House of Wax

United States, 1953

Object On display

In the original trailer for House of Wax (1953), Warner Brothers heralded the third dimension as “the new wonder of the entertainment world”. Though that wonder had been discovered a year earlier in Bwana Devil (1952), Warner Brothers explored immersion further by releasing a colour 3D feature that incorporated stereo sound for the first time. So not only did action spring from the screen, but sound effects were also heard in different sections of the cinema, heightening tension and drama through the illusion of multi-directional audio. Both of these innovations are standard in filmmaking today.

The House of Wax trailer via Warner Bros. YouTube channel.

How are these works connected?

Explore this constellation

Related articles

Related works

Content notification

Our collection comprises over 40,000 moving image works, acquired and catalogued between the 1940s and early 2000s. As a result, some items may reflect outdated, offensive and possibly harmful views and opinions. ACMI is working to identify and redress such usages.

Learn more about our collection and our collection policy here. If you come across harmful content on our website that you would like to report, let us know.

How to watch

Stream, rent or buy via Just Watch Logo

Collection

Not in ACMI's collection

On display until

16 February 2031

ACMI: Gallery 1

Credits

director

Andre De Toth

Production places
United States
Production dates
1953

Collection metadata

ACMI Identifier

Curatorial section

The Story of the Moving Image → Moving Pictures → MI-08. Immersive Innovations → MI-08-C01

Collected

3718 times

Please note: this archive is an ongoing body of work. Sometimes the credit information (director, year etc) isn’t available so these fields may be left blank; we are progressively filling these in with further research.

Cite this work on Wikipedia

If you would like to cite this item, please use the following template: {{cite web |url=https://acmi.net.au/works/100528--house-of-wax/ |title=House of Wax |author=Australian Centre for the Moving Image |access-date=29 December 2024 |publisher=Australian Centre for the Moving Image}}