Waxworks / Waxworks 2

Overview

There is no such thing as too much wax is there? Well, perhaps if you are the one that they are pouring it over. This weekend I also got to take some time to watch the Waxworks double feature. This is a 80s movie with a budget. But, I loved it anyway. Things tie together rather creatively. Since the screenplay was written in a weekend, the movie is more impressive than you'd think.

In waxworks, a wax museum just pops out of nowhere in a small town. And people are disappearing at the same time. Suspicious, isn't it? I wonder what is happening to the people. Apparently each of the exhibits at the wax museum (each one of them a spoof of some of your favorite horror movies) is really a portal to another time / another dimension. People pushed through the portal become 'victims' of the scene. Once all 20 scenes have their victims the figures living in the scenes become alive. There were scenes reminiscent of Night of the Living Dead, Dracula, the Wolfman, Little Shop of Horrors, and more that I can't remember. Some kids get wind of what is going on. Thankfully the hero's uncle knows exactly what is going on. The scenes are completed, the monsters come alive and a hilarious battle ensues. This movie had more of a nod to the 1953 House of Wax than the 2005 House of Wax did. The museum caretaker dies in a huge vat of wax as the waxworks burns down.

Unfortunately, something survives the fire and it is the hand from one of the zombies. That is where the second movies start's up. The hand escapes to kill the heroine's father. In an effort to prove her story, they go off on an adventure through time. The first movie was a Slasher film of sorts, but the second is more of an adventure story. The hero and heroine end up as warriors in an alternate dimension with a battle between God and the Devil. Blah, blah, blah, they make it back to the real world with a zombie hand, thus proving credence to the heroine's story and letting her off the hook.

Style

These two movies are 80s budget. The stunts are flimsy, the effects cheesy, and the wax 'statues' move and blink their eyes. But, the movies are as enjoyable as any other B-movie you can drudge up.

Quotes

The uncle (who died in the first one) comes back as a bird in the second movie and justifies his presence by saying "This is the only way they'd let me be in this one." It's a scream-like tongue-in-cheek maneuver, but it works.

Buy