But he also demonstrates a droll touch.
Full Review » 7 years ago
Jack Mathews New York Daily News (Top Critic)

50

A remake in title only, this House of Wax is mostly inspired by The Twilight Zone and the Friday the 13th movies.
Full Review » 7 years ago
Bruce Westbrook Houston Chronicle (Top Critic)

38

Yet for a so-called exploitation film, Wax is slow to exploit. Its leisurely setup is a fright-challenged snooze, and at nearly two hours it's bloated for a slasher flick.
Full Review » 7 years ago
Roger Ebert Chicago Sun-Times (Top Critic)

50

House of Wax is not a good movie but it is an efficient one, and will deliver most of what anyone attending House of Wax could reasonably expect, assuming it would be unreasonable to expect very much.
Full Review » 7 years ago
Robert K. Elder Chicago Tribune (Top Critic)

50

The remake of House of Wax anchors itself firmly in the time-honored tradition of horror exploitations.
Full Review » 7 years ago
David Hiltbrand Philadelphia Inquirer (Top Critic)

63

House of Wax is a sturdy and cohesive representative of what tends to be a flimsy and tawdry B-movie genre.
Full Review » 7 years ago
Tom Long Detroit News (Top Critic)

50

There is not one redeeming moment in this movie, unless you consider Paris Hilton stripping down to her underwear and getting killed redeeming.
Full Review » 7 years ago
Scott Craven Arizona Republic (Top Critic)

40

A by-the-numbers slasher flick.
Full Review » 7 years ago
Scott Foundas Variety (Top Critic)

The characters are about as intelligent as their waxen alter-egos, making it impossible to care too much about what happens to them.
Full Review » 7 years ago
Kyle Smith New York Post (Top Critic)

50

The movie would have been creepier if it had shut us inside the museum, and given us more creative wax-based killings instead of revisiting familiar slasher-flick stuff.
Full Review » 7 years ago
Roger Moore Orlando Sentinel (Top Critic)

20

A standard-issue 'dead teenager movie.'
Full Review » 7 years ago
Peter Howell Toronto Star (Top Critic)

25

A very stupid, very nasty and very messy horror film.
Full Review » 7 years ago
Rick Groen Globe and Mail (Top Critic)

50

The original was shot in 3-D; this, by contrast, is 1-D all the way.
Full Review » 7 years ago
Stephanie Zacharek Salon.com (Top Critic)

Filled with the usual contemporary horror staples, most notably lots of rusty torture implements and cellphones that tend to scurry mischievously out of reach just as the villain bears down on his prey.
Full Review » 7 years ago
David Edelstein Slate (Top Critic)

It's nowhere near as punishing as Rob Zombie's House of 1,000 Corpses, but it's increasingly tense and resourceful and, in the end, it gets the sick job done.
Full Review » 7 years ago
James Berardinelli ReelViews (Top Critic)

50

A horror movie can get away with a lot, but once it crosses a certain line, it is insulting to viewers. House of Wax crosses that line.
Full Review » 7 years ago
Kirk Honeycutt Hollywood Reporter (Top Critic)

Characters are rote and unremarkable, plot devices predictable and the camera cheats by sticking close to actors so a viewer cannot see from where the next shock will come.
Full Review » 7 years ago
Peter Travers Rolling Stone (Top Critic)

25

Hilton runs the gamut of emotions from A to A-minus, and the others look desperate to forget that this dazzlingly dumb debacle will be on their resumes.
Full Review » 7 years ago
Kevin Crust Los Angeles Times (Top Critic)

20

Related to the 1953 Vincent Price film in name, embalming technique and Warner Bros. pedigree only, the new House of Wax is a dreary, predictable tale.
Full Review » 7 years ago