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Category:    Home > Reviews > Horror > Thriller > Exploitation > Mystery > Waxwork (1988)/Waxwork 2: Lost in Time (1992/Vestron Video Collector's Series/Lionsgate Blu-ray)

Waxwork (1988)/Waxwork 2: Lost in Time (1992/Vestron Video Collector's Series/Lionsgate Blu-ray)



Picture: B+ Sound: B Extras: C+ Films: B/C+



From the Director of Hellraiser 3, Anthony Hickox, comes the horror double feature of Waxwork (1988) and Waxwork 2: Lost in Time (1992). While the first film is far superior to the second, both movies are great '80s horror fun for fans and a great double disc release from Lionsgate and the third entry in the Vestron Video Collector's Series. The first two releases in the Vestron series, Blood Diner and Chopping Mall, are reviewed elsewhere on the site.


What if you could walk through a wax museum and upon walking near a display - be sucked into a parallel dimension where that reality existed? Such is the fate for a group of teens who enter a creepy Waxwork Museum (where the underrated David Warner is the bizarre caretaker) where they encounter vampires, mummies, and other horrific horrors face to face. Some make it out alive and others don't! There are some great moments in this film and some great production design as well that fans of classic horror films will enjoy. Some of the effects are a little dated and an early scene where they see ''wax'' figures are obviously people standing in frozen poses (look close enough and you can see them move), but it doesn't take away from the charm or original story concept that make the film endearing and are a perfect examples of cult genre film.


The sequel, Waxwork 2: Lost in Time, picks up right where the first one left off but suffers the fate of what I like to call 'Back to the Future, Part 2 casting' - where the female lead is recast (the gorgeous Deborah Foreman is replaced with pretty-but-different looking Sophie Ward) while Zach Galligan returns as the lead. The film is a bit too ambitious for its britches and ends up ripping off/homaging stronger better films more than it does bring originality to the table. Aliens, Night of the Living Dead, The Evil Dead, and a handful of other films are heavily parodied which doesn't work more than it works. I'm sure the lack of originality (despite cameos by Campbell and Carradine) didn't help get a third one off the ground.


Waxwork stars Zach Galligan, Deborah Foreman, Patrick Macnee (The Howling), David Warner (Time After Time, finally arriving on Blu-ray soon itself), and Jennifer Bassey, and Waxwork II: Lost in Time, starring Zach Galligan, Sophie Ward, Martin Kemp, a great performance by the one and only Bruce Campbell, and a cameo by David Carradine.


Both films have been remastered and are presented in 1080p high definition with a widescreen aspect ratio of 1.85:1 that improves significantly over previous versions on DVD and VHS respectively. The dark colors inside the wax museum are contrasty and pop with vivid colors on all of leads. The transfer leaves little to gripe about. The original stereo tracks have been remastered too and are presented in lossless DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Stereo Surround (Pro Logic-type surrounds). A higher mix to 5.1 would have been nice, but considering they are older genre films and not huge box office successes, I can see why Lionsgate maybe didn't want to put the money into the mix as much as they did the picture. Maybe the audio stems didn't age well enough either.



Special Features for the first film include...

Audio Commentary with Anthony Hickox & Zach Galligan

''The Waxwork Chronicles'' (Parts 1 thru 6)

Vintage "Making of" Featurette

Theatrical Trailer

Still Gallery


The second film has less features with...

Audio Commentary with Anthony Hickox & Zach Galligan

Theatrical Trailer

Still Gallery


As a genre fan, I would pick up this Blu-ray set for the first film alone as it's kind of a hard one to find nowadays and really looks great on disc. The second one is more of just an added bonus in the set. I can totally see a remake of this working if done by the right group of filmmakers, but we have this upgraded set finally, so now they can be (re)discovered.



- James Lockhart

https://www.facebook.com/jamesharlandlockhartv/


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