Tag Archives: wax

Waxworks (1988)

Posted on by
1


What do Vampires, Zombies, Werewolves, and that guy from Gremlins have in common, besides the lack of any humanity? They all fit into Waxworks of course.

Waxworks is the story of an evil Wax Museum, and more importantly, the wax figures inside. If you step into the exhibit, you step through a gateway to that exhibits world. If you die in that world, you die in real life, and your one less person the Waxworks evil owner needs dead in order to unleash his oh-so-evil plan. TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD, and it’s up to Zach Galligan to stop him.

Waxworks is a fun little movie, it’s safe to say it’s played for laughs, but a lot of the laughs fall short. That doesn’t stop the movie from being any less awesome. It’s really just a vehicle to throw all the horror monsters you want into a movie. Like vampires? Have some one fall into a vampire exhibit. Werewolves just as cool? Good thing there’s a werewolf exhibit! The freedom this allows does wonders for making the film an enjoyable ride. It’s almost like a gory Monster Squad, if all the kids grew up into rich pompous assholes.

The characters in the film are very hard to like. Except for Jenkins the butler of course, his scenes are near and dear to my heart. The main character, Zach playing Mark, starts the movie as a brooding rich kid, but thankfully by the end, his character develops enough to be much more enjoyable. Mark’s circle of friends are for the most part, poorly acted, and just plain snotty, but thankfully they don’t last long.

While there aren’t too many on screen deaths, at least until’ a Lord Of The Rings level of epic showdown in the end, what we are treated with is so over the top balls to the wall awesome, that you can’t help but love it. We’re talking blood spraying everywhere, people getting ripped in half, impaled through wine bottles, it’s nuts, and while it doesn’t look real, it comes across as gory fun none the less.

Waxworks is a movie I which I had seen when I was younger, not because it doesn’t hold up now, but because it would have been a horror wet dream come true when I was younger. Still, I think it’s one worth checking out, not to mention the sequel has Bruce Campbell in it!

Score – 80%
Gore – 8/10

House Of Wax (2005)

Posted on by
Reply


This is one of those movies. You know, you saw the trailer for it, missed it in theaters, and then forgot about it just as quickly. I didn’t get around to seeing it when it was in theaters even though I wanted to, and no one was talking about it, so I forgot I had wanted to see it. So how does it hold up 6 years later? Let’s find out.

Story follows a group of 20-somes on their way to a college football game, when they have to stop to rest. The next morning the fan belt on one of the cars is cut, so half of them head to the game, while two of them, Wade and Carly, played by Jared Padalecki and Elisha Cuthbert, go off into town for a new one.

The highlight of the town is a Wax Museum, which is entirely made out of wax. Inside are some very life like wax dummies, but none of them are of famous people like you would normally expect. Well there’s a simple reason for that. They arn’t famous people, their people that had the misfortune of finding the town, and being covered in wax! The rest of the movie pretty much turns into a fight for your life typical slasher, but hey, I’m ok with that.

The acting is pretty hit or miss. Some of the actors know what their doing, while others ( Paris Hilton * cough*) seem out of place with some bad reactions. As I was watching I thought I was going to say that the characters actions seemed to fit well for their characters, but then I got to the half way point. Once Carly and her brother get together, they start making some terrible choices. They hide a gun, only to go looking for one after. They also decide they need some light, while running/hiding from the killers, so they start flipping switches like they were having a seizure, resulting in a light show that tells the killer just were they are. Smooth.

The gore was surprisingly well done. Every cut, impaling, or straight out beating looks brutal, and for a movie that takes over forty minutes to get to the good stuff, that’s important. The effects of the wax house melting were good at first, but felt too effects heavy by the end. It started with the wax dummies melting, revealing skeletons underneath, and it looked quite nice. But it finished with the whole place on flames, everything melting, the entire building folding in on it’s self, etc. It just seemed to be too much going on at once.

The killers were pretty interesting. They were Siamese twins that had been separated, leaving one looking fine, and the other needing a mask to cover his disfigurement. The good looking brother treats his disfigured brother like a freak, and using it to mind control him.  Throughout the climax of the movie, there is a few scenes that use the idea of the twins for some alright imagery, but it feels pretty forced.

All in all, I’d say check it out. You get some cool effects, and some nice gore. Not to mention seeing Paris Hilton die, and for what it’s worth, that’s always fun.

Score – 78%
Gore – 8/10