Trivia / House of Wax (2005)

• Actor Allusion:
  • Elisha Cuthbert was infamously a Damsel in Distress in the wilderness in 24.
  • A few characters say "that's hot", the famous Catchphrase of Paris Hilton.
  • Hilton, then (in)famous for her sex tape, also plays a character who dies by getting a long shaft rammed through her head.
• Blooper: The voicemail that Blake listens to of the scene where Bo attacks Carly unfolds faster than the original scene did.
• California Doubling: The movie is set in the American South, but was filmed entirely in Australia.
• Dyeing for Your Art: Elisha Cuthbert dyed her hair brunette for this role to contrast Carly with the blonde Paige.
• Enforced Method Acting: Elisha Cuthbert had her lips actually glued together when Bo does the same to Carly.
• Fake American: Elisha Cuthbert is Canadian, while Carly is American.
• I Am Not Leonard Nimoy: Even the soundtrack (the score album on Varèse Sarabande, NOT the song album) gets in on this. There's a track titled "Paris Gets It", even though the character she plays is called Paige.
• Orphaned Reference: A couple of lines reference a 'Miss Ambrose' Beauty Contest, and when Nick and Carly run out of the movie theatre, there's a shot of a waxwork of the winner. This would be a Brick Joke from the original opening (see below).
• Playing Against Type:
  • Chad Michael Murray had initially only really played teen heartthrobs in movies and, of course, his One Tree Hill role, so it was quite difficult for him to play bad boy Nick.
  • Paris Hilton had pretty much just played herself before this film.
  • Elisha Cuthbert's most well-known role was as a Ms. Fanservice, almost the complete opposite of a Final Girl.
• Playing Their Own Twin:
  • Brian Van Holt plays both Bo and Vincent.
  • Averted with their younger selves, however, as they are played by different actors.
• Referenced by...: In the anime adaptation of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind, when Formaggio is talking about how Narancia is going to get eaten by the spider, there is an Imagine Spot of Narancia's body dripping with the spider's digestive juices, drawn to look like the movie poster.
• Scully Box: As Jared Padalecki is a whole foot taller than her, Elisha Cuthbert taped two-inch blocks of wood to her boots whenever they were filmed from the knee up.
• Technology Marches On: All the cellphones on display are flip phones and early 2000s-era Nokias and Samsungs. Dalton also films everyone with a video camera as opposed to smartphone.
• Troubled Production: Not as bad as some examples, but a fire broke out on set and destroyed an entire sound stage. Mercifully, no one was injured, aside from one crew member with some burns (the fire broke out during a test of special effects equipment). There were also some mild difficulties involving the paparazzi's fixation on Paris Hilton, who literally had to wear a wig and glasses whenever she left her apartment to avoid attention. Paris was also not used to having such a big role in a film before, as she had only ever done cameos or played characters that were basically herself.
• What Could Have Been: An alternate opening featured a girl called Jennifer stranded on the highway, who gets killed by either Bo or Vincent. It was filmed and included as an extra on the DVD. It is her statue that Vincent is working on at the start of the movie - and the statue of the Miss Ambrose winner is of her.
• Wolverine Publicity: Paige is probably the fourth most important character, but Paris Hilton got the most press about starring in the film.

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