The 2000s were lousy with remakes, some of them good, many of them lousy. Major horror franchises from the 1980s got a makeover; subversive ‘70s horror films received a glossy new coat of paint. One of the best of these remakes – and one which has finally begun getting its due over the last decade, building a cult audience and culminating in a new special edition Blu-ray – is House of Wax from 2005. It reimagines the 1953 Vincent Price classic (itself a remake of 1933’s Mystery of the Wax Museum) for a modern audience: gorier, sexier, and considerably more twisted. I’m certainly not the first to say it, but it’s more a remake of 1979’s underrated Tourist Trap than it is of House of Wax. As a remake of Tourist Trap, it’s pretty fantastic.

TV stars Elisha Cuthbert and Chad Michael Murray (One Tree Hill) play brother and sister on...