Buy it... if you are enticed by John Ottman's consistent ability to twist innocent-sounding themes and instrumentation into horrifying, gothic levels of bombast.

Avoid it... if you demand only the most devious of Ottman's often intelligent scores in the genre or prefer those which contain a much more consistent rhythmic flow.

Ottman

House of Wax: (John Ottman) There really seemed to be only two reasons why the 2005 teenager-aimed horror flick House of Wax was produced. Either the filmmakers and the studio determined that young audiences raised in the Scream generation still hadn't seen enough of the typical mass killings of dumb youths in ridiculous circumstances. Or, the entire film was an excuse to take advantage of "actress" Paris Hilton's notoriety by showing her in a steamy sex scene and having her run around in skimpy underwear before becoming yet another victim of the usual slasher movie demise. Without a doubt, this remake of House of Wax is an insult to the classic 1953 Vincent Price thriller, and the film's name was yanked from the esteemed Hollywood legend simply for the purposes of selling this deviant abomination. Essentially, the plot of the remade House of Wax involves a group of kids that finds themselves side-tracked on their way to a football game and ends up in a small town that is a creepy time capsule of the 1960's. The town's landscape is dominated by a museum that only contains wax sculptures and is itself also made of wax. Predictable and tired, the progression of killings yields obvious survivors for a potential sequel, though the intelligence behind this particular entry in the teen slasher/thriller genre was met with such disregard from critics (and some audiences) that the concept was thankfully re-buried and forgotten. Producer Joel Silver had worked twice before with composer John Ottman, and with Silver's inclination to adorn the film with a massively gothic score despite limited fiscal resources, the choice of Ottman for the task was not surprising. The composer continued to make a career out of horror and occasional action, writing in a realm of perpetual musical darkness that once again steered the composer away from his elusive, imaginary first romance score. Not only does Ottman embrace lower budget horror films of suspect quality, but he seems to genuinely enjoy working on them. As heard in Hide and Seek earlier in the same year, Ottman delightfully concocts themes of innocent structure and instrumentation and mutates them throughout his scores into the menacing demeanor necessary for the genre. No exception is House of Wax, though the manipulation of themes and rhythms in this venture isn't as tightly woven as in other Ottman thrillers.

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As always, the trademark personality inherent in Ottman's writing is present in House of Wax, with wacky instrumentatal effects, decent thematic integrity, and hints of false innocence throughout. His main theme, performed in the opening by celesta, piano, violin, and restrained "la-la" choral mixing whips itself into a frenzy in its 8-note movements. Representing the town, this theme isn't one of Ottman's strongest, especially in this context, but it is adapted into larger sections of the orchestra for consistent dramatic effect later in the score. The more interesting theme is the one with which Ottman obviously had his most fun; the over-the-top gothic characteristics of the ritual theme (heard twice with a relentless snare rhythm, deep vocal effects, and staggered series of orchestral hits) is exactly what you'd expect to rise from the best realized action sequences of an Ottman horror score. Unfortunately, many of the other horror passages resort to typical cliches in the "shock methodology" of film scoring, and much of the meat in House of Wax steps back into the shadows of Ottman's more non-descript writing for the genre. One notable exception is the melting of the museum itself in "Bringing Down the House," ending with an outstanding 45 seconds of tonal melodrama starting at 4:20 into that climactic cue. It's difficult, as with many similar Ottman scores, not to appreciate the subtle cues more that those of massive volume. An echoing woodwind effect in "Story of the Town" reminds of the technique used by Jerry Goldsmith in Total Recall, and "Brotherly Love" offers a straight-forward and ultimately more ominous performance of the ritual theme than the prior, full-blown version. Ottman also provides his own solo performance of the religiously-inclined organ as the final track on the album, the instrument providing satisfying bass throughout the score. The downfall of Ottman's work here, however, is that it fails to achieve the rhythmic structure that often binds his best efforts. Short blasts of devilishly accessible music will remind of The Usual Suspects but lack the same flow of consistent rhythmic development (which the film's narrative may not have allowed), causing much of the score's filler material to meander in Gothika territory. Neither the album nor the film is the best representation of Ottman's work for House of Wax, however, with several cues in context drowned out by ambient sound effects and the album featuring less than half of the recorded composition. Dedicated Ottman enthusiasts will be enticed by the spirit of this score, but its reach likely won't extend much farther. ***   Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For John Ottman reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.22 (in 32 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.03 (in 17,523 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.