Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.0

Waxwork II: Lost in Time 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.

Remember that old episode of Star Trek: The Original Series, Season 1 entitled “The Enemy Within” where a transporter malfunction ended up creating evil duplicates of Kirk and Spock? Some curmudgeonly viewers may wonder if something similar happened with regard to the portals that were a prime plot conceit in Waxwork, since Waxwork II: Lost in Time begins with a supposed recreation of the calamitous climax of the first film, though with this film’s Sarah looking, well, completely different from the first, which is not to suggest she looks evil in any way, shape or form. Of course, the role had simply been recast, with Sarah now being played by Monika Schnarre. Even Mark (Zach Galligan) looks a little different in this film, with the enjoyable commentary by Galligan and director Anthony Hickox revealing that Galligan’s chance reading of a snarky comment about his weight in a tabloid caused him to hit the gym to try to “pump himself up”. The comedic ambience of the first film is quickly established in this sequel as well as the homage to The Beast with Five Fingers continues with a creepy, crawling disembodied hand following Mark and Sarah as they attempt to escape the burning ruins of the wax museum.

That then sets the film off on the first of several manically enjoyable sequences, where Sarah, who is literally called Cinderella by her lout of a stepfather when she stumbles back home after the preceding film’s terrors, looks on in horror as the disembodied hand attacks first her stepfather and then her. It’s played strictly for laughs, and they’re pretty solidly delivered, with the hand grabbing a hammer out of a nearby toolbox to help dispatch the stepdad and basically turning Sarah into the world’s biggest condiment bar in an attempt to take out her. Already it’s obvious that as undeniably comedic as the first Waxwork was, Waxwork II: Lost in Time isn’t going to be shy about going for a perhaps more gonzo type of humor.

While the humor is at least passably effective in Waxwork II: Lost in Time, the narrative structure is considerably more convoluted, not always to this sequel’s benefit. With the actual wax museum burnt to the ground, this film’s screenplay employs an entirely new artifice which attempts to play on the first film’s alternate universe gambit while employing different “technology”. The film also struggles with an unavoidable narrative hurdle—both the first film’s antagonist David Wilson (David Warner) and the hero’s elder mentor Sir Wilfred (Patrick Macnee) perished in that film’s climax, leaving this sequel to attempt to deal with the aftermath. Wilson’s antics play into the plot contrivances here, even if he himself doesn’t, while Sir Wilfred shows up in a pretty hoary plot device courtesy of an old movie. This all plays out within what would seem to be a more urgent context: Sarah has been accused of murdering her stepfather, but no one believes her story about a marauding disembodied hand.

An attempt to link the underlying structure of this film’s plot dynamics to Alice in Wonderland also fails to pay many dividends simply because it’s introduced and then not really followed up on. The film’s pastiches of various horror entries continue to be its strongest calling card, much as with the first Waxwork. Everything from Frankenstein: Complete Legacy Collection to what I think is a sendup of “The Guests” episode from the old The Outer Limits series (replete with a wonderfully hammy Bruce Campbell) gets skewered, at times both comedically and with a rather copious amount of gore.

Waxwork II: Lost in Time Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Waxwork II: Lost in Time 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. While I've scored this at the same 3.5 that I gave to Waxwork, there are a few more issues with this transfer that would cause me to lower my score to around 3.25 if I were able. The palette looks reasonably fresh most of the time, though some moments seem oddly faded (see screenshot 18). Detail levels are generally good, especially in brighter lit moments (see screenshot 2), but as with the first film, there are both grain resolution issues and occasional compression problems (see screenshots 11 and 12, those these both admittedly feature blown up video elements). The black and white sections of this film are at least relatively sharper than those in the first film, and contrast is very good throughout.

Waxwork II: Lost in Time Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Waxwork II: Lost in Time features a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mix which is very much in line with that heard in the first film. Good sound effects work help to perk up the sonic atmosphere throughout the pastiche vignettes, and otherwise dialogue and score are rendered cleanly and clearly with no problems whatsoever.

Waxwork II: Lost in Time Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary with Anthony Hickox and Zach Galligan. This is another fun and chatty commentary with Hickox lamenting his much lower budget and Galligan chiming in with various anecdotal information. Note to Galligan: it's Juliet Mills, not Donna, but at least he got Nanny and the Professor right.


• Isolated Score and Audio Interview with Composer Steve Schiff


• Music Video (1080p; 3:50). I'm really hoping this is supposed to be ironic.


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 3:03)


• Still Gallery (1080p; 7:17)

Waxwork II: Lost in Time Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Waxwork II: Lost in Time is probably more consistently "looney tunes" (in more ways that one) than the first film, but it really tends to lurch and struggle a bit in the narrative department, especially in its attempts to link itself to the first film. The cast is game and some of the cameos are excellent. Technical merits are good to very good, and there are some appealing supplements. Recommended.