Critics reviews

It's Price that gives the film its characteristic balance of elegance and lurid theatricality. The movie launched a new phase of his career, during which he served as the stark antithesis to the likes of Marlon Brando, James Dean, and every other actor whose Method had them stuffing wax into the smalls of their mouths while Price himself masticated over each and every elongated syllable. Speaking contemporaneously, Price's purple diction may have been the film's most truly otherworldly effect.

The film, of course, becomes a rather marvelous celebration of cheap sensationalism, which de Toth executes with technical brilliance and perverse imagination... The [Blu-Ray release] is a triumph for everyone concerned. "House of Wax" has certainly never looked this good or played this well since April 10, 1953, when the film had its world premiere at the Paramount Theater in Times Square.