Waxwork (1988)

I won't waste my breath recapping the movie because all of the other reviews do an excellent job of that already. So, I will just dive right in and say this movie is campy. And I mean campy. The acting is rather horrendous and the story is odd and confusing at times. Still, I am drawn to it. Waxwork is hilarious, has excellent gore, and has situated itself as one of my most favorite horror movies of all time. There is so much that keeps me laughing and interested. I loved every moment of it. Still, it is not a movie for everyone. If you can't stand movies like Evil Dead or Dead Alive, this movie is definitely not for you. It is, without a doubt, a terrible movie, but that is part of the fun. If you are up for it, give it a chance and see if it entertains you as much as it did me.

Fmovies: I thought the movie was scary, funny AND sexy, especially the Marquis de Sade part. That actor J. Kenneth Campbell is HOT! Portraying an evil person in such an erotic way was very different and VERY exciting (to me anyway) -- and his hair was PERFECT. HOWEVER, why did he have an English accent? Wasn't it an English accent? You know what, who cares! He's hot! ALSO, loved watching him sword fight. I just wish the parts with him in them were longer. I've seen many "House of Wax", etc. movies that are similar but this one was so cool because the people actually went into the wax scenes. And that guy on the table with the half-eaten leg! Yeah, it was actually funny! I also saw the Waxworks II movie and thought it was funny but where was the Marquis?? Definitely LOVED this movie better.

Not exactly an Academy Award winner here, but this film is just fun. Director Anthony Hickox set out to make a fun horror spoof and he succeeds very well at it. Zach Gallagan once again stars as the almost nerdy unlikely hero. The film pays homage, firmly tongue in cheek, to the classic horror movies of long ago, and David Warner shines as the demented owner/creator of this wax palace of horrors.

Yes the plot is predictable, but who cares? This is a film meant to be fun and it is fun. Patrick MacNee is delightful as always. Johyn Rhys-Davies is sort of wasted in the small role they give him, but is good as ever. Dana Ashbrook could have used a little more screen time but he is at his smart-ass best in this film. All in all just a fun evening. Anyone looking for something more needs to see the original "House of Wax(1953)" with Vincent Price.

Waxwork fmovies. This movie has always been one of my favorite eighties movies. I love the eighties feel it has to it and I really like the plot. I recently purchased this movie after finding it in a discount bin. The acting does leave something to be desired. However, I think the story line more than makes up for it. The special effects are cheesy, compared to todays standards. Considering the time period, its still a pretty decent film. It is definitely worth watching. As long as you keep in mind, it was made in the eighties. You might find it interesting if your into low budget, grade B horror films. Also, don't expect it to be like House of Wax. They are two different films entirely.

There is something about episodic horror movies that I love. Maybe it harkens back to my youth, when I devoured the EC Horror Comics reprints. Something about each individual character having his or her own interesting death always has been a kick ass idea to me. This movie is great. Each character faces his/her own nasty (extremely gory) death scene in different "exhibits" in the wax museum. A darn good time and some seriously great gore FX! Loved it. 8/10

The Eighties...what a great, fertile, inventive time that was for horror. When the major studios discovered back in the late Seventies that indie horror flicks were cheap to make or just buy outright and distribute, they started crankin' 'em out...by the DOZENS. Way back when, THE EXORCIST turned the faucet on. The movies that would launch long-term franchises filled the tub. HALLOWEEN. Friday THE 13th. A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET. And then the tub started spilling over. CHILD'S PLAY. THE HITCHER. THE LOST BOYS. NEAR DARK. FRIGHT NIGHT.

Every company, great and small, started looking for the next EXORCIST, ALIEN, JAWS...the next big thing that would make millions. Enter Vestron Video. Vestron had started out doing some of the first direct-to-video pictures ever made, discovering that the market was HUGE. So big, in fact, that they started a movie division, Vestron Pictures. Their strategy was simple: make good (if not great) genre pics that would put asses in the seats, that they could then distribute through the video arm later on.

One of Vestron Pictures' first releases was a little number called WAXWORK. The plot of the old horror classic MYSTERY IN THE WAX MUSEUM was such a tried and true staple, the studios kept falling back on it again and again, finding fresh ways to retell the story.

WAXWORK took a little different approach from the straight-ahead versions, with a cast and a sensibility for horror that still screams "Me Decade" even today. Check out the victim's list: Zach Galligan (GREMLINS.) Michelle Johnson (BLAME IT ON RIO.) Deborah Foreman (VALLEY GIRL). Dana Ashbrook (TWIN PEAKS). Miles O' Keefe (TARZAN THE APE MAN). Then you throw in vets like David Warner, Patrick McNee, J. Kenneth Campbell, John Rhys-Davies, tap Bob Keen (HELLRAISER) to do make up effects, and you have yourself an Eighties' classic!

Like most films of the period, it starts off with a group of bored, young slacker-types looking for thrills, something...ANYTHING that would be a little more exciting than getting high, getting drunk, getting laid (well, ALMOST more exciting than that), and definitely more of a kick than going to college classes!

They find it, alright - in the form of an invitation to a brand new kind of museum. And this one is not your garden-variety, Madame Tussaud's-wannabe. The wax figurines are so lifelike that the displays seem to draw you in...

Well, okay, they DO draw you in. Here's the kicker: the displays are dedicated to some of the most well-known figures in the history of horror: Dracula. The Wolfman. The Mummy. The Marquis de Sade. Reenactments of their most horrible deeds as they drained blood, hacked and tore off limbs or crushed their helpless victims to death. Seeing the scenes gives patrons the feeling of being in the moment...but if they give in to the compulsion of stepping across the velvet rope around each display, they will find themselves living in that moment...FOR REAL.

And here's the REALLY bad news...if the monsters in each display kill you in the 'waxwork dimension', you become a permanent part of the display...FOREVER. So once that happens, the situation couldn't get worse...could it?

Oh, yeah! The proprietor of the museum has a darker agenda than just dispatching troublesome teens, as our heroes and victims discover with each person who 'disappears' into the museum. And seeing how that plan gets foiled is only part of the giggly, gory fun.

Remember that I men