Waxwork (1988)

This 1988 horror comedy stars Zach Galligan, Deborah Foreman, Michelle Johnson and David Warner. Galligan (Gremlins) plays Mark, a rich teen who attends a midnight showing of a wax museum with his friends. They become magically, transported through the exhibits of dangerous characters and play certain parts/roles before meeting their demises. Foreman (April Fool's Day) plays Sarah, Johnson plays China and Warner (The Omen) plays Lincoln, a warlock who runs the museum. This is a bizarre film with a bit of fantasy elements added and good make-up effects. Give this a try at least once if you're into horror/occult flicks.

"Waxwork" is a horror movie that sounds much better than it is.I mean, how could it miss? It manages to combine zombies, mummies, the Marquis de Sade, Jon Irenicus, vampires, and according to Wikipedia, a bunch of other things I didn't notice and don't remember seeing, such as a talking venus fly trap.That's the problem.Maybe they just tried to jam too much stuff into one movie. It doesn't help that the central premise of a wax museum which teleports people into horror movies (or something?) doesn't make sense.Nothing in it connected with me on any level. I wasn't entertained.There are some asides that are quite boring and add nothing to the movie, like when a kid goes and gets a cop to investigate the wax museum. I confess I stopped paying attention there.I tried to get back into it but it just wasn't interesting.

Directed and written by Anthony Hickox, the movie has everything that a horror movie fan might love. Often cited as the first self-referential horror movie. Its showcase in a waxwork museum own by a mysterious, Mr. Lincoln (David Warner) and his midget & lurch like minions. These aren't your typical Vincent Price's 1953's House of Wax figures exhibit though, each one depicts a different story of death and murder by evil creatures. Nearly all the classic monsters are in this movie, ranging from the werewolf (John Rhys-Davies), Count Dracula (Miles O'Keeffe) to etc. stock characters. Some of them worth mentioning are: Frankenstein's monster, the mummy, Phantom of the Opera, and zombies. There are some homage to other movies characters in the film such as the pod from Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), the killer plant from The Little Shop of Horrors (1960) & the demon baby from It's Alive (1974). They even added the villainous real life historic figure Marquis de Sade (J. Kenneth Campbell) to the mixed. Warner & Campbell give the best performances from all the villains. It's too bad, the actors acting like solid wax models couldn't act still, as they were blinking, and slightly moving. They are not supposed to look alive, until the victim looking at the exhibit, overstep the borders of the exhibit. If they do, they're transform into the world of the display. If you die in their world, you die in real life. The movie is full of the 1980's horror clichés cheese archetypes, as a group of most unlikeable spoil rich university yippee students enter the evil museum. I found Mark Loftmore (Zack Galligan) as a great lead, but he was such a jerk. Mark's need for caffeine is introduced early in the first film, then it's promptly dropped and never goes anywhere. Plus, how on earth is he getting his facts about killings, before there isn't any clues of the crimes? It's like his character just jump over the script. The way, Zack acts is so wooded. Then there is Sarah Brightman (Deborah Foreman), the 'good' virgin girl who all for sadomasochism pain humiliation. It's really bugs me that she is a stupid damsel in distress type of a character, who not only doesn't want to rescue, but beg the bad guy to continue to torture her because she got an orgasm. She is like the wet dream of wife beaters everywhere. No strong feminism here. Even China Webster (Michelle Johnson) the archetype whore character, who seems like she is against vampires at first, gives up and surrendering herself to Dracula. Why, because women will fall in love with dangerous abusing men as long as they are handsome! What crap message is that!? The acting from these two are mediocre, at best. The only good thing about them are both women are just beautiful. Tony (Dana Ashbrook) come off a drug- addict idiot who you knew, is going to get killed off, first. So, no surprised there. Since Writer/director Anthony Hickox wrote the screenplay in only 3 days, the plot doesn't make much sense. The movie tries to explain more, through wheel chair bound Uncle, Sir Wilfred (Patrick Macnee), a former hunter of the supernatural, but it just set up more questions than answers. Then there is the bit about the wax sculptures being from the most evil men from the past, and they need victims to come back alive. Excuse me, this doesn't make any sense. Nearly none of those horror characters were alive, besides Jack the Ripper & Marquis de Sade. Somehow, I think the movie was trying to put Adolf Hitler in the film; seeing how much they mention fascism in the film. The movie made no more mention about Mark's attic and the glowing book of the Marquis de Sade in a trunk. What was that about? The ending is kinda weird, as the most evil creatures that ever live is against a group of old people getting their butt kick. I thought these were the most evil creatures that ever live? Also, what are the victim now bad guys? I can understand those who turn into monsters, but I can't see the old hunter teaming up with the werewolf that he just try to kill earlier in the film. This film is OK with its combination of horror and comedy. The movie has this weird hate/love relationship with smoking cigarettes that you will probably catch on. There is a Phantom of the Opera joke, that was supposed to be meant for Jason Vorhees from the Friday the 13th films about people making movies about anything these days, but they (the producers) couldn't get the rights for the character. The dialogue is full of cheesy one liners. You will get over the top gorn, spraying blood, mutilated flesh, and people getting rip apart. In some versions, the film was cut by the MPAA due to gore in the vampire sequence. It's badly edited, so just find the original copy. The set designs are really good & well captured. I love the black & white look of the zombie sequence. Amazingly accurate & professional looking, considering the films low budget. The score by Roger Bellon changes depending on which monster or era were in & is done in the classical scores of the famous Universal horror movie scores of the 30's/40's. The music choices are pretty hip. Look out for other horror movies references like the missing posters that looks like the posters from 1987's Lost Boys or the painting from 1989's Lobster Man from Mars. There is a sequel, 1992's Waxwork II: Lost in Time worth checking out, but it's not as good as this movie. Still, despite its flaws, Waxwork is a wonderful horror film that scares as much as it entertains. Waxworks is a film made with heart & it shows. It's a horror film for horror fans, by horror fans.

Wasn't too crash hot on it the first time I saw it, but after this repeat viewing it was kind of better, but still not without its problems. Genre director / writer Anthony Hickox makes his debut with the morbidly tongue-in-cheek horror "Waxwork", which is a very silly, if gimmicky shocker with some impressively creative scenarios like when our heroine (Zach Galligan) finds himself transported into the black and white world of "Night of the Living Dead". Mark and a group of friends pay a midnight visit to a strange waxwork museum which has opened up in their neighbourhood overnight. The museum if filled with horrific displays of classic monsters; Dracula, the Wolf man, The Mummy, Phantom of the Opera and so son. Before they know it they find themselves drawn into the displays and becoming apart of that world and also possibly a victim. The concept is ambitious and downright inventive (in how it brings it's monsters alive and breaking the narrative into abrupt segments), but what occurs is conventional and there's a real uneven tone that turns what could have been disturbing into a ridiculous, eccentric and stupid outing that caps it off with a cheesy climatic showdown. It doesn't hold back, especially on the blood and gruel. It's vigorous in details and somewhat cruel. Hammy acting by most (led by David Warner and Patrick Macnee), but Zach Galligan and Deborah Foreman were agreeable with Michelle Johnson and Dana Ashbrook rounding off the cast. Also look out for Miles O'Keefe and John Rhys-Davies in bit parts. In all a fun cast working with a smarting, if smug script filled with references, self- parody and goofiness. Where the highpoint arrives from is the use of colourful make-up FX, waxwork designs and stylised visuals despite its limited scope. The project feels like a labour of love for Hickox. Someone who enjoys old classics of the genre in reviving them to post- modern times in "Waxworks". "This isn't my idea of fun".