House of Wax

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House of Wax

PG

1953

1h 28m

Horror

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

93%

Tomatometer

46 Reviews

73%

Popcornmeter

25,000+ Ratings

Wax sculptor Henry (Vincent Price) is horrified to learn that his business partner, Matthew (Roy Roberts), plans on torching their wax museum to collect on the insurance policy. Henry miraculously survives a fiery confrontation with Matthew and re-emerges some years hence with a museum of his own. But when the appearance of Henry's new wax sculptures occurs at the same time that a number of corpses vanish from the city morgue, art student Sue Allen (Phyllis Kirk) begins suspecting wrongdoing.

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Critics Consensus

House of Wax is a 3-D horror delight that combines the atmospheric eerieness of the wax museum with the always chilling presence of Vincent Price.

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Sara Michelle Fetters

MovieFreak.com

May 25, 2023

3.5/4

De Toth directs the heck out of House of Wax, and it’s one of the only 3-D offerings of the period that doesn’t rely entirely upon its visual gimmick to shock its audience.

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TIME Magazine

Oct 17, 2011

An intermittently gripping shocker.

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Variety Staff

Variety

Oct 7, 2008

Casting is competent, Vincent Price is capital as the No. 1 menace.

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Matt Brunson

Film Frenzy

Mar 26, 2026

3.5/4

Far too many movies released in 3-D have relied on the novelty of the gimmick to cover up what would otherwise be a completely disposable film. But on its own two-dimensional terms, this one's a heckuva lot of fun.

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Kristin Battestella

InSession Film

Apr 19, 2024

Big VP hones his campy, over the top horror mastery, and viewers root for his slick talking, multifaceted artist. We believe his masterfully diabolical plan to serve his enemies their comeuppance...

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Brian Eggert

Deep Focus Review

Feb 18, 2022

2.5/4

If nothing else, it reinforces perceptions about the inferiority of remakes.

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Robert P

@Superbad 4 days ago

House of Wax = a *4* star Movie!

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Homu L

@AkemiLord May 3, 2026

Fantastic movie. I really enjoyed watching this. Great film!

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Farah R.

@Farah Jan 14, 2026

Vincent Price is a phenomenal actor, but even he couldn’t make this outdated film scary. The premise had potential to be terrifying but the execution watered it down to barely creepy. I’d like to see it remade by James Wan.

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Corey J

@FilmGuyCorey Nov 6, 2025

The way Vincent Price talks always makes thing creepy. The story was just fine. It wasn't scary today but maybe back in the 50s it was scarier. It was fun, though, to watch this in 2D and imagine all the things that were clearly made to be the 3D parts of the movie.

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Shizue Leigh H

@RT72406249 Oct 31, 2025

I'm 74. House of Wax is in this Baby Boomer's Top Ten LEM ("Love Every Minute" GEMs🤙😉🫡

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Stephen C

@bob25009 Oct 30, 2025

Success in 1 hour and 28 minutes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Horror in color and black and white versions!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Dubbed and subtitled in worldwide studios!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Andre de Toth

Director

Vincent Price

Prof. Henry Jarrod

Frank Lovejoy

Lt. Tom Brennan

Phyllis Kirk

Sue Allen

Carolyn Jones

Cathy Gray

Paul Picerni

Scott Andrews

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Synopsis

Wax sculptor Henry (Vincent Price) is horrified to learn that his business partner, Matthew (Roy Roberts), plans on torching their wax museum to collect on the insurance policy. Henry miraculously survives a fiery confrontation with Matthew and re-emerges some years hence with a museum of his own. But when the appearance of Henry's new wax sculptures occurs at the same time that a number of corpses vanish from the city morgue, art student Sue Allen (Phyllis Kirk) begins suspecting wrongdoing.

Director: Andre de Toth
Producer: Bryan Foy
Screenwriter: Charles Belden, Crane Wilbur
Distributor: Warner Home Vídeo, Warner Bros.
Production Co: Warner Brothers
Rating: PG
Genre: Horror
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Apr 10, 1953, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Apr 19, 2016
Runtime: 1h 28m
Sound Mix: Stereo, Mono

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