Waxwork (1988 film)

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Waxwork

Promotional movie poster for Waxwork
Directed by Anthony Hickox
Produced by Staffan Ahrenberg
Written by Anthony Hickox
Starring Zach Galligan, Deborah Foreman, Michelle Johnson
Music by Roger Bellon
Cinematography Gerry Lively
Editing by Christopher Cibelli
Release date(s) June 17, 1988
Running time 95 min. (100 mins. unrated)
Country USA
Language English
Followed by Waxwork II: Lost in Time
IMDb profile

Waxwork is a 1988 horror/comedy film starring Zach Galligan and Deborah Foreman.

Contents

[edit] Synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The film takes place in the small suburban town of Santa Carla, where a waxwork appears, seemingly overnight. And the elderly owner invites two college students, Sarah and China to come, along with four more guests to visit that night.

The two choose Mark, a rebellious rich student, and three other classmates Tony, Gemma, and James. That night 4 of the group visit the waxworks (James and Gemma are spooked away and quickly leave) and are surprised to be greeted by a 3-ft tall butler and his giant companion who welcome them and show them to the exhibit room.

Once inside they are greeted by several morbid displays and split up. Tony drops his cigarettes inside a forest display, he bends over and stumbles across the felt rope, when he looks up he is inside a real-life representation of the display. Seeing this, Tony tries to rationalize this occurrence first by drugs, then hologram and finally reluctantly goes with hypnotism. Trying to make sense of this, he walks into a solitary lodge among the trees to discover a man inside who frantically urges him to go away. Tony hears this and, with mixed feelings goes out for firewood. When Tony reenters, the man who has, now turned into a werewolf approaches and bites him. Just then, 2 hunters intrude in the cabin and shoot the werewolf dead, then seeing that Tony is also turning kills him, as the scene zooms out, it appears that this scene has manifested itself into the exhibit.

China then discovers a waxwork of a mysterious caped figure and is drawn inside the exhibit to find she has stepped inside a strange Victorian dinner scene where a soft-spoken mysterious man, a count, invites her to the table along with him and several other figures, his son Stephan, and his daughters. During the strange dinner they eat a meal of raw meat ("steak-tartare" the count says) before China retires to her room and lays on her bed saying "what an intense dream" before Stephan enters the room, saying that his father wants him for himself and then bares his fangs towards China, he is a vampire! China flees down to a secret basement to find a partially nude man bound to a table with much of his left leg torn to bits. The man introduces himself as Charles, China's (persona's) fiancee and tells her that the clan she had dinner with was made up of vampires and she must destroy them. Just then, Stephan again bursts in to the room and begins to chase China again. After circling the table, China takes up two knives and is told by Charles to touch them to Stephan's head. The threat is not over by this point, as the 4 female vampires who had dinner with her enter through another door and charge China, she manages to kill all four before finding that they have turned Charles. Now screaming, China quickly leaves the room to find herself, confronted by the count, back in the dining room. The count looks into her eyes and approaches her, sinking his teeth in to the unresisting woman's neck as the camera again retreats to reveal just another exhibit.

In the waxwork, Mark searches for the missing friends whilst Sarah is fascinated by an exhibit of the Marquis De Sade, which Mark fortunately pulls her away from the scene to search for the others.

Back in the waxwork's main room, the diminutive butler tells the duo that the others have already left. Sarah and Mark, needing no better explanation for now exit.

The next day, seeing that Tony and China still have not been found, Mark begins to believe that something strange may be going on at the waxworks, and tells Roberts, a detective. The angry detective reluctantly agrees, seeing that Tony and China would be the 15th an 16th in two weeks.

Upon arriving at the waxworks, Mark, expecting the midget, is surprised to be greeted by the old man who originally invited Sarah and China. Mark and Roberts enter and Roberts begins to inspect the exhibits, with the man by his side. One exhibit in particular catches inspector Roberts' eye, people inspecting an Egyptian tomb. Roberts admits that he is interested by the subject and the curator asks him if he'd like a closer look and nearly shoves him in. Roberts catches himself before he is captured by the exhibit and calmly leaves. The detective is now suspicious, but tells Mark he has no evidence to convict the man.

Afterwards both characters do a bit of thinking, Mark takes Sarah with him out of his lecture hall and back to his house, saying that he recognizes the man who greeted him back at the waxworks. Roberts, meanwhile, is thinking of the missing persons reports, connecting the faces to the faces of the waxwork victims, and decides to go back, hoping for further study on this. Inside the museum, Roberts explores the exhibits and inspects the Dracula display, taking a chunk of wax off of waxwork China's face, revealing a piece of muscle. Back at the Loftmore house, in the attic. The duo root through old family belongings and miscellaneous artifacts, Sarah is fascinated by a book about the Marquis De Sade, whilst Mark finds an old newspaper detailing the murder of his grandfather, the only suspect being David Lincoln, his chief helper. Mark recognizes the photo of Lincoln as the man who was at the waxwork, and Sarah says that he has not aged since his photo. Back at the waxworks, Inspector Roberts is busy exploring the exhibits and again stops by the Egyptian exhibit, and decides to take a closer look, inadvertently stepping in to the exhibit, and time period.

Roberts is now wearing period clothing inside a claustrophobic tomb with an old professor, a young female assistant, and a native boy. The professor calls him Nigel and tells him to help move the lid off a sarcophagus, he obeys, and slowly removes the top, revealing a simple corpse holding an old scroll, which the professor takes and unravels, quickly discovering that it's a curse and begins to read, "Those who desecrate the Tomb of Ra-oul will be condemned to a painful death at the hands of-". These words seem to bring to life another sarcophagus on the wall containing another, stronger-looking mummy which comes to life, shocking everyone in the room. The stone doors to the chamber suddenly slide shut. Roberts exclaims that; "There's a lever around here someplace!", and begins randomly pulling on torches and feeling for switches. The mummy crushes the, now bowing, native boy's head. The professor tells Roberts that he has a gun in his bag, which Roberts makes a run for as the mummy kills the professor and makes his way towards the girl. Inspector Roberts fires his gun on the mummy, but to no avail whatsoever. The mummy takes the girl and throws her into the tomb with a snake, then picking up inspector Roberts and easily doing the same. The mummy picks up the lid and traps them both inside, with the usual after-results.

Meanwhile, Mark and Sarah go to see one of Mark's Grandfather's old friends, Sir Wilfred, a seemingly friendly old man who is confined to a wheelchair, and tell him the story of how they got to where they are at that moment. Sir Wilfred explains how he and Mark's grandfather, a benevolent adventurer, went around the globe collecting trinkets from "18 of the most evil people who ever lived". And of how David Lincoln, who Sir Wilfred explains is a devil's servant, once worked for Mr. Loftmore, before betraying him to steal the artifacts. Sir Wilfred explains to the protagonists what he believes to be going on;

"There's a voodoo belief that by making a wax effigy of an evil being, containing a belonging of his he possessed in earthly form, and feeding him the soul of a believing victim, you can bring him back to life!

But what you have discovered is even more terrifying! You see your grandfather not only collected their belongings, but also a small piece, from the dwelling of the deceased. What Lincoln has done is to recreate a whole scene from each characters life, which becomes like a small time vessel. The whole display is the ghost, not just the figures. He doesn't need to kill anyone, sacrifice, or use spells; he just sits back while the display does it for him. Until the day, when there are 18 victims. A time when 18, of the most evil souls, there have ever been, shall live again - destroying the world, with the help of their possessed. The voodoo end of the world, when the dead shall rise, and consume all things."

Wilfred tells Mark and Sarah that they may be able to stop this from happening by burning the waxworks, most importantly the ones that have not taken lives yet. Mark and Sarah promptly leave to carry out this task.

Mark and Sarah enter the waxwork in the dead of night with gas canisters and proceed to douse the museum with it. Inside the exhibit Sarah's attention is again captured by the Marquis De Sade, and, before Mark has the chance to pull her away, she, seemingly entranced steps into the display while Mark is pushed into a zombie exhibit Lincoln's tall and short butlers.

The Marquis exhibit, Sarah is shown to The Marquis De Sade and a prince, who tell the silent (and apparently not remembering her own identity) Sarah that she is to be whipped by the Marquis and used as a whore by the prince. Inside the "Night of the Living Dead" exhibit, Mark is approached by a hoard of the undead, some of who he manages to beat away, but is soon near overwhelmed and reasons to himself that none of the exhibit is real, that he was forced into it, and that if he doesn't believe in the monsters, then they don't exist. This theory proves to work, as Mark finds his way outside the exhibit's own universe. Mark emerges back into the waxworks and dashes past the butlers and in to the Marquis exhibit. Once inside, Mark makes his way towards the Marquis' chamber. Meanwhile, the Marquis has finished whipping Sarah for the moment, much to the prince's dismay, who tells the Marquis he will take another woman and that he should finish beating Sarah to death. Thankfully however, Mark intrudes before De Sade can carry out this task. Mark gos to free Sarah, who, to Mark's surprise, is now being controlled by the illusion and now does not wish to leave.

De Sade tells Mark that Sarah "prefers my company", to which Mark says his words mean nothing, that they're trapped in their world until Sarah dies.

Trying to break Sarah from her illusion, Mark hands a gun to the Marquis, saying that he can't fight like a man. The Marquis responds by simply shooting Mark, but to his surprise, the bullet passes straight through him, doing no damage!

After striking with his whip proves useless, the Marquis has no choice but to stand by while Mark takes the now understanding Sarah's hand and shows her the energy barrier out of the exhibit, and the two exit.

Falling outside the waxwork, Mark and Sarah find Lincoln and his two butlers waiting. Mark tells them that their plan has failed. To which Lincoln says he has made a precaution, James and Gemma, the friends who shied away from the waxwork when they first arrived step into the exhibit room. The two, like the others, unknowingly stray into the final two exhibits. Within seconds they appear dead and waxen inside the Zombie and Marquis exhibit. Lincoln says "It is done", as blue lightning begins to dance around the various exhibits, which all at once, come to life! Mark and Sarah attempt to flee from the exhibits, only to be stopped at the door by a mad lumberjack. The lumberjack is suddenly pierced through the heart by an arrow, Sir Wilfred has arrived at the door accompanied by a huge group of armed men. Wilfred tell s Mark that if any of the now-living exhibits escape, the world will soon be contaminated. Jenkins, Mark's butler from earlier in the film is with the army and presents Mark with his late grandfather's swords before the army of slayers attack the waxworks.

A strange battle ensues, several waxworks and slayers die, including Lincoln's butlers and Mark and Sarah's old friends turned evil. Meanwhile Lincoln attempts to escape but is pursued by Mark. The Marquis De Sade, seeing this, takes after the two enemies hoping to settle the score with the protagonist.

The Marquis follows Mark and Lincoln into the staff room, where he, with a sword of his own, knocks Mark's out of his hand.

"Now we will see who is the real man" the Marquis tells Mark before handing his word back. The two begin another round of swordplay and Mark manages to toss the Marquis off a small ledge. However, De Sade quickly regains his footing and turns the tables, throwing Mark to the ground and stepping on his sword. The Marquis looks up to Mr. Lincoln, standing on a balcony above a tub of boiling wax who holds his thumb up in an old Roman fashion, then points it downward, telling De Sade to "kill the wimp"

The living waxwork is about to plunge his sword into Mark's throat when he stops in mid-jab, we see that the lumberjack's axe has buried itself into De Sade's back. The Marquis turns around to see his whipping-girl, Sarah standing above him before he falls over dead. Mark and Sarah reunite, only to be confronted by Lincoln, still on the balcony and now holding a gun pointed downward at the duo. Mark tells Lincoln that he murdered his grandfather, Lincoln is somewhat surprised, but is not deferred from his task, he points the gun at Mark and Sarah.

Fortunately, Sir Wilfred saves our heroes, bursting into the room and shooting Lincoln, who falls off his balcony and into the boiling wax below. Mark and Sarah are relieved for a moment, but have only the time to thank Wilfred before Lincoln emerges from the wax once again, grabbing Mark by the shoulders saying for one last time; "would you like a closer look?" and falls back into the wax, doing no more harm.

Now the flames encircle Sir Wilfred who tells Mark and sarah to save themselves as the werewolf that turned Tony comes and twists off his head. Sarah and Mark manage to escape the burning waxwork with their lives and begin to walk home, not noticing the hand from the living dead exhibit is scuttling away from the rubble, following them...

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Trivia

  • The town's name, Santa Carla, (as seen in the "missing" papers) is rather an odd reference to another horror-comedy, The Lost Boys. A prop missing persons poster from that film was doctored for use in that film. During the opening credits of Lost Boys, when the names of Alexander Winter and Billy Wirth appear onscreen, a missing persons poster appears with the following names on them, in the lower left corner of the frame.

William G. Bailey 7-26-62 Sandy blond hair brown eyes Missing since August 6, 1979 (or 1973)

Call the Santa Carla Police Department

Susan Wilbur 5-30-69 Black Hair Blue Eyes Missing since February 6, 1983 This poster, doctored, also appears in Waxwork.

[edit] External links

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