La mansión del horror

I was quite impressed with this movie, which I have just watched for the first time. It pays tribute to a lot of the old Universal and Hammer movies from the 1930's to the 1970's. It is very similar to House of Wax, which starred Vincent Price.

A group of students are invited to a 'showing' at the local wax museum, little knowing the owner wants them killed for his display. Each display contains monsters from the classic horror films, including the Wolf Man, the Mummy, Dracula and other vampires, the Phantom of the Opera, Jack the Ripper and some zombies and walking dead. This movie also includes a dwarf to complete the picture. When the owner has all his victims, fighting starts between all sorts of monsters and ghouls and local OAP's! This is probably the best part of the movie. The museum burns down at the end, but the two main characters survive.

The movie has a good cast, which includes Zach Galligan from the Gremlins movies and a trio of well known British stars: David Warner (Time Bandits, Titanic), Patrick Macnee (The Avengers, A View To A Kill) and John Rhys-Davies (Raiders Of The Lost Ark). Warner plays a great part as the owner of the wax museum.

If you are a fan of the old Universal and Hammer horror movies, you will enjoy this.

Rating: 3 stars out of 5.

Admittedly I barely got through the latter half of this, before temptation dared me to sit it out to the end. Darned it. Definitely not Galligan's, Johnson's, Foreman's or even Warner's better work. But I blame that on the bad scripting, the horrible directing, the rather lazy production technique. And Lord knows, I have long respected and admired David Warner's work. Gifted villain is he, especially opposite his classic Jack the Ripper icon, opposite Malcolm McDowell in 'Time after time'. And certainly, one of the finer, solid English talents of our century. Thankfully his talent wasn't entirely wasted in this. He was allotted some grandeur evil moments; similar to the setup of Vincent Price's classic 'House of Wax'. Most inevitably, a few of the latter scenes curiously depicted those classic scenes,like the vat room and the staircase.

This film certainly started out decently, but some of the pacing was a tad slow. By the time the kids actually step inside the 'wax museum', and then walk around the exhibits, much just turns goofy or mindless from thereon. Eventually action becomes rather boorish. The special effects are mediocre if that, most of the period actors can barely act a wink, and the editing is just awful. Several of the slasher-gore action shots get goofy or make zero sense (or out of sequence), and the ending 'battle' scene between the 'monsters' and the good guys is laughable.

Perhaps this was intended to be a teen suspense comedy-drama. And it almost held the same quality humor as the Evil-dead series. However, with the awkward pacing, much of the intended visual effects fell either flat or victim to bad editing.

While walking to the high-school, the teenagers Sarah (Deborah Foreman) and China (Michelle Johnson) are invited by the owner of a wax museum, David Lincoln (David Warner), to a private exhibition at midnight and he tells that they may invite four other friends to come with them. China invites her former boyfriend, the wealth Mark (Zach Galligan), their friend Tony (Dana Ashbrook) and two other schoolmates to come to the museum, but the two last ones give-up.

Mark, China, Sarah and Tony are welcome by a dwarf and they separate in the room during the tour. Soon Tony crosses the security rope of the display and he finds in a cabin trapped with a werewolf. China also crosses the security rope of another display and she finds in a castle with several vampires. Tony and China are killed and become part of the exhibition. Mark and Sarah leave the museum and soon they find that their friends are going missing. Mark goes to the police but Inspector Roberts (Charles McCaughan) does not believe in his words. Mark and Sarah find in the attic of his mansion an old newspaper and they learn a dark secret about David Lincoln. They visit Sir Wilfred (Patrick Macnee), who is a friend of Mark's family, and they learn that David is near to unleash evil on Earth.

"Waxwork" is a funny and gore movie with an absurd story, silly dialogs, but also a cult movie. The Waxwork Museum mysteriously appears in town and soon teenagers, the police inspector and several people disappear in the wax museum, but nobody in the town seems to care. The 80's is a fertile period of horror movies and "Waxwork" is among my favorites. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "A Passagem" ("The Passage")

Note: On 16 February 2021, I saw this film again.

Not exactly an Academy Award winner here, but this film is just fun. Director Anthony Hickox set out to make a fun horror spoof and he succeeds very well at it. Zach Gallagan once again stars as the almost nerdy unlikely hero. The film pays homage, firmly tongue in cheek, to the classic horror movies of long ago, and David Warner shines as the demented owner/creator of this wax palace of horrors.

Yes the plot is predictable, but who cares? This is a film meant to be fun and it is fun. Patrick MacNee is delightful as always. Johyn Rhys-Davies is sort of wasted in the small role they give him, but is good as ever. Dana Ashbrook could have used a little more screen time but he is at his smart-ass best in this film. All in all just a fun evening. Anyone looking for something more needs to see the original "House of Wax(1953)" with Vincent Price.

Waxwork is another VHS cover classic from 1988, now available for free on Tubi. Directed by Anthony Hickox (Waxwork 2, Hellraiser 3, and Warlock), the story is fairly straightforward: a group of high school friends discover a new waxworks exhibit in town and decide to schedule a private tour. But when the exhibits start coming to life, they quickly realize there's more to them than they bargained for.

The special effects are fantastic for the time, and the cast brings a strong sense of 80s nostalgia. Notable performances include Zach Galligan (Gremlins), Michelle Johnson (who stars in one of my favorite Tales from the Crypt episodes), Deborah Foreman (April Fool's Day), David Warner (Tron), and Michu (ALF).

While the movie isn't perfect, it's a lot of fun, well thought out, and put together nicely. I strongly recommend it to fans of horror. I'd rate it a 7/10.