Waxwork (1988)

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

While walking to the high-school, the teenagers Sarah (Deborah Foreman) and China (Michelle Johnson) are invited by the owner of a wax museum, David Lincoln (David Warner), to a private exhibition at midnight and he tells that they may invite four other friends to come with them. China invites her former boyfriend, the wealth Mark (Zach Galligan), their friend Tony (Dana Ashbrook) and two other schoolmates to come to the museum, but the two last ones give-up.Mark, China, Sarah and Tony are welcome by a dwarf and they separate in the room during the tour. Soon Tony crosses the security rope of the display and he finds in a cabin trapped with a werewolf. China also crosses the security rope of another display and she finds in a castle with several vampires. Tony and China are killed and become part of the exhibition. Mark and Sarah leave the museum and soon they find that their friends are going missing. Mark goes to the police but Inspector Roberts (Charles McCaughan) does not believe in his words. Mark and Sarah find in the attic of his mansion an old newspaper and they learn a dark secret about David Lincoln. They visit Sir Wilfred (Patrick Macnee), who is a friend of Mark's family, and they learn that David is near to unleash evil on Earth."Waxwork" is a funny and gore movie with an absurd story, silly dialogs, but also a cult movie. The Waxwork Museum mysteriously appears in town and soon teenagers, the police inspector and several people disappear in the wax museum, but nobody in the town seems to care. The 80's is a fertile period of horror movies and "Waxwork" is among my favorites. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "A Passagem" ("The Passage")

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.

A group of friends attend a private showing at a new Waxwork museum, but the owner has a sinister plan that involves the wax figures. The museum has displays of the most sinister creatures known to man and once a person steps onto the display, they enter the creature's world. I thoroughly enjoy this movie every time I watch it because it is very creative and set out to do something completely different. The only negative thing I can say is that the effects and editing are fairly poor. However, it doesn't stand out that much or ruin the movie at all. It is full of dark humor and gives nods to great horror movies. Of course, it wouldn't be a campy 80's movie without Gremlins star Zach Galligan and several other memorable actors from the decade showing up. It should also be mentioned that this is Anthony Hickox's first feature-length film, which makes it even more impressive. This is a gem when it comes to campy horror movies and is a definite must-see.

Wealthy slacker college student Mark, his new girlfriend Sarah, and their friends are invited to a special showing at a mysterious wax museum which displays 18 of the most evil men of all time. After his ex-girlfriend and another friend disappear, Mark becomes suspicious. What he doesn't know is that they have been made a part of the exhibit, by first living out the scene and then being murdered in it......Back in the day, this was one of those bizarre horror movies that you caught on TV and never saw again.There were very few scenes I remember, but I remember I loved the film and it's sequel. Finally getting a chance to see it again, the rose tinted specs did not help the fact that's found this a little too average.The references to 'something wicked this way comes' are rife throughout, and all I see in Galligan is Billy Peltzer acting the pathetic fool.It's a very bizarre movie, with great make up and cheap sets, but it redeems itself come the finale with its bonkers fight between old men and titular characters.After seeing this finale again, I really wonder how original Joss Whedon is, because it's so much like 'Cabin in the Woods'.All in all, it's average stuff with a couple of good scenes, but nothing special.