ignore the extreme vote about house of wax and in no way be it either a 1 or a 10. i will try to be of help to anyone think about see house of wax or for those who saw it base on the trailer and feel cheat . the trailer make this movie look very promising and which be what trailer be suppose to do . there be only one thing for sure with trailer and if the producer can not cobble together a minute of interesting element to make a trailer and it be a pretty much a sure thing that the movie be a major suck fest . but a good trailer only tell you that a few thing about the movie be good and it do not give you much idea about the total package . here a little research can be valuable . house of wax star elisha cuthbert ( whose act skill be close to kathy ireland than to either her fellow canadian sarah polley or her lookalike rise mcgowen ) and and be direct by a music video artist formerly know a jaume and in his feature debut . these be not good sign but if you be like me you ignore them and go to see the work of production designer grace walken and who be responsible for the look of ghost ship . once again walken work be worth see and so much so that it look like 90 % of the movie $ 30 million budget go to production design . the rest go to cuthbert to compensate her for the abuse she have to take throughout the film ( finger cut off and lip glue shut and tie up and and lot of wad around in assorted gooey stuff ) . by the bye and cuthbert look considerably heavy than she do in the girl next door and about one big pig out away from have a major weight problem . which mean they have little leave over to pay the rest of the cast and crew . and judge from the what be on the screen and this might actually be true . it look like everyone else donate their time to get their first acting or crew credit . unfortunately and whether it be inexperience or jealousy over the pay disparity and the contribution of all these inexperienced or incompetent volunteer amount to less than zero . inexperienced steven window dp work be about as awful a you be likely to see and work in league with an incompetent editor like joel negran ( insert pearl harbor here ) they manage to take away most of the value add by the production design group . rather than linger over and showcase the set and window film this stuff with bad lighting and jerky zoom bob camera work . negran compound the problem with an insane number of disorient cut . poor lighting and an add like camera and and flurry cut be what you use to hide cheap and crappy production design while not what be need when the movie only strength be it expensive and detailed set . chan hayes do the screenplay and charles belden ( who write the original story ) be credit a the writer although except for the title and the use of wax figure there be absolutely no similarity . one save grace be that the movie do not take itself seriously a a horror film and be mostly parody ( insert van helsing here ) . the murder be play for laugh and too extreme to be scary or even creepy to anyone over age six . the audience particularly crack up when a certain high profile hotel heiress get her homely face run through by an steel bar and although her early half bake striptease be the only genuinely creepy thing in the film . another comedy highlight be when cuthbert stick her finger through a grate and have it clip off by the bad guy . the good scene take place in trudy house of wax and a waxwork that have something to do with a closed sugar mill and conjoin twin and and a lot of roadkill ( which cuthbert get to bathe in ) . all this be suppose to be happen somewhere in rural florida although from the many hill it sure look like paul hogan country ( attention location scout the gulf coast be not note for it roll terrain ) . the screenplay apparently intend to play up the connection ( bad pun ) between the two set of twin and but somewhere during production or post production most of the dialogue concern this be trim . since what be leave about the twin connection make no sense and go nowhere and you wonder why it wasn not also cut to reduce the boredom factor . what be particularly sad be that the producer do not have the brain to recognize in mid production that they have the ingredient for a first rate horror classic even with the exist cast . what be star them in the face be a chance to go somewhere with the illusion of a town of wax . because it be a photographic medium and modern film be intrinsically naturalistic and almost without exception prone to create an illusion of reality . here they have a ready make opportunity to give the photographic medium a theatrical element of extreme stylization . like an impressionist painting and the town create the illusion of reality from a distance but reveal itself a a highly stylize wax fabrication up close . of course they would have have to find a visionary director and dp to bring the thing off successfully and but everything else be already in place for this to happen .