Villain(s)  Disfigured sculptor

Actor(s):  Vincent Price, Frank Lovejoy, Phyllis Kirk, Carolyn Jones

Brief Description  House of Wax (1953) is a landmark American mystery-horror film directed by André De Toth and starring Vincent Price in the career-defining role that cemented him as an international horror icon. Produced and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, it holds a monumental place in cinema history as the first 3D feature film with stereophonic sound to be presented in a regular theater, as well as the first color 3D film from a major American studio. The movie is a remake of Warner Bros.' 1933 pre-Code film, Mystery of the Wax Museum.

Plot:
The story is set in New York City during the early 1900s. Professor Henry Jarrod (Vincent Price) is a brilliant, dedicated sculptor who populates his wax museum with exquisitely lifelike historical figures, treating them as his children rather than commercial exhibits. Unlike his greedy business partner, Matthew Burke, Jarrod refuses to pivot to sensational, macabre displays to maximize profits. Desperate for cash, Burke intentionally sets fire to the museum to collect the insurance money. Jarrod fights bravely to save his art but is knocked unconscious and left to die as the building explodes in a spectacular, roaring blaze.

Eighteen months later, Jarrod miraculously resurfaces. He survived the fire, but his hands are severely crippled, and his face is horribly disfigured, forcing him to use a wheelchair and wear a lifelike wax mask. Unable to sculpt with his own hands, he hires an assistant—a deaf-mute named Igor (played by a young Charles Bronson, credited under his birth name, Charles Buchinsky)—to open a new attraction: the "House of Wax".

This new museum leans entirely into the macabre, featuring a gruesome Chamber of Horrors that depicts historical executions and recent local tragedies. Coincidentally, the opening aligns with a string of mysterious disappearances and the theft of bodies from the city morgue. It is eventually revealed that Jarrod has gone completely insane; to repopulate his museum, he is murdering people and coating their dead bodies in boiling wax to create terrifyingly perfect displays. When he encounters Sue Allen (Phyllis Kirk), he becomes obsessed with her due to her striking resemblance to his destroyed masterpiece, Marie Antoinette, and targets her to become his permanent centerpiece.