House of Wax Reboot Writers Had Hoped to Develop a Prequel

Back in the 2000s, the horror market was saturated with reboots and remakes of iconic properties, though only a few of them became financial successes, with some even earning their own sequels, spinoffs, and prequels. In 2005, a reboot of House of Wax landed in theaters, but with it having to compete with a reboot of The Amityville Horror that had debuted weeks prior, it failed to make a major financial impact. Despite the seeds being planted for a possible continuation of the narrative, writers Chad and Carey W. Hayes revealed that they never had talks about a sequel, though they had talks about potentially developing a prequel to the reboot.

“We did float the idea of a prequel, after it [came out], but the studio’s response is it didn’t do any big numbers at the box office,” Carey shared with ComicBook.com. “But if we approached it now, it could be a whole different story because of the fan base.”

He added, “It’s like, the theater became full of people: how? You know? I mean, it’s a crazy story.”

In the film, a group of friends faces car troubles and heads to the closest town in hopes of finding assistance. Instead, they find a community full of mannequins and statues seemingly crafted by a former resident, yet the community has become almost entirely abandoned after a highway development. As the friends become targeted by one of the few remaining residents, they discover that many of the wax statues are other victims who have been covered in wax to become new residents of the town. The finale teases that, after the survivors escape the town, there could be another resident that would continue this tradition of turning tourists into wax.

In the years since the film was released, the writers have gone on the craft a number of compelling films, including the first two The Conjuring films, but one trend that continues is how passionate fans remain about their reboot.

“What we find so interesting is we do a lot of film festivals and do panels at film festivals and sometimes workshops and things,” Chad pointed out. “And the fan base that comes up to talk about that movie, in particular, is fantastic. And so, it’s like, ‘You still want to talk about that movie? That’s awesome.’ It’s just so, so great.”

Stay tuned for details on a possible continuation of the House of Wax series.

Would you like to see the film get a prequel? Let us know in the comments below or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things horror and Star Wars!