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Technical Analysis
I camera
Horror film often uses I-camera technique to shot from one of the characters’ perspective. The technique can put the audience in the position of the character and let them experience the horror story through character’s eyes. Directors would use shot-reverse-shot or the point of view shot to show the character’s vision without adapting any conversation to illustrate it. These characters’ active gaze is empowered with meanings and power. However, according to Laura Mulvey’s theory, most female’s gaze has been defined as sexualized pleasure of being look at, and the gaze “has been split between active/male and passive/female.”
House of Wax in 1953 has created a different female gaze which the director allows women to discover their power of gaze without being blinded by men. Sue visits the wax museum with her boyfriend, but when he leaves with other men, Sue is left alone in the museum. However, the absence of men does not let her panic or becomes a vulnerable victim, instead, she actives her gaze without any assistance from men. She discovers the similarity between the wax figure and her dead friend, Cathy. Sue is no longer an object to gaze at, but she holds the power to gaze at others by herself.
We can see her eyes suspiciously look at something which is out of the screen while the director uses the point of view shot to reveal the object, the wax figure, to the audience. Then, the shot returns to Sue whose figure is bigger since she moves closer to the camera. As she moves closer to the wax figure, not only the wax figure but also the sound of her footsteps become bigger. It indicates that the audiences are experiencing Sue’s vision since the audiences move forward to the object with Sue.
On the other hand, the remake in 2005 uses I camera to increase tension between the character and the audience. The audiences are placed with the same position with the characters, so they have the direct experience to the horror scene. In one of the scene, Carly discovers Bo’s true identity and escapes from his house. Director uses extreme long shot to reveal Carly’s isolated situation in the town, and this increase more tense to the audience since they all know that the girl has to face alone to the killer. Then the director uses the close up and the spinning camera to show Carly’s anxiety. Her eyes are anxiously searching for a shelter while the shaking camera gives an impression of limit time. The point of view shot browses through some buildings showing what Carly sees, and finally her gaze lands on the church. The last long shot reveals that Carly is running toward the church as her shelter.
Furthermore, the gaze can not only give the character’s gaze power but also weaken their gaze. In the remake in 2005, Vincent is hunting down one of his victim, Dalton. With the shot-reverse-shot, we can see that Dalton falls down the stairs through Vincent’s vision, and his position allows Vincent to look down on him. Dalton’s lower level gaze disallows him to escape from the death while his gaze can only show the approaching Vincent, an incoming and unescapable threat. On the other hand, through Vincent’s point of view shot, the audiences can see that Dalton is like a captured lamb waiting to be slaughtered in the middle of the screen. These shots empower the killers while weakening the victim’s power.
House of Wax(2005) Dalton's death
Mise-en-scene
Both the directors, André de Toth and Jaume Collet-Serra, use mise-en-scene to set up the story for the audience. The costume in the story help set up the character’s feature. In House of Wax (1953), Jarrod is wearing a brown coat in the beginning, but after his wax museum burns down and his dream vanishes, his costume changes to a darker color. He wears black tuxedo and disguises himself as a man in black cape. His costume reflects his evil mind, and allows him to blend into the dark night in order to crawl in the shadow of the society. The same mise-en-scene is adapted by Jaume Collet-Serra in his remake of House of Wax in 2005. The evil brothers, Bo and Vincent, are wearing dark color clothes indicating their vicious intention.
Jarrod's costume changes when he starts his evil plot (House of Wax 1953)
Bo (on the left) and Vincent(on the right) both wear dark color clothes in House of Wax 2005
The directors use mise-en-scene to make the horror film more dreadful. Both the original and the remake of House of Wax are set in a horrible place where the victim will “later find themselves is a venerable element of horror” (Clover 198). The original in 1953 happens in Chamber of Horror while the remake in 2005 takes place in a deserted small town and the murder occurs in the basement of the wax museum. These terrible places make the audiences feel more frightful since the background setting allows them to adapt the horror story better.