Bar Trash: House of Wax (1953)
18 150 mins
18 150 mins
BAR TRASH celebrates our 3rd year and 10th sensational season with WE ARE TRASH!, a fan-made mixtape of cult and chaotic cinema (May to Aug 2025).
"A MAN-TURNED-MONSTER, AND THE BEAUTY HE CRAVES!"
HOUSE OF WAX (1953)
After his greedy business partner burns down their wax museum, Prof. Henry Jarrod survives the fire hellbent on taking murderous revenge.
Doors: 6pm. Intro + Film + Intermission: 6:30pm – 9pm
Event takes place in the Members’ Bar (membership not required)
Adults 18+ only
Continuing our Vincent Price Sidequest — showing exclusively at Finsbury Park Picturehouse — BAR TRASH is stupidly proud to present ‘The Master of Menace’ in HOUSE OF WAX (1953).
Before he became a fully-fledged horror icon with THE FLY (1958), Vincent Price dipped his toes in the genre with the Boris Karloff film TOWER OF LONDON (1939) and THE INVISIBLE MAN RETURNS (1940), but mostly appeared in villainous roles in film noir thrillers such as THE WEB (1947), ROGUES' REGIMENT (1948), and THE BRIDE (1949).
HOUSE OF WAX (1953) is another of his early horror appearances with Price at his terrifying best in a role he would make his own: the flamboyant revenger. The first full-colour 3D film produced by a major studio in the 1950s stereoscopic boom, HOUSE OF WAX was the most successful 3D film of that era and also pioneered stereophonic sound. Whilst we can't show the film in 3D, its spectacular production design and creative framing is worth encountering in any format (no glasses required!).
In a strange side note of cinema history, director André de Toth was blind in one eye and unable to experience the film's 3D effects. As Vincent Price put it: “It’s one of the great Hollywood stories. When they wanted a director for a 3D film, they hired a man who couldn’t see 3D at all! André de Toth was a very good director, but he may not have been suited to direct a 3D movie. He’d go to the rushes and say 'Why is everybody so excited about this?' It didn’t mean anything to him. But he made a good picture, a good thriller." (Vincent Price)
A remake of Warner Bros' MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM (1933), HOUSE OF WAX was selected for preservation in the American Library of Congress' National Film Registry in 2014, deeming it "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". The 2005 film HOUSE OF WAX has a lot more in common with TOURIST TRAP (1979) but will definitely appear in a future season...
Polite notice: We are showing HOUSE OF WAX with subtitles from the best available digital source.
/// BAR TRASH is a celebration of cult and curious cinema, hosted by queer film fanatic Token Homo and friends. Films are served with introductions, intermissions, prize giveaways, and subtitles / captions where possible. Tickets £8 / £5 for PH members. Adults 18+ only. Follow @tokenhomo on Instagram for updates. More info at tokenhomo.com ///