Das Wachsfigurenkabinett des Grauens

I enjoyed Nightmare in Wax, taking it on the pulpy level that it intends and achieves. It's fun. It's not mindlessly sadistic (so if you want that, look elsewhere). Not hopelessly incompetent, either (just a bit, maybe, but hope is there).

I admit that at first I confused it with a wax museum horror featuring a curator with a false hand, which is interchangeable with a hook or a cleaver. Were there two versions of this film? No; the man with the cleaver was Patrick O'Neal in Chamber of Horrors (1966). It gave me a restless night figuring that one out. These things worry horror fans.

The Patrick O'Neal film is a classier offering. The photography is much glossier, and Wilfred Hyde-White adds his own charm to the proceedings. But Cameron Mitchell in Nightmare in Wax adds his own special (if not too refined) touch of wickedness, pursuing Anne Helm through his Faustian workshop, hypodermic in hand. That chase between tottering dummies and bubbling vats doesn't quite elevate the film into the realms of horror achieved by Lionel Atwill and Fay Wray... but it's pretty good, all the same.

A couple of years before Nightmare in Wax, Cameron Mitchell starred in a Spanish/West German co-production of Island of the Doomed (1967) (a.k.a. The Bloodsuckers, The Maneater of Hydra, etc.) I was fortunate enough to see that sharing a double-bill with Slaughter of the Vampires. That was in my long-ago teens. Much more recently I bought it on DVD (with the widescreen sadly cropped). Now wouldn't it be great if someone had the discrimination (I shan't say the taste) to bring out a restored widescreen double-DVD of both Nightmare in Wax and Island of the Doomed. We can only hope!

A scarred, embittered owner of a wax museum with a twisted mind devises horrible fates for those who cross him.

This piece of trash was written by the prolific Rex Carlton, and directed by Bud Townsend (who went on to direct the much more memorable film, "Alice in Wonderland" -- the porn version). It comes to us with below average film quality, at least on the Mill Creek disc. Star Cameron Mitchell ("Blood and Black Lace") probably regretted appearing in this one.

There is an interesting, bulky head bandage with the victim smoking... unintentionally scary... but that's like the only nice thing i can say about it. There is a pointless go-go dancing scene with a band called the T-Bones... really dates the film, for better or worse.

There is no point in ever seeing this movie.

This is a treat for fans of Z-grade movies. Here you will find writing and acting bad enough to rival anything Ed Wood ever produced. Veteran bad movie actor Cameron Mitchell is a former makeup man from "Paragon Studios" who, after a nasty acid-in-the-face incident at a social gathering, becomes an embittered Mad Scientist (tm) with a rubber scar on his face who takes revenge by kidnapping Paragon actors and turning them into living statues in his Secret Laboratory (tm) handily located in the local wax museum. Or are they zombies who do his bidding? He's not sure.

Happily, many of your favourite movie clichés are here. Check out the villain's lab! Are those mysterious steaming vats of liquid? Test tubes of coloured water with no explained purpose? Yay! And what ho, do we see spare arms and legs arranged kinda casual-like on a wooden rack? You betcha! Marvel at the bumbling detectives acting with straight out of Plan Nine! Now, enjoy a stupidly tame car chase, and hear more dizzy bimbo screaming than you could possibly want. Raise an eyebrow at the screwy plot line, made even more opaque by the totally meaningless ending that seems to have no connection to the rest of the movie.

Cheesy trash and much fun for the bad movie connoisseur.

I love this flick. It's sleazy and mean without being xplicict. It's tacky and way entertaining. If you want Citizen Kane, look elsewhere, otherwise this House of Wax rip -off is a clunky blast! Cameron Mitchell is an eyepatch wearin' wax museum curatin' psycho who "freezes" various Hollywood hacks...if you can find it and you like bad movies it's well worth 90 minutes of your life.

I'm not sure what the 80's repackaging with the burning skull has to do with it but............ It's like someone filmed a community play. What's wrong with that? Definitely some good shoe clicking foley artist work. It's good to see a movie where people smoke cigarettes as they work/act - improv smoking. Cameron Mitchell movies are always watchable. Especially when there is an eye-patch involved. Some people called this a "Z" Movie and that's what it is, but good still under proper conditions. Would be good in IMAX 3-D. Gave it a "5" because it's definitely one of those get it or not movies. I think I bought a lawnmower from that detective guy in scene 29 over at ACE in 1974. Would actually be good at a drive-in with a six pack.