Your support makes Blue Moon possible (Patreon)
DearlyBeloved
Meteorite
- Joined
- Jul 4, 2021
Ah, Vincent Price. For those who don't know him, well, he's one of the greatest actors of the past generation. If you ever heard of the movie "I Am Legend", starring Will Smith, you might not know that the movie was based on "Last Man on Earth", a film Vincent Price starred in decades before. Which, in my opinion, is worth taking the time to watch. It's free on Youtube (Some of his films are).
Watching this film gave me the most unique idea! (WHICH I'LL BE GETTING TO IN A MOMENT) It opened my eyes to two correlating ideals, which unintentionally fit into a subgenre with this film. House of Wax reminds me of the films: Darkman AND Phantom of the Oprea (Except there's no music and it's less touchy-feely-romance)! And, I love that this film and its writing & narrative remind me of these films! I mean, come on! Even if you don't like musicals, Phantom of the Oprea's story was powerful, but it didn't have as much darkness as Darkman. So, ironically, their unholy lovechild is House of Wax.
And it's a beautiful child! I love it to pieces. This film is worth the hype. The remakes cannot compare, take my word.
Here's a synopsis of the film:
A disfigured sculptor repopulates his destroyed wax museum by murdering people and using their wax-coated corpses as displays.
(HERE'S SOME MORE INFORMATION; This is the beginning narritive I want to start out with for the RP; BUT there's are branching narritivies I want to span off of using this, with my partner. I want to work off this and add more to the story! I have some ideas of my own I'd love to add in and I'm open for suggestions!!!)
Professor Henry Jarrod is a talented wax figure sculptor with a museum in 1890s New York. He specializes in historical figures such as John Wilkes Booth, Joan of Arc, and one that he considers his masterpiece, Marie Antoinette. When his business partner Matthew Burke demands more sensational exhibits to increase profits, Jarrod refuses. Jarrod then gives a private tour to renowned art critic Sidney Wallace. Wallace, deeply impressed with Jarrod's sculptures, agrees to buy Burke out but will not be able to do so until after he returns from a continental trip.
That night, Burke deliberately sets the museum on fire, intending to claim the insurance money. In the process, he fights off Jarrod, who is desperately attempting to save his precious sculptures. Burke splashes kerosene over Jarrod's body and leaves him to die in the fire.
Miraculously, Jarrod survives, but with severe injuries, including crippled hands. (Think of it like how Dr. Strange's hands were crippled; he can use them, just not to sculpt anymore. Sculpting and Brain Surgery, very difficult to do with unsteady hands) He builds a new House of Wax with help from deaf-mute sculptor Igor and another assistant named Leon Averill. Jarrod now concedes to popular taste and includes a "Chamber of Horrors" that showcases both historical crimes and recent events, such as the apparent suicide of his former business partner Burke. In reality, Burke was murdered by a cloaked, disfigured killer who then staged the death as a suicide. Burke's fiancée, Cathy Gray , is murdered soon afterward. Her body mysteriously disappears from the morgue.
HERE'S MORE IF YOU WANT TO KEEP READING: House of Wax (1953)
Now, my thoughts:
What could make this universally appraised story any better? Nothing. Though, I'm compelled to challenge that notion by adding in my take. Now....Magic. Yes, don't get me started. I know someone is going to make the odd comment that Vincent Price/Professor Henry Jerrod looks strangely like Dr. Strange, but, Steve Ditko, the guy who originally created Strange's appearance, actually based it off Vincent. Because Vincent used to play wizards and sorcerers a lot in his films. So, it's apropos of me to include magic in this story.
This is what I like to call a secondary narrative, and one is included in the film if you keep reading the Wiki Article. But the secondary narrative isn't as enticing as the one I have concocted. About a young woman who separates herself from her coven. Her story is steeped in mysticism and yet is lives within the same world as Jerrod's house of horrors. This young lady becomes involved with Jerrod much in the same way Sue Allen does in the movie. She visits his museum and on a whim starts to mess with his wax figures using magic. Come to find out this is actually her only real magical ability, manipulation of objects, and she found it so easy to manipulate a pliable substance such as wax. To go more in-depth, she was just making the figures somewhat come to life, think of a half-hearted Night At The Museum construct!
This immediately catches Jerrod's attention as he redirects his attention from Sue to this "oddity". He is a cunny creature, smarter than he seems, an artsy intellectual. He's eventually able to piece together, with enough visits from this youth, that she's the one manipulating his creations. Practically bringing them to life, which perhaps might be something he's always dreamed of. He's always spoken to his figures and heard them talk back, but that's because only artists can "hear" their own creations. It's an art thing, don't get me started on the details. Seems crazy, but that's actually a real concept for some famous fine artists. Everyone has their process, even writers. We're all quirky here.
Jerrod is just a little more quirky and cute because he used to speak to his creations; he brought them into life with his hands, meticulously with the kind of detail that skyrocketed his credibility to that of Michelangelo and his sistine chapel. Which is why the loss of his hands was such a tragedy. So, think of how Stephen Strange felt when he found out he could no longer use his hands. Devastation. But, it's just something he has to live with. Now he has Igor as his hands in his place, to sculpt and bring to life his creations.
So, you can imagine his shock, awe, and surprise when he finds out it's this young woman doing the mimicry. Actually bringing the sculptures to "life". He immediately wants to corner her like a hound in the streets and capture her in his clutches to interrogate her, but he cannot do so hastily. He's a patient hunter. He hasn't gotten this far on luck alone, he's crafty; like a spider weaving a web, he'll most likely attempt to try and lure her in, uncover her secrets.
But, this young woman has other ideas. And, if he somehow manages to capture her, she comes with a lot of baggage...more than he could ever imagine...
Sadly, this girl does not come with a warning sign attached to her succulent breasts. So...her business becomes his business. Get involved with a witch,...weird shit happens. But, he'll find this all out in due time. To his dismay. It's already too late, it's like he fed the stray cat everybody told him not to feed all his life and now she's his property and now the world is out to get him. He's discovered this whole new layer of society living in New York, outside the doorstep of his Museum, which he didn't even know existed!!! ALSO, he's pissed off the Upper East Side Coven of New York City. Not because of the girl, who is hanging around him, not at first, mind you, but mainly because, maybe, he might have murdered one or three of their witches for his exhibit without knowing they were witches...And...yeah...the outlook is not so good. To top it off, I think he might just end up harboring a deserter of that same coven. Also, dealing with Sue who keeps coming back to the museum because she's getting weird vibes from that Joan of Arc wax figure that looks exactly like her dead friend.
This woman might just have to become his ally and protect him...because...I think I might just have her be grateful for the murder of her "coven sisters" because they were going to kill her ritualistically because they saw her as a weak link in the chain, a lamb to the slaughter. So, to her, he's kind of her hero. They were planning on murdering her in cold blood as a group, and it would have happened, except he picked those girls off one by one. They were bullying this Odd Witch for the longest time, since she was a child, and it was going to escalate into something gruesome. This is probably why she wasn't immediately driven away when she found out the truth about those "wax figures that looked remarkably like her dead coven sisters". The more she looked at them with each visit the more she got that itch at the back of her mind. But, she was too busy evading Jerrod, with each visit to his museum, that she kind of scratched it off.
I'm open to suggestions and would love to hear your ideas to add to the story!!!
Feel free to shoot me a PM!
HERE'S A VIDEO I VINCENT, if you want to know more about him; also, some scenes from House of Wax:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBHihku2zcU
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yd5VKx1UJUI
Last edited: