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Waxworks (1988) - Anthony Hickox


Quintessential 80's horror classic crap movie. Those are the best 80's movies anyway right? Guys in blazers with the sleeves pushed up, collar's popped to the ceiling, girls wearing some sort of Madonna/Pat Benatar/Debbie Harry crossbreed of fashion; the movie acts as the perfect parody of what everyone left behind in the eighties. I couldn't take any of the characters seriously; they all act as caricatures of the stereotypical heroes and heroines from other eighties classics. It was fun.

The movie is about a group of friends who get invited to "tour" an old Wax Museum late one evening. There is something off about this museum though. Could it be the fact that the group of friends were invited off of the street and they were told to come alone? Could it be that the owner has an extremely large butler named Lurch and an extremely small butler named Hans? Could it be that this Wax Museum is an obviously evil place with an obviously evil owner? Could it? While inside the museum the kids start dropping off, falling victim to many of the creatures on display including but not limited too: The Mummy, Zombies, Hatchet Killers, Killer Babies, Werewolves, Dracula, A Voodoo Priest, Frankenstein, the Invisible Man, and the Marquis De Sade. Its like a pop culture overload!

The movie is in no way great in the strictest sense of the word; it has plot holes and gaps in the narrative and whole sections that are boring just like any other bargain bin VHS; however, even through all of that what stands out here is the fun feeling that you get from watching it. Well that and the make-up and special effect design. Bob Keen was the designer and he did an amazing job. I tried watching the movie by myself a couple times and could only make it a quarter of the way through. I needed a group to watch this movie and it made it that much more enjoyable.

The only way I can recommend this film is if you are going to experience it with a group because it might bore you to death if you watch it by yourself. Grab a couple of beers and get together with your besties and toss this in the old VCR. It makes for fun times.

Did ya know: The script actually called for Jason Voorhees, from Friday the 13th, to be one of the wax exhibits. However, it was cut when they couldn't get the rights. The movie also had to cut 5 children from Village of the Damned, The Thing from John Carpenter's The Thing, and The Golem from Der Golem. The zombie sequence, as well as most of the movie was filmed in Griffith Park in Los Angeles.


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