The makers of "House of Wax" display momentary flashes of imagination, but the film is mostly a routine slasher flick aimed at the youth market. [...] writers Chad and Carey W. Hayes and debuting feature director Jaume Collet-Serra toss out this source material in favor of a story more akin to an extended "Twilight Zone" episode, where college kids with a poor sense of self-preservation stumble upon a forgotten ghost town in the backwoods of Louisiana. Filmed at the Warner Roadshow Studios in Queensland, Australia, and delayed from its 2004 release, the film should do brisk though brief business in markets catering to young people and college students.

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