Waxwork II: Lost in Time

This movie did not follow in the trends of the typical sequel by sucking hard. Let's say it's more Empire Strikes Back than Jaws 2. Okay, that's a bit of a stretched comparison, but whatever - it was a rollicking good time.

First of all, this is not a movie to take seriously in any way. It's an homage to various horror movies and it has more cheese than Wisconsin. Some of the content you'll encounter: animated murderous hands, Frankenstein, zombies, aliens, black magic druids,...and more! I would love to see this movie re-imagined as a musical (a la Evil Dead).

WWII (uh, WaxWorks 2) gets extra points for guest appearances from Bruce "The Man Bull" Campbell (just made up that nickname for him) and Keith "Masturbation Strangulation" Carradine (nickname not made up). Set aside your critical mind for the dramas, for this campy feature all you need to do is cook yourself up some Jiffy Pop, kick back, and prepare to be moderately entertained. Oh, and the 90's sucktacular rap video during the end credits is a hoot. You'll be dumbstruck by smoove lyrics such as "Lost in time, Like a bug in a jar. No matter where you go- YO- there you are"

If you don't have a sense of humor or an appreciation for classic horror you won't like this film. It's a montage of homage that is devoted to capturing the pace, direction style, acting style, dialogue etc. of such films as Alien, The Haunting, Dawn of The Dead, Nosferatu on a relatively low budget. The pared down scenes accentuate the spoof sentiment and remind us why horror is fun. Take the Alien scene, hard talking', pulse rifle carrying space marines complete with transmission samples as background juxtaposed to the reefer madness-esque black and white, highly stylized scene of The Haunting. Battling evil can be funny and Bruce Campbell's cameo, as well as others, lends support. If nothing else, it's a treasure hunt for horror genre fans.

This movie follows a guy and gal through their adventures in a realm where good is constantly fighting evil and it seems to take the form of old horror movies for the most part. There is a lot of fun to be had as they go into this mirror world in search of the means to prove the girl's innocence from a bizarre murder. They first enter a sort of Frankenstien story and this one is pretty good, then they separate and the female goes into an Alien type movie, which I found to be sort of weak, but the guy goes into the highlight for me, an old haunted house tale with a very funny Bruce Campbell. The scene with the salt and lemon juice had me laughing good. Then it wraps up with the longest of the stories one in a medieval era with a crazed psycho trying to take power through strange means. This one runs a little long, but it has another great set of scenes as our hero battles the villain through several worlds. This movie has a great combo of horror, comedy and action and is a very good B movie.

Mark and Sarah survived the mayhem from the first movie only to have Sarah on trial for a murder committed by a dismembered hand. To find the proof that will clear her, the pair travel through time and space to dimensions full of historical, movie, and book characters.

With guest appearances by Bruce Campbell and David Carradine, how can you go wrong? Especially with such intense homages to "Dawn of the Dead", "The Haunting" and more?

If any complaint can be lodged with this film, it is that it is complete nonsense. The logic is even more goofy than the last film (which was pretty bad), the continuity is non-existent, and it does not really follow the first film except in the most vague way... but if you do not mind completely malarkey, this movie is fun.

Waxwork II puts its predecessor in it's shadow! It goes by the idea that the more movies homages, the better! (By the way, Gislef, the segment with Bruce Campbell was more based on Robert Wise's The Haunting) Classic revisited include Godzilla, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Alien, Dawn of the Dead (yes!), Frankenstein, and Nosferatu (w/ Drew Barrymore cameo!). My only wish is for a Waxwork III, but it will probably never happen!