Waxwork (1988)

A wax museum owner uses his horror exhibits to unleash evil on the world.

Director:

Anthony Hickox

Writer:

Anthony Hickox

Stars:

Zach Galligan, Deborah Foreman, Jennifer Bassey

2 wins & 4 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Zach Galligan	...	Mark
Jennifer Bassey	...	Mrs. Loftmore
Joe Baker	...	Jenkins
Deborah Foreman	...	Sarah
Michelle Johnson	...	China
David Warner	...	Waxwork Man
Eric Brown	...	James
Clare Carey	...	Gemma
Buckley Norris	...	Lecturer
Dana Ashbrook	...	Tony
Micah Grant	...	Johnathan
Mihaly 'Michu' Meszaros	...	Hans (as Mihaly 'Michu' Mesza)
Jack David Walker	...	Junior (as Jack David Warner)
John Rhys-Davies	...	Werewolf
Nelson Welch	...	Elderly Man

Storyline

A waxwork museum comes to town, and a mysterious man invites some teens to come to a special showing at midnight. Once inside, while viewing different exhibits, the scenes come alive and the viewer is sucked into the story being portrayed.

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Plot Keywords:

reference to the phantom of the opera | creepy waxworks | reference to marquis de sade | torture chamber | portal | 

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Taglines:

Stop On By And Give Afterlife A Try.

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Genres:

Comedy | Horror

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Certificate:

R

Did You Know?

Trivia

Several names of the characters were changed from the initial shooting script for "Waxwork". Tony was given a last name, Masters, which was left out of the film. Mr. Lincoln's midget butler, "Junior", was originally called "Hans", and Lincoln's tall servant, "Hans", was called "Lurch" because he was described in the script as a Lurch-type character.

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Goofs

(at around 54 mins) In the mummy's tomb are seen a Mexican Red-Knee Tarantula and a Boa Constrictor, both native to the Americas, not Africa.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Mrs. Loftmore: Darling.
Mark Loftmore: Hmm?
Mrs. Loftmore: I hear you were having drinks with the butler the other night. Now, you know that sort of thing leads to anarchy.

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Crazy Credits

At the end of the credits the song "It's my party" gets interrupted by sounds of boiling wax

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Alternate Versions

All UK versions feature the unrated version though 34 secs of cuts were applied to the cinema and video versions to reduce the whipping of Sarah and remove a dialogue reference to her first orgasm being due to the Marquis's whipping of her. The cuts were waived for the 2001 Columbia release.

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Connections

Referenced in The Cinema Snob: Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth (2019)

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Soundtracks

It's My Party
Written by Wally Gold (uncredited), John Gluck (uncredited), Herbert Weiner (as Herb Weiner) (uncredited) and Seymour Gottlieb (uncredited)
Performed by Lesley Gore
Courtesy of PolyGram Special Projects a division of PolyGram Records, Inc

User Reviews

characters in a wax museum come to life; not original, but enjoyable

Pretty fun horror movie! It's not the newest idea in the world: there'd been a German silent horror anthology movie set in a Waxwork. In that, a man is hired to write stories about some of the characters in the wax museum. In each segment, we see the story played out, and the author, the owner and his daughter appear in the segments as well. In the last segment, they're menaced by Springheel Jack.

In this film, a Waxwork appears in what seems to be a residential neighborhood - strange place to try to do business. It is filled with various death scenes involving werewolves, vampires, zombies, mummies, and so on. Some characters we don't see too much of seem to include the Invisible Man, Jack the Ripper. A group of young people are invited to a party at the Waxwork, and some of them step onto the displays, and find themselves transported into a live action scene where their lives are in danger.

I had a good time watching it. Some of the effects in it are good, as in the vampire one, but the werewolf is one of the worst I've seen. I liked it enough I'll definitely check out the sequel.

Details

Country:

USA UK West Germany

Language:

English

Release Date:

17 June 1988 (USA)

Also Known As:

Waxwork

Filming Locations:

255 South Rossmore Avenue, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$3,000,000 (estimated)

Gross USA:

$808,114

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$808,114

Company Credits

Production Co:

Palla, Vestron Pictures, HB Filmrullen

Technical Specs

Runtime:

95 min 97 min (unrated)

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color