Wednesday 3 August 2005

Waxwork (1988)

The first feature by horror specialist Anthony Hickox (interestingly the grandson of J. Arthur Rank), this utilises a number of actors who were on the way down in their careers, presumably because they were cheap.  It's effectively a teen-slasher movie,  but it is done with a tongue firmly in cheek and an obvious affection for the genre. David Warner opens a waxwork in the middle of a residential street -- yes, a little weird for starters.  He invites young people to visit and after they get sucked into various tableaux, they subsequently become part of the display.  All of the old faithfuls are there, present and correct, from the Wolf Man, Dracula and the Mummy right through to modern monsters like the baby from "It's Alive" and the creatures from "Night of the Living Dead".  It is a gore-fest throughout with some effects that produce chuckles rather than shudders.  There's an all-out battle at the end by the army of baddies and a bunch of rickety evil-slayers led by Patrick Macnee in a fortified wheelchair.  In other words, it's a hoot.

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