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

Avoid it... if you expect only the most devious of Ottman's often intelligent scores and/or prefer those which contain a much more consistent rhythmic structure.

Ottman

House of Wax: (John Ottman) There really seem to be only two reasons why this teenie horror flick got made; either the filmmakers and studio determined that young audiences raised in the Scream era still haven't had enough of the typical mass killings of dumb youths in ridiculous circumstances, or... the entire film was an excuse to get Paris Hilton in a steamy sex scene and have her run around in skimpy underwear before being yet another victim of the usual slasher film demise. The 2005 version of House of Wax is an insult to the classic 1953 Vincent Price thriller, without a doubt, and the film's name has been yanked from the esteemed Hollywood legend simply for the purposes of selling this new abomination. Essentially, the plot of the current House of Wax involves some kids who get side-tracked on their way to a football game and end up in a small town that is a time capsule of the 1960's. The town's landscape is dominated by a museum that only contains wax sculptures, but is itself also made of wax. Predictable and tired, the progression of killings yields obvious survivors for a potential sequel, although the intelligence behind this particular entry in the teen slasher/thriller has been met with such disregard from critics (and some audiences) that hopefully the concept will be forgotten. Producer Joel Silver had worked twice before with composer John Ottman, and with Silver's inclination to adorn the film with a massive, gothic score, the choice of Ottman for the task was not surprising. Ottman continues to make a career out of horror and occasional action, writing in a realm of perpetual musical darkness that once again steers the composer away from his imaginary first romance score (now ten years into his major career). Not only does Ottman embrace horror films of suspect quality, but he seems to genuinely enjoy them. As heard in Hide and Seek earlier this year, Ottman delightfully concocts themes of innocent structure and instrumentation and mutates them throughout his scores into the menacing backdrop necessary for the genre. No exception is House of Wax, although the manipulation of themes and rhythms in this venture isn't as tightly woven as in other Ottman thrillers.

As always, the personality inherent in Ottman's writing is present in House of Wax, with wacky instrumentation effects, decent thematic integrity, and hints of false innocence throughout. His title 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 and staggered series of orchestral hits) is exactly what you'd expect to rise from the frenzied action sequences of an Ottman horror score. Unfortunately, many of the horror sequences resort to typical cliches in the "shock methodology" of film scoring, and much of the underscore for 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, with some outstanding brass repetitions in the final moments of that climactic cue. It's difficult, as with many Ottman scores, not to enjoy the subtle cues more that the ones 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 full-blown version. Ottman also provides his own solo performance of the religiously-inclined organ as the final cue on album, with the instrument providing a satisfying bass throughout the score. The downfall of Ottman's work here, however, is that his music fails to achieve the rhythmic structure that often binds his best work. Short blasts of devilish harmonic material will remind of The Usual Suspects, but without the kind of consistent rhythmic development (which the film's movement very well may not have allowed), the much of the score's material meanders in Gothika territory. Neither the album nor the film are the best representation of Ottman's work for House of Wax, however, with several cues in the film drowned out by ambient sound and the album featuring less than half of the recorded composition. True Ottman fans will be enticed by the spirit of this score, but its reach won't likely extend much farther. ***

Bias Check:

For John Ottman reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.32 (in 25 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.09 (in 15,211 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.