A group of students visit David Lincoln’s (David Warner) mysterious wax museum where each monster-filled exhibit can take victims into its world. When all eighteen exhibits have killed, the monsters will come alive in the real world, destroying it. Only two of the students, Mark Loftmore (Zach Galligan) and Sarah Brightman (Deborah Foreman), can stop Lincoln’s evil scheme.
Writer/director Anthony Hickox’s homage to classic horror is a funny, sexy, bloody joy within the waxwork exhibits, and an irritating, campy, pointless farce outside of them. The students range from non-entities to those I wish were non-entities. The worst is whining, mumbling, Mark Loftmore, which is unfortunate as he’s the lead character. While he does have some funny moments (particularly with his maid), generally, he is tiresome. The student’s conversations about their dating problems feel like filler, just there because the budget only allowed for a few minutes of monsters and gore. The final battle is an embarrassment. Not only does it contradict the storyline, but it involves sword fighting (where did the students learn fencing and why aren’t they using guns?) and apocalyptic monsters that turn out to be easy to kill.
The waxwork monster vignettes (only five are shown: werewolf, Dracula, mummy, zombie, and Marquis de Sade) redeem the film. The standouts are the bloody, humorous, and sexy Dracula segment, and the sensual Marquis de Sade piece. Deborah Foreman sighs, heaves, and sweats, in the latter, and it is lovely. Her performance combined with the atmospheric music makes this one of the most erotic moments in horror. Ms. Foreman disappeared from acting after ’91; I can’t grasp why some producer hasn’t lured her back.