Waxwork Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		3.5

Waxwork Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 18, 2016

Emporiums like Madame Tussaud’s were probably spooky even before films like Mystery of the Wax Museum (available as a supplement on the House of Wax 3D Blu-ray release) came along, but there’s little doubt that a series of films with wax museums at their centers only made such exhibits seem downright evil. Waxwork and its sequel Waxwork II: Lost in Time have occasional creepy (and creeping) elements, but they also have a whimsical quality that place them pretty solidly in horror comedy territory. There’s a kind of The Twilight Zone aspect to the central plot conceit of both films, wherein various wax displays come to life, with anyone who ventures beyond the velvet rope (so to speak) transported into an alternate dimension where whatever is being depicted in the waxwork exhibit becomes “reality”. While there’s menace galore in many of the vignettes sprinkled throughout both films, there’s also an unapologetically cheeky ambience that gives the film a decidedly different tone than other films in this somewhat peculiar subgenre.

One of the time honored traditions of horror films built around wax museums is that the impresarios behind the institutions are a bit unhinged. That certainly seems to be the case with regard to Waxwork’s imperious but weirdly charming David Lincoln (David Warner), a kind of oily type who rather bizarrely sets up a wax museum in the middle of a suburban neighborhood, albeit in a kind of gothic mansion. Lincoln schmoozes with a bunch of college students, urging to them to return to his abode later for a personal tour of the wax museum. A couple of odd vignettes ensue when the kids do return to the wax museum, including being greeted at the door by an odd little person, one who later gets into a brief contretemps with another worker at the display who brings in drinks for the guests too early. There’s an undeniably comic aspect to these early interchanges, but they add absolutely nothing to the plot and the two (non kid) characters are largely if not entirely kind of left by the wayside thereafter. When doors mysteriously open offering the kids an entrance to the actual exhibit, Waxwork’s plot dynamics finally kick into high (or at least higher) gear.

The entrance into the actual museum starts to show some of the seams of the production, as it’s patently obvious that at least some of the supposed wax dummies are in fact real live human beings struggling mightily to hold still (why director Anthony Hickox didn’t use a freeze frame for at least some of these tableaux is a question best left to more inquiring minds than mine). Rather quickly, however, the franchise’s central plot conceit of the wax displays acting as “portals” to other dimensions where those very tableaux become reality begins being exploited when Tony (Dana Ashbrook) manages to journey to a werewolf scenario. In just one example of the film’s already established sense of humor, Tony initially thinks someone has slipped him some illicit hallucinogen, something he’s not really all that upset about since the “results” are so impressive.

Another hapless student named China (Michelle Johnson) also gets entranced by a display and ends up in vampire territory, including good old Count Dracula (Miles O’Keefe) himself. An interloper on the hunt for China has the bad luck to meet up with Lincoln, who acts as his personal tourguide and leads him directly into a Phantom of the Opera display. With the disappearing body count accruing, level headed Mark Loftmore (Zach Galligan) starts to figure out something nefarious is up, and he contacts the police as any sensible person would. Of course, the police aren’t exactly ready to believe people are disappearing into wax exhibits, and Inspector Roberts (Charles McCaughan) doesn’t really find anything to actually inspect.

In one of the film’s kind of annoying plot contrivances, it turns out there’s a familial connection between Mark and the scheming Lincoln, one that is further detailed by a friend of Mark’s deceased grandfather. That is the kindly wheelchair bound Sir Wilfred (Patrick Macnee), who acts as this film’s “Moishe the Explainer”, smoothly spewing out reams of exposition which give the background on the horrors Lincoln is attempting to unleash on an unsuspecting world. In a none too surprising turn of events, Mark and Sarah (Deborah Foreman) return to the museum in the dead of night to ostensibly destroy it, but of course both end up in various horror movie scenarios. (As an aside, Sarah’s surname in the film is Brightman, which may come as a kind of ironic surprise to lovers of that “other” Phantom of the Opera.)

The pastiche elements of Waxwork are often quite well done (at least within an understood lo-fi ambience), with references to any number of legendary horror films like Night of the Living Dead popping up as various kids wander into alternate realities. Some of the film’s practical effects are also quite impressive, if again on an understood lo-fi level. While none of the kids are exactly Oscar caliber performers, both Warner and Macnee exhibit wonderful relish in their roles. The film’s final tribute to The Beast with Five Fingers is both amusing and sets things up rather nicely for Waxwork II: Lost in Time.

Waxwork Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Waxwork is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films and its new Vestron Video imprint with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Press materials don't really get into the provenance of this transfer, but the back cover states "digitally restored", for what that's worth. Elements are in generally excellent condition, with only minor flecks and scratches remaining. The palette pops surprisingly well in the (surprisingly frequent) brightly lit moments, as in the opening sequence where the kids are invited to the museum. Here colors are quite vivid and detail levels very good (see screenshot 1). Unfortunately the film encounters both inconsistent grain resolution and some compression anomalies in various other moments (not necessarily limited to darker ones, as seen in screenshots 7 and 8), some of which tend to give the film a kind of mottled appearance and one which tends to mask detail and especially fine detail levels. The black and white sections feature decent contrast but look a bit soft at times. This transfer commendably preserves the film in its original aspect ratio, and my hunch is despite some deficits, fans who grew up watching this pan and scan on television or via DVD will be generally well pleased with the look of this release.

Waxwork Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Waxwork features a nice sounding DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track, one which never really exploits booming lower frequencies but which gets the "startle" job done with some nicely effective jolts to the soundtrack. Dialogue and score are both rendered faithfully with no problems of any kind to report in this review.

Waxwork Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary with Anthony Hickox and Zach Galligan. Hickox is kind of humorously curmudgeonly looking back on the film, while Galligan adds in various anecdotes. This isn't a treasure trove of technical information but has a lot of background data fans will no doubt love hearing about.


• Isolated Score and Audio Interview with Composer Roger Bellon


• The Waxwork Chronicles (1080p; 1:22:17) is a top notch retrospective with excellent interviews.


• The Making of Waxwork (1080i; 24:05) is an older archival piece with interviews and production footage.


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 2:02)


• Photo Gallery (1080p; 7:55)

Waxwork Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Waxwork has an appealing enough premise, one that is able to provide the film with what is its calling card: nicely done send ups of both genres and particular films. Hickox stages things relatively well once you get past the "wax dummies" who aren't able to quite hold still, and the film, while no undiscovered masterpiece, is often a lot of fun. Technical merits are very good and the supplemental package excellent. Recommended.