Waxwork (1988) / Re-evalutation

Anthony Hickox's "Waxwork" (1988) was always a film with a lot of enthusiastic fans on the IMDb Horror messageboard back in the early 2000s. I noticed on horror podcasts I follow, "Waxwork" is also quite a fan favorite. I was more or less without anything interesting planned for Wednesday night, and I have this 8 film Vestron set of films with quite a slapdash of titles that are remotely and alien to each other. One of those is indeed "Waxwork". In the past, I can't say I was all that wild and crazy about Hickox's creature feature extravaganza. But maybe I was in the right mood, and with my daughter also bored and looking for something to pass the time, we loaded up "Waxwork" and gave it a go.

And he gives us the waxworks museum with an evil David Warner wanting to cause an apocalypse on earth, and Patrick Pacnee in a wheelchair packing heat and bringing his forces to stop the likes of Dracula, the Mummy, werewolves, Jack the Ripper, zombies, and Marquis de Sade. That is hard not to tip the hat to Hickox and appreciate just that idea and spirited, inspired casting. The waxworks are a gateway to different worlds with those either pushed into them or accidentally walking into them expected by Warner to be victims and themselves wax sculptures. If Warner can get a specific number of victims in his waxworks (18, 6,6,6 added together), all his monsters of those displays will come to life. If they are able to flee the museum, the earth will be corrupted and doomed.

Although it took some time to finally like Galligan, he does come through in the end, even though J. Kenneth Campbell's Marquis de Sade had him dead to rites a bunch of times during their swashbuckling sword fight. I'm just in love with Deborah Foreman every time I watch her in a movie. It is her smile, I think. And she has this really fascinating interest in de Sade, ultimately resulting in her being whipped repeatedly by his riding crop and wanting more in that display portal. With even de Sade having to take a break because he's tired, wondering how Foreman can take so many whips (!), she seems quite resilient, so possessed by the portal's allure, she drops to his feet when Galligan comes to her rescue.

I do wish Rhys-Davies had more to do than just turn into a nasty werewolf and bite Dana Ashbrook ("Twin Peaks"), while Macnee is sadly confined to two main scenes, both in wheelchair and rather immobile, though his heroism to help Galligan comes with a major cost. At least in the case of the werewolf, it tears one victim in half and rips off another victim's head.

The Count Dracula sequence was a lot more gory fun than I remembered. O'Keeffe is hunky but perhaps the most boring Dracula I have ever seen in that role. Michelle Johnson is just yum as the woman Galligan desires but, admittedly, realizes he'll never win over. She puts up a good fight when surrounded by female vampires (and one male vampire), while her fiance is crippled on a table with one leg eaten to the bone (it is especially grisly, but VERY effective). Her neck and shoulders, wet from sweat, looked so delicious even I would love to sink my fangs into her.

Although too short for my tastes, I really dug the B&W portal Galligan is pushed into by Warner's lurching butler. It is a cemetery as the undead pursue Galligan, with him fending them off and giving chase until he finds the entrance gate and portal out. The severed-hand gag is such an irresistible go-to for script writers and directors. When all out war between Macnee's team of monster hunters and Warner's display ghouls ends with the waxworks ablaze, that damn hand is a survivor! 3/5