Jonny revisits a cult horror film starring Zach Galligan and David Warner, and discovers whether it’s actually any good….
The back of the DVD case describes Waxwork as “The Rocky Picture Show-meets-House of Wax” and in some ways it’s right (there is a house of wax central to the plot), but in many more it’s altogether wrong (there’s none of the charm, campness or self-knowing of Rocky Horror).
The film has its feet firmly planted in the archetypal standards of the horror genre, introducing a group of teens whose ranks meet the requirements of jerk, jock, bimbo and loveable-though-annoying-protagonist. The kids quickly find themselves invited to a midnight preview at a waxwork museum which has shown up in a residential district, and don their best suits and dresses to attend. Following form, the jerk character (distinguishable by his constant smoking, and flicking of cigarette butts) is the first of many to meet a grizzly fate within the museum: bitten by a werewolf after a half-hearted off-screen transformation into what can only be described as a malicious Papillon.
The antagonist and the “attractive-enough-to-be-important-but-ugly-enough-to-not-be-killed” girl escape, but they find no help from the police, who refuse to believe their reports that several of their friends have been killed in the waxworks. After seeking aid elsewhere the pair discover the nefarious scheme in progress involves bringing back from the dead, eighteen (because 18=6+6+6 which is, sort of, the number of the beast) of the most evil people from history, by creating voodoo, wax effigies using human sacrifices, disguised within the exhibits. A quick look through the characters in the waxworks, as shown throughout the film, reveals these eighteen evil characters to include: a vampire, a werewolf, a mummy, a zombie, the Phantom of the Opera, Frankenstein’s Monster, an alien, a freak show snake-boy, Jack The Ripper, the invisible man (or perhaps just a nasty man with a bandaged face), an evil monster baby, Audrey 2, a man with an axe and the Marquis De Sade (who appears to be modelled after a sexy pirate-gypsy.)
Despite having the absurd plot and characters required, Waxwork falls distinctly short of the horror-satire it so longs to be. Comparing it to House of Wax and The Rocky Horror Picture Show is fair insofar as it falls somewhere between the two. It has a small number of very graphically violent scenes, mostly focusing on the squashing of heads, and also has a few lighthearted sequences – a German professor teaching a history lesson about the Nazis (comedy gold) – but as such it doesn’t fit alongside either film snugly. A musical number or two, in keeping with Rocky Horror, would help tip the scale toward the ridiculous and would perhaps balance the violence in the film by forming a sweet and sour appeal.
Waxwork isn’t funny, scary or simply bad enough to be a great film, and a much better evening could be had with a pair of fishnets and a water pistol, or hiding behind your fingers in a dark room.
Jonny West
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