Evil Dead, It and the 15 greatest horror movie remakes of all-time

15. House of Wax (2005)

I will ardently defend the House of Wax remake until the end of time. To this day, I’m unsure why it was critically reviled. It’s extremely entertaining, filled with crazy acts of sadism, buckets of blood, and downright disturbing kills!

Yes, it is the horror movie where Paris Hilton infamously gets shish-kabobed, but it’s also a movie that understands its purpose and doesn’t take itself too seriously! I always appreciate when remakes are tongue-in-cheek. Yes, these characters are mostly idiots, and yes this film is packed with horror tropes and clichés, but does that make it any less entertaining?

Sometimes all a remake needs to be successful is charm and House of Wax has it! Plus, by rewatching the film now, it’s pretty shocking how despicable some of the murder scenes were in this movie.

Personally, Jared Padalecki’s character, Wade, has one of the creepiest death scenes ever. He gets made into a real-life wax figure and has his skin peeled off. It doesn’t get much more brutal than that.

The argument of a remake harming the original film’s sanctity also doesn’t hold water when it comes to House of Wax. Why? Because the 1953 film was already a remake. The 1953 House of Wax was based on the 1932 horror movie, Mystery of the Wax Museum.

Rewatch this movie planning to have a good time, and I guarantee you won’t be disappointed, if only for the high early-2000s nostalgia factor. I mean this movie stuffs Paris Hilton (at the height of her Simple Life popularity), Supernatural’s Jared Padalecki, One Tree Hill’s Chad Michael Murray, and The Girl Next Door’s Elisha Cuthbert all into one film.