Waxwork (1988)

"Can't a girl get laid around here without being burned at the stake?"

The beauty of simplicity lies at the heart of many a classic 80's horror film. Take a group of teenagers to an isolated location, pit them against some form of evil; sit back and watch the carnage. There is a lot to be said for an un-convoluted setting up of characters and story, and then throwing you into the madness for the remainder of the 85 minute running time. The Evil Dead, The Funhouse, Night of the Demons and a never ending list of slasher films follow this very basic formula. And you know what? It works, for the most part. The ones that failed badly were the ones that lacked the imagination to find an interesting location or bad guy. The trouble was, by the end of the 80's, they were running out of unused locations, national holidays and masked killers.


Waxwork stepped in with an interesting mish-mash of old ideas and a fresh sense of humour. Rich college boy Mark (Zach Galligan, of Gremlins fame), is having a hard time with his girlfriend, China (Michelle Johnson). She is sick of his pampered life, and seems to be more interested in the retarded jocks than getting back together with him. On the way to college, China and sexually repressed Sarah (Deborah Foreman, Valley Girl, April Fools Day) happen upon a Waxwork in their neighbourhood that wasn't there yesterday. They meet the charming but spooky Mr Lincoln (David Warner, no introduction needed) who invites them, and 4 friends, along for a special midnight viewing.

When our hapless gang (which includes Dana Ashbrook, best known as Bobby from Twin Peaks) show up for the midnight show, they are greeted by a strange little dwarf in a tuxedo who shows them in. The Waxwork is mainly a chamber of horrors; it has various depictions of famous monsters and real life killers. One by one the gang wander off among the exhibits; but why are some of the waxwork scenarios missing the victims?

It turns out that the thoroughly evil Mr Lincoln needs six more souls to be trapped in the waxwork scenarios in order to bring the most evil creatures that have ever existed back to life. When the teenagers wander beyond the red ropes, they get sucked into the waxwork world and become the victim of whatever monster happens to be there. With his friends disappearing, it is up to Mark to figure out how to stop Mr Lincoln, before all the evil walks free in the world again...

It is a great set up, and it almost lives up to what it promises. I love the idea of having different monsters/killers for each death; it's something we don't see very often. We get werewolves, vampires, ancient mummies, the Marquis de Sade... and in the finale, so much more. The werewolf scene is short and sweet, with John Rhys-Davies as a werewolf (sold!), and the vampire one is probably the goriest and funniest. Some of the other scenarios just don't work as well as they should, though. The Marquis de Sade is the weakest of them all; it just ins't scary (not that the others are, but still) and it overstays its welcome by about ten minutes. I understand it's for a character arc for Sarah, but it slows the film to a crawl, and doesn't seem to fit with the rest of the film. One of the best looking scenarios is also sadly the most under developed. Mark gets pulled into basically 'Night of the Living Dead', in black-and-white too! it has some terrific looking zombies, but the scene lasts about two minutes and is then over! A missed opportunity.

Some of my complaints above extend to the script and pacing. What makes the best of these genre films work is when the filmmakers keep the momentum going throughout the second and last act. Sadly here, they make the decision to have the hero leave the Waxwork about 40 minutes into the film, and he doesn't get back there until the last act. It slows the film down to a crawl and introduces a detective character, for no good reason. If they had of trimmed the script a bit to keep the action in the Waxwork for the whole film, and set it over the one night, it would work a lot better. Instead, the lead goes back the next night with a plan from his exposition-spouting uncle, and finally we get around to the monster mash that had been hinted at throughout the film. The uncle character could have been introduced in the first act, which probably would have helped with the pacing issues.

Apart from that, the acting is a mixed bag. Zach Galligan is a bland lead when he isn't playing second fiddle to a cute Gremlin. The girls don't do much better; Deborah Foreman doesn't exactly set the screen alight, she can (and did) do much better than this performance. Michelle Johnson is pretty, and shows some spark with the sex appeal and comedy, but unfortunately she dies early on. Dana Ashbrook does a pretty good impression of Dana Ashbrook. I gotta assume how he acts is how he is, as this character is the exact same as Bobby from Twin Peaks. It's uncanny. David Warner is his usual charismatic self, sadly he doesn't get a whole lot of screen time. There is some fun to be had though with the dwarf and giant butlers, they provide some of the few chuckles that actually work. The scene where the giant breaks a teenagers neck is probably the funniest moment in the film.

It probably sounds like I don't really like Waxwork, but the film is still enjoyable, even with my list of complaints. The film has some fantastic gore; heads are ripped in half, skulls stomped, evil mutant babies shot, and geysers of blood feature in many of the kill scenes. The monster make up is cool, too. The werewolf moments look good, as do the mummies. We get some nice looking alien mutants and a 'Little Shop of Horrors' audrey-esque monster in the finale.

Apart from the Marquis de Sade moments, the film definitely does not take itself seriously. From the semi-surreal breakfast scene at Marks house that opens the film, through to throwaway in-jokey lines like 'They'll make a film about anything these days', the jokes come fast enough in the first half. As to whether you laugh or not; well, that's up to you. Director Anthony Hickox does a good job of keeping the film looking stylish for the most part, and he mainly falls down with the sluggish pacing mid-movie. He went on to director Waxwork II (1992) and Hellraiser III (1992). I've seen Waxwork probably five times since I was quite young. It's refreshing in its ideas, if not so much in execution. It will never be remembered as a classic along the lines of Re-Animator or Return of the Living Dead, but hey, who could resist such a fantastic video cover?