October 1st - 00:01 bonus viewing. House of Wax (1953)
Originally shot in 3D this film about a disfigured sculptor who repopulates his destroyed wax museum by murdering people and using their wax-coated corpses as displays is a classic piece of Grand-Guignol which is as terrific in it's style as it is in it's nastiness with it's fog bound streets and gas lit morgues. I can almost guarantee that the likes of Mario Bava and other Italian film makers of the sixties and seventies saw Price stalking his victims through the streets in trench coat and wide brimmed hat and used it as a template for their giallo thrillers. See the Italian movie poster (bottom right) as more proof.
Andre De Toth's remake of 1933's Mystery of the Wax Museum is an exciting and highly atmospheric horror film that established Vincent Price as a major horror star for the next twenty years plus. Price is excellent as the sculptor who returns to dip human corpses in boiling wax, aided by a young Charles Bronson, for display in his chamber of horrors.
The best horror film made between 1946-56.
|