Analyzing a bunch of stuff about Vincent (And bo) from the intro of House of wax 2005
Analysis under the cut for my friends n followers who haven't seen the movie
Okay so after watching the movie for like the 6th time I noticed something interesting about the cereal scene
So, we can see that the right half of the bowl is far more empty than the left. He's using his right hand as well, which interests me because Vincent's right side is the blind one- so wouldn't it be more likely that he started using his left hand and would have completed the left side first?
The director/filmmakers could have easily flipped the side Vincent was blind on in their minds and this could be a continuity error- lots of people do it so it's an easy mistake to make. But what if it wasn't? What if it was intentional?
I couldn't help but notice how the bowl is almost a mirror of Vincent's face- one half being empty and the other being full, akin to how Vincent lacks features on the right half of his face but has a complete one on his left.
The cereal can also be read in reverse (R/brandnewsentence)
The choice of cereal (some sort of knockoff cheerios) is honestly pretty interesting and I think important. Vincent's scar tissue is very pockmarked and hole-like, so the use of cheerios replicates the texture, while the milk can mimic smooth skin.
Either way you flip it, I feel like the cereal was heavy foreshadowing for the eventual reveal of Vincent's scarring and meant to be a neat tease for anyone who had seen the film multiple times.
With the fact that the cereal is still full on the left side an in-universe explanation why he only finished half before being given a lot more by Trudy can be read in a couple of ways.
The first of these is that it's a metaphor for the shame Trudy feels about the way her son looks. In her opinion, his scar tissue means he is lacking and, to deal with her own shame of having a visually imperfect son, she covers what she sees as 'empty'. I feel it's especially important that she's the one feeding him here, as she is the maker of his masks at this age too. She 'completes' what he does not have in every way at this age.
Another reading could be Trudy noticing his bowl is empty and not wanting Vincent to look at himself through the reflection of the milk. Here she is quietly teaching him that his reflection is something to be hidden, hiding her shame behind praise of how he acts compared to his brother. In this, his visage can always be hidden, from both others and himself, and so long as he keeps being his mother's darling she will accept and love him.
There's also the 'lazy parenting' reading- I was outright inspired by this analysis by @charleslee-valentine for this bit so go check out her stuff cause her readings are honestly really cool and inspiring for my own takes.
Basically, instead of encouraging her son to eat the rest of his cereal before he can get more- perhaps by encouraging him to use his left hand if he's having trouble with his right or moving the bowl so he can access it easier*, she just fills it back up. As said in the EJ's post the fact that she fills it can speak to wanting to overcompensate for what Vincent 'lacks'.
Instead of letting him work his mind to solve the 'problem' she just fixes it for him, praises him for not being his brother, and would have gone back to what she was doing. While he looks more favored in this moment, it's really just a different sort of neglect.
*I'll save my analysis of why she might not have encouraged him to use his other hand further down.
Yet another reading can be from Vincent's point of view. As there's more cereal to his left, his seeing side, he'd likely perceive that he has more cereal than he actually does. Except... he wouldn't be able to taste as much- for him, his bowl looks full but in reality it's close to empty and he's bringing up nothing but milk.
This can be a metaphor how he perceives his mother's love at this age. He's told he's loved more and his mother praises him for being better than his brother, but he isn't actually more loved, which is related to the fact that half his face is scarred. The praise his mother gives is empty, meant to mask her lackluster parenting. She's focused here on covering what he lacks- making Vincent's newest mask, hiding his reflection from him, praising him for doing nothing because at least he's not Bo. His bowl looks full, but it doesn't taste like it.
We can glean a lot of other things from just this scene as well. The most obvious being the utter mess the Sinclair's live in.
I will forever bully Bo and Vince for just leaving a goddamn waffle burnt in the toaster all day, if not longer, but they learned it from someone and that someone was their mother (And probably dad too).
Vincent's highchair being messy makes sense- he's like 3-4 and blind of course he's gonna be messy and leave a toy. But his mother running the stove COVERED in wax!? The fact that it takes an entire corner of the stove!? Like that's SUCH a fire hazard it's not even funny- why would you even turn on that burner if the corner is so goddamn messy?? Why did you clean the burner but not the rest of the stove??
(Seriously, TWO LAYERS OF THIS SHIT)
This isn't to mention Trudy's tools lying about on the table (At least they're in a pouch). The fact that cereal bits are all over the table and the random bowling pin add to this too. The empty bowl on the table makes me wonder if it's Trudy's, which is most likely, but it's fun to consider if it's Bo's from earlier, before he started to tantrum and was pulled away. The kitchen looks mostly clean, if cluttered, otherwise though.
I feel like from this it can be read that Trudy was messy as hell and Bo and Vincent just didn't clean up after themselves much leading to the house and museum being... the way they are.
The museum looks pretty ok, if suuuuper fucking dusty though. Neat but uncleaned. I don't think Bo or Vincent have even really looked around the lower half in years.
Vincent's workshop on the other hand has so much shit strewn about and being made of wax really doesn't help the grimy feeling.
Bo's... we'll call it a 'Man Cave' is similarly cluttered with shit and dirty. He's a mechanic so it makes a bit of sense but man these guys really have to organize.
Even Lester's in on the mess! Look at his truck! I know he picks up roadkill and all but he could at least sapre time to clean the windows!
The Sinclairs REALLY don't seem to know how to clean up huh? I mean they were men born and raised mostly in the 60s through the 80s, so it makes sense Trudy would have 'housewife' inclinations and not really teach her sons to clean for themselves but ffs she doesn't even clean up that much.
Another interesting thing to look into is the fact that Vincent uses his right hand at this age. It's seen that he's having a bit of trouble with his cereal- not eating most of the left side. The toy that gets knocked over is also to his right.
Later on as an adult we can see Vincent clearly prefers his right hand, but since he's blind on that side why didn't Trudy encourage him to use his left hand here? I mean he can see with that eye so wouldn't it be easier for him and make creating more easy too?
Well it's because she doesn't want her son the be more 'wrong' than he already is. Discrimination and punishment toward left-handed kids in American schools was still very common in the 70s as was general discrimination. I wouldn't be surprised if Trudy discouraged Vincent from using his left in the hopes that he'd be more 'normal'. A lot of American churches outright teach that left-handedness was evil, even today, so back in the 60s and 70s I wouldn't be surprised if it was taught as such.
With Bo's line; "What god took away from you" I can see that as Trudy believing Vincent is more broken because his left side was spared and in turn Bo is more evil for 'stealing' Vincent's right. Left-bias is far more common in smaller, highly religious communities as it does have negative associations within Christianity. I wouldn't be surprised if he was discouraged by Trudy from using his left hand, but still did so for practical reasons and remains primarily right-handed both out of shame and preference.