Dracula: Stoker and Netflix (Episode 3)

House of Wax: the embodiment of a slasher film.

Nerymar Cruz Ramirez 

A summary of House of Wax

A group of oblivious college students are stranded near a strange wax museum. The strange town deceives them into thinking it was a well known destination that housed great art. Soon, things start to get a little strange for the teenagers when what seemed to look like realistic art, turned out to be livelier than they thought. In a turn of events, they find themselves fighting to survive and keep from becoming part of the display. 

Gender Representation

"Clover: Her Body, Himself" gives many example of common themes in slasher horror films. This novel challenges the norms of horror because it talks about the unseen aspects of classic horror. Before reading the section of the novel I was not aware of the complementation between pornography and horror. Like it said in the novel horror and pornography are closely related to the arousal of bodily sensation. In this film we see how this idea correlates to gender. Paige (the blond) is seen striping off her clothes; she is quite sexual and no one in her group of friends seems to mind it. Paige is not the type of girl that would portray women in today's society, as we are expected to act and look obedient. Is uncommon for women to talk about their sexual desires. Slasher films always kill off the the overly sexual character first, which in this case is Paige. 

     

Stereotypical Characters

     Like any other slasher film, the film contains your average set of characters. First we have the main character Carly (the final girl), she is what you would call the reserved member in her group. Carly is aware that something is wrong in what seems to be a peaceful town. We also have the slutty blond; Paige is always getting intimate with her boyfriend Robert who is A jock. Carly's brother Nick comes along with the gang, he is portrayed as the black sheep of the family; he seems not to get along with Carly's boyfriend. Dalton is the comedic relief character in this movie, he always seems to have a joke under his sleeve and he is always ready to party. 

The Psychotic Product of a Sick Family

The slashers in this film are two troubled brothers who were born as siamese twins. One of the twins was left with a deformity in his face while the other brother was left intact. Vincent (the deformed brother) is shown to have lots of trauma from his childhood. At the beginning of the movie their mother is shown to tie Vincent up in a high chair while his wrists bleed out. Despite Bo's good looks he is by far the most evil from the duo. Bo himself bullies and makes fun of Vincent because he thinks of him as being incapacitated even with his crafting talents. Bo is the mastermind behind it all while Vincent is just the craftsmen. It can be said that both Vincent and Bo were influenced by their mother. Throughout the movie Bo keeps referring to his mother as the originator of this craft. He is shown in the church surrounded by other waxed corpses and by his side is his waxed ,decease mother. Vincent and Bo talk about making their mother proud and finishing what she started.

Common themes used in slasher films

The House of Wax contained common themes used in classic slasher films. 

Some of these themes include:

1. Teenagers going on road trips.

2. Getting stranded/ running out of gas.

3. slutty girl dying in her underwear/naked.

4. Teens having illegal substances at hand.

5. Slashers uncanny physical strength.

6. curious characters that always wants investigate.

7. Sexual promiscuity leading to death.

     I think the slasher genre has really redefined horror in whole. It is impossible to watch a slasher film today that does not have elements of the original slasher movies. This genre is composed of teens, road trips and like listed above sexual promiscuity. Slasher films will remain the same for the future because this genre is not that complex. Basically the same themes are being used over and over with different characters and different sceneries. Overall, slasher films are pretty good and entertaining. It would be interesting if one day the final girl is turned out to be the fool or the blonde.