Waxworks full movie movie#

There isn’t a ton of this in Waxwork, however, there’s just enough to enjoy. The line uttered by Warner’s Willy Wonka-esque waxwork curator comes eight years before Craven’s Scream too metafiction and self-referential writing in the horror genre to new heights.

Waxworks full movie movie#

“ They‘ ll make a movie about anything these days“ After that is the big basement scene, which becomes a blood-filled parade and to think, there were major cuts here because it was gorier than the final product. A favourite is the vampire feast at the table, a delightfully yucky moment of blood and slurping, sucking sounds that’ll gross you out, at least for a second. We get gnarly blood at times, we also have great looking monsters courtesy of Bob Keen ( Event Horizon, Nightbreed, The NeverEnding Story, & more). The other part, a major one, are the effects. Partly built on atmosphere, aided by Gerry Lively’s wonderfully vibrant cinematography, and a fantastic, classic-sounding genre score courtesy of Roger Bellon. While there are moments of comedy interspersed about the edges, the core of Waxwork is its terror. It’s a ton of fun! Would’ve been even more interesting had legal reasons not prevented appearances by Jason Voorhees, a few kids from Village o the Damned, and even the planned cameo of a form of the creature from John Carpenter’s masterpiece The Thing. Some of these are the classics, like Frankenstein’s monster, Count Dracula, to the creepy baby from Larry Cohen’s It’s Alive and one of the pods from 1956’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers. The nature of a waxwork allows for a sort of episodic telling of its tale, in that the main attraction of the film provides different predicaments, along with different monsters, killers, villains, so on, for the characters to confront.Īlmost a surreal experience, as the characters step through the exhibits into another world, a place where waxworks aren’t just wax statues their sculptors built, they’re whole living environments full of all the familiar horror tropes, villains, whether human or monster. Most of all, we get an urban adventure film crossed with horror, set in a regular neighbourhood where a waxwork opens up suddenly under the care of a mysterious man (David Warner) people go missing, movie monsters emerge, and only a couple high school students seem to understand. Truthfully, there isn’t an overt amount of comedy, other than bits and pieces. This isn’t as campy a horror-comedy as others of its ilk. The story and plot are fun, spooky, and the characters shine well through the smart writing. This is a unique bit of cinema, a slightly metafictional story before Scream and its copycats almost a decade later, boasting effects that can go from spellbinding to gruesome in the blink of an eye.Īnthony Hickox’s cult horror takes the concept of the wax museum and twists it some, imagining it isn’t merely the wax figures that come alive, it’s the entire waxwork itself. It deserved better at the time of its release. No doubt this flick did better on VHS and other later formats, and I’m sure it’s seen a resurgence over the past few years as genre fans snatch up better looking copies with the release of many older horror movies on Blu ray. No, we got plenty of sweet gold in amongst the rest. But the ’80s didn’t just come with an abundance of genre filmmaking, from slashers to supernatural killers to monsters and other creatures. Not all of the horror that came out during the decade was spectacular, yet even some of those titles are fun. Particularly when it comes to the 1980s, certainly one of the best eras there’ll ever be for the genre. Vestron Pictures/Contemporary Films/HB Filmrullenįather Gore’s been knocking down titles left and right lately, in pursuit of seeing every worthwhile horror out there. Starring Zach Galligan, Jennifer Bassey, Joe Baker, Deborah Foreman, Michelle Johnson, David Warner, Eric Brown, Clare Carey, Buckley Norris, Dana Ashbrook, Micah Grant, Mihaly Meszraros, Jack David Walker, & John Rhys-Davies.