A group of six young people set out on a journey to attend an important football match. As night falls, the six friends decide to camp in a forest, but the following morning, one of them discovers that one of the cars has been tampered with: he decides to go with his girlfriend to the nearest city to get the spare parts. Upon arriving in the town of Ambrose, a semi-deserted and out-of-time place topped by a gloomy wax museum, the two young people, along with the rest of the group who do not take long to join them, will discover at their expense that the museum hides a terrible secret...
Remake of the eponymous film directed by André De Toth in 1953 (which in turn adapted "Mystery of the wax museum" by Michael Curtiz from 1933), "The Wax Mask" joins the now considerable ranks of remakes that have nothing to do with the originals except for the title and the basic premise. Indeed, like "Non aprite quella porta" and "L'Alba dei morti viventi", "The Wax Mask" is based on the story created for the prototype, only to develop it in a completely different way. In this case, we are in the midst of a teen slasher that owes much to recent successes such as the aforementioned "Non aprite quella porta" by Marcus Nispel and "Wrong turn" by Rob Schmidt. As in these two films, here too there is much emphasis on creating a morbid and unhealthy atmosphere that serves as a backdrop for the staging of violent actions and crude, spectacular deaths. In "The Wax Mask", moreover, the horror revolves around a small locality lost in the North American countryside, and the focus of the madness and horror is generated by the presence of a new family clan, whose members have grown up in the physical and psychological violence caused by their parents.
One should not expect a masterpiece from this film, nor the poor movie that much overseas criticism has talked about. It is simply an honest summer film that involves and entertains, especially thanks to a parsimonious use of gore/splatter, which in some moments manages to reach rather high levels of spectacularity and disgust. Above all, it is necessary to mention the scene in which one of the film's protagonists has her skull pierced by a steel pipe launched by the killer, who then approaches the victim's body and removes the weapon without the camera missing any macabre detail.
The direction is by the Iberian Jaume Collet-Serra, who had already made a name for himself with some TV spots and music videos, here in his debut for a feature film. The cast is almost entirely composed of little-known young actors, among whom stand out, more for their striking physique than for their acting skills, Elisha Cuthbert ("The Girl Next Door") in the role of the protagonist and Paris Hilton, a young heiress who has made a lot of noise in the States after participating in some reality shows and appearing in a hardcore video that went viral. A special mention goes to the set designer Graham Walker, for creating a disturbing and undeniably fascinating wax museum that has nothing to envy from the one that appeared in the 1953 film.
In conclusion, "The Wax Mask" is a classic summer product that is enjoyable to watch and has no pretensions other than to entertain the public with excellent splatter effects. Recommended.
Rounded-up rating.
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