Review of Waxwork (1988) by Filipeneto — 16 Jan 2022

This currently forgotten film revolves around a mysterious wax museum. It's a cheap and uninteresting film, with premises that I find repetitive, considering all the films I've seen about this type of museum: missing people, wax dolls that aren't exactly dolls, an evil creator willing to free some form of evil about the world. Anyone who has seen movies like "House of Wax" (in the latest or oldest version, starring Vincent Price) already knows, more or less, what they will find here. Despite being a very weak film, in terms of quality, the film ended up having some acceptance by the public, having even had a sequel, which I haven't seen yet.

The film doesn't have a notable cast, and I haven't met any of the actors involved. In fact, it is David Warner who stands out the most, as a pleasantly malevolent and calculating character. Zach Galligan does what he can to ensure positive participation, but he is the only one of the young people who deserves a positive note. I also really enjoyed the work of Miles O'Keeffe and J. Kenneth Campbell as two monsters, namely Count Dracula and the Marquis de Sade. The rest of the cast just appears.

The film has a pleasant cinematography, but within the standard of the time it was made. The sets and costumes largely correspond to what we might expect. The best thing about the film is, in fact, the succession of worlds that the characters visit when they let themselves be immersed in the museum's creations, and I must say that I especially liked the world of Dracula, Marquis de Sade and even the tomb of the Egyptian mummy... they are short sections of the film that make everything else worthwhile, and that make up for the Franciscan poverty of everything else, from the narrative to the story's general effects and verisimilitude. There's some nudity around here, and also a lot of gore (especially in Dracula's castle), but I handled that well. Personally, I even consider that there are several gory effects that lack realism, although they are visually very impressive.