M.D.C. - Maschera di cera

THE WAX MASK starts out promising enough with a group of police officers inspecting a grisly double murder on the eve of New Year's, but quickly spirals downward into your typical slasher film by the grand finale. Although the film is full of incredible sights and above-average special effects, the characters aren't quite structured enough to hold one's interest for more than a half hour. It is also the first 30 minutes of the movie that hold the best scares as a smartass brothel patron finds himself locked inside the wax museum on a dark and stormy night. Director Sergio Stivaletti took certain liberties with Gaston Leroux' original tale, but the outcome is somewhat refreshing. The mixture of both classic prosthetic make-up and computer generated effects is blended together seamlessly and leaves the audience with a new understanding of the classic tale "Terror in the Wax Museum." So aside from its faults, THE WAX MASK is a fun, spooky jaunt from those mad minds in Italy. If ever stuck inside on a dark and stormy night, this one may be right up your alley.

Sergi Stivaletti has primarily been active as a special effects guy for such brilliant directors as Dario Argento and Michele Soavi. Among many other projects he did the amazing special effects for masterpieces like Argento's "Opera" and Soavi's "Dellamorte Dellamore". As a director, Stivaletti aims at reviving the most elegant of Horror sub-genres, the wonderful genre of Gothic Horror cinema (the greatest specimen of which came from Italy in the 1960s). His two directed films "M. D. C. - Maschera Di Cera" (1997) and "I Tre Volti Del Terrore" (2004) are both Gothic tales. I haven't seen "I Tre Volti Del Terrore" so far (but sure will). With "Maschera Di Cera" being the only Stivaletti-directed film I've seen so far, I can say that his attempt to revive Gothic Horror greatness has been a full success. "M. D. C." has very excellent exit criteria to begin with - the film was scripted by Italian Horror deity Lucio Fulci, adapted from story written by Italian Horror deity Dario Argento. Fulci and Argento guarantee greatness, and director Stivaletti truly made the greatest out of it. "M. D. C." is an incredibly creepy and atmospheric, thoroughly suspenseful, gory, beautiful and imaginative wholesome of elegant Gothic terror. While the film adapts the atmospheric greatness of 60s Gothic Horror films, it is also imaginative and inventive, and Stivaletti's talent for effects fits fantastically in the gloomy Gothic ambiance. The film was released only shorty after Lucio Fulci's death in 1996, and is therefore dedicated to the master.

Paris, December 31st 1900: A little girl hiding under her bed witnesses her parents being brutally torn to pieces by a masked, metal-clawed killer. Rome, twelve years later: A man apparently dies of fright when sneaking into a Wax museum by nighttime for a bet. On the day he is found, a beautiful young woman begins to work at the museum, in which artistic genius Boris Volkoff (Robert Hossein) displays gruesome scenes with wax figures. The young beauty is Sonia (Romina Mondello), the girl who had witnessed her parents' murder twelve years earlier. It isn't long before people begin to disappear from the streets of Rome...

Storywise, "Maschera Di Cera" is sort of a Gory Italian 90s version of the Vincent Price classic "House of Wax"; that is not to say, however, that the film has no own ideas. As mentioned above, the film continues the Gothic tradition in a wonderful and imaginative manner. The themes combine a gruesome murder series with mad science (a combination that has often worked wonderfully in the past). The film's the early 20th-century settings, especially the creepy Wax museum create a wonderfully gloomy atmosphere; demented characters, an iron-clawed killer, weird machinery and loads of very well-made gore ensure a wonderful time for any lover of the macabre. The yummy leading actress Romina Mondello must be one of the most gorgeous women who ever blessed the screen with their presence, and her lovable and vulnerable leading character Sonia is easy to be scared for. All cast members deliver good performances, Robert Hossein, Gianni Franco, the creepy-looking Umberto Balli and the ravishing Valery Valmond, who plays a prostitute, are particularly worth mentioning. Besides immense creepiness and suspense, sublime visual elegance, terrific effects and bloody gore, "M. D. C." also offers tasteful female nudity on several occasions, which, of course, is more than welcome. The remotely Giallo-esquire mystery about the killer's identity isn't really a one, but that doesn't really matter since it doesn't even slightly lessen the suspense. The score is fantastic and even intensifies the gloomy atmosphere.

"M. D. C." is a film that proves that great Gothic Horror films can still be made (I'm aware that 13 years have passed since, but the majority of Great Gothic Horror was made in the 60s, 70s and earlier). Sergio Stivaletti must be saluted for creating such a wonderfully gloomy film that must not be missed by my fellow fans of Italian Horror.

Paris December 31, 1900: a grisly mass murder. And then in Rome, 12 years later... a young man accepts a dare to stay overnight in a spooky wax museum. Something not quite right is going on there, but this man's stay is only the beginning.

Written by Dario Argento and Lucio Fulci, two masters who were more known to be at odds than to collaborate. Director of photography, special effects and directing all by Sergio Stivaletti. Dedicated to Lucio Fulci, the Italian horror master.

The film opens with a spectacular moving camera shot, and blood-spattered bodies strewn about. This sets quite a tone, and it's any wonder this film is not better known. Followed by a shot of black-gloved hands, a staple of Argento's work.

The men's hairstyles seem to be quite odd... what I will call the Italian mullet. One of these mullet men named Alex (Umberto Balli) looks like the cross between Bill Maher and Julian Sands. The woman who plays Sonia Lafont (Romina Mondello), though, is not only stylish, but incredibly beautiful in an exotic but innocent way. And somehow they got away with showing a preteen girl topless, which may be okay in Italy, but seems strange not being cut out when dubbed for American audiences.

Obviously, some of the ground here has been covered in other wax museum films -- notably "House of Wax" with Vincent Price, where they seem to have got much inspiration. But there are new surprises, and an excess of gore -- including a robotic hand that rips a heart straight from a chest! Add in some"Crawlspace"-esquire voyeurism, and voila! The film seems to drag on a bit longer than necessary, which is more a pacing issue than anything (it runs a modest 91 minutes). That aside, it is a good addition to the modern Italian horror film, with Sergio Stivaletti proving himself a capable director. I almost want to say on the level of Michele Soavi, but that would be going too far.

If you ever wondered what House of Wax would look like reimagined as an Italian giallo, you're in luck, because The Wax Mask is exactly that. Sure, there are a few liberties taken here and there, but it's still eerily similar.

A young woman sees her family murdered and, years later, she begins working for a wax museum where there's a set piece that looks an uncanny amount like the crime scene from her childhood. She begins to piece together that the wax exhibits are more than simple sculptures and might have real people underneath them.

As in most Italian films, the dialogue doesn't always translate well to English and there are some sacrifices of logic for cool set pieces, but it's typically an enjoyable ride.

Director Sergio Stivaletti gets to have a great time with The Wax Mask. This film has some great camera work and a few great set pieces. It's never quite to the level of Argento, Bava, or Fulci, but it's far from workmanlike. The gore effects are strong and nasty, but the film does seem to go on and on at times and could benefit from a few minutes being shaved off.

If you are familiar with italian horror, you get exactly what you expect here. Adequate to terrible performances, atrocious dubbing, gaudy visuals at the expens of characters you actually care about and imaginatively staged murders. However, this film was better than i expected, since director Stivaletti is primarily a make-up man and tried his hand at directing here for the first time. The (I suspect limited) budget is used well with varied locales for the different scenes, nice art-direction and costumes and crisp camerawork. Pace is well maintained throughout the movie which distracts you from some of the less obvious plot-holes. The waxmaster himself does quite a good actingjob, not hamming it up. As for "the good guys", the leading lady is adequate but at bit dull. Our supposed "hero" is however damagingly miscast and comes over as a complete bore. As is usually the case with italian horror, the visuals are at the fore here with rich colours (which of course includes crimsonred blood), lovingly filmed and accompanied by a good and appropriately romantic score. The finale, as a few others have stated, is quite bad but fun in a way with some terminatoresque touches that are unexpected, to say the least. And the murders, surprisingly few, are competently put together with a sufficient amount of gore to satisfy fans. Overall, entertaining and good fun, if you dont expect "Citizen Cane".