Waxwork II: Lost in Time (1992)

WARNING: I’m going to give away major details about the movie including how it ends.  You’ve been warned.



The first Waxworks wasn’t particularly impressive.  I could forgive you for not having heard of it.  It was about some friends, most of whom fall victim to an evil wax museum.  Sarah and Mark escape, only to be followed by a reanimated hand in the final scene.  Waxwork II starts with a montage of scenes recounting those events.  We see the wax museum burn down, many characters die horrible deaths and so on.

The movie starts with Mark dropping Sarah off at her place.  Her place happens to be her stepfather’s apartment.  He’s abusive, and very much in the stereotypical way.  He wears the famous undershirt and drinks beer.  (How do we know it’s beer?  It’s in a white can with the word “BEER” on it.)   Sarah’s stepfather begins yelling at her and whatnot when the reanimated hand shows up and kills him.  Mark is able to save her, but Sarah is still left to take the fall for Stepfather’s death.

The trial goes about as well as Sarah has a right to expect. No one believes her story about the zombie hand.  After all, Mark is the only person that could back her up.  I’m not really sure why her attorney doesn’t go for an insanity or self-defense plea.  After all, Sarah’s stepfather was about to hit her.  I know that affirmative defenses can be problematic, but I think this might be an appropriate time to try.

After the trial lets out, Mark and Sarah go looking for something that can help her.  They find a magic compass-looking thing that allows them to travel to an alternate dimension.  They pass through worlds, much like in the first movie.  Each one is an homage to a different movie classic.  Their first stop is Frankenstein.  From there, they end up in other movies, like Alien ad The Haunting.

Sir Wilfred shows up in the form of a raven to provide a little help.  Well, he basically shows up to explain what’s going on.  This alternate dimension is a playground between God and Satan.  They can’t battle it out on our plane directly, but they can fight it out here.  Sir Wilfred calls it God’s Nintendo.  What happens in God’s Nintendo has effects in the real world.  Each side has time warriors that help out.

Mark is able to get Sarah the help she needs before sending her back.  He stays behind to be a time warrior, himself.  The important thing is that Sarah has a reanimated hand to offer as evidence of her story.  She is, of course, promptly acquitted.  As she exit’s the courthouse, a cab pulls up.  A man gets out and hands Sarah her very own compass thing.  She drives off with the implication being that she goes to rejoin Mark.

Ok.  So, there are several issues.  First off, no mention is made of the house burning down with nearly everyone in it.  Most of the main characters from the movie also went missing.  You’d think Mark and/or Sarah would be on the hook for at least some of that.  Nope.  Not even an arson charge.  (I think the deaths might be felony homicide depending on where they live and who’s prosecuting.)

Another issue is how the hand managed to kill Sarah’s stepfather, being that it’s just a hand.  How does something that small manage to pin someone down and strangle them?  The movie seems to have little use for physics.  (I know the man is drunk, but still…)

Zach Galligan and Patrick Macnee are the only two actors to appear in both the first and second movies.  (Deborah Foreman was replaced with Monika Schnarre as Sarah.)  We do get to see Bruce Campbell and David Carradine make appearances.  And wait… is that Marina Sirtis?  Wow!  Deanna Troi appears in this film.  (Well, not as Deanna Troi, but still…)

Like the first movie, this one wasn’t great.  It was entertaining the first time, but I don’t think I would buy it.  It’s the kind of movie that a local station might play because the studio wasn’t asking a lot of money for it.  This movie could easily have not been made and I don’t think anyone would have noticed.

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Waxwork (1988)

WARNING:  I’m going to give out major details, including the ending.


Near where I live is a stretch of businesses.  It looks like they are operating out of former houses, probably as the result of rezoning without much rebuilding.  It was a little unsettling for me to look at, as they looked like regular family homes with business names.  David Lincoln runs a wax museum that seems to have similarly taken over a random house in a random neighborhood.

Sarah and China happen to be walking past the house when Mr. Lincoln stops them.  He invites the two young ladies +4 to visit the museum, which is still in progress.  It will be sort of like a soft open, but for no more than six people.  (He insists on six as a strict limit.)  Sarah and China aren’t sure what to make of it, but they tell their friends who decide to go with varying degrees of enthusiasm.  Two even back out at the last minute.

The displays are a who’s who of popular monsters.  One of the friends, Tony, gets sucked into a display to find himself in an actual forest.  He is eventually bitten by a werewolf and becomes part of the display.  China gets to meet Count Dracula, who inflicts a similar fate on her.  Mark and Sarah manage to make it out, leaving Lincoln in need of four more people.

Mark tells everything to an Inspector Roberts, who is eventually persuaded to investigate.  As you might imagine, Lincoln is able to get rid of Roberts easily.  Actually, Lincoln tries to push Roberts into a display with no luck.  It isn’t until Roberts realizes that there are actual missing people in the museum that he goes back and finds himself trapped in Mummy World.

Mark and Sarah eventually visit Sir Wilfred, who knew Mark’s grandfather.  Dear old granddad collected items associated with 18 or the worlds most notorious bad guys throughout history.  The items were stolen by none other than Mr. Lincoln, who embedded them in replicas of the 18 evil people.  The plan is to sacrifice innocent people in batches of 6 to bring the evil people back.  The only real hope is to destroy the remaining displays before they can claim a victim, since it’s an all-or-nothing deal.

When Mark and Sarah return to the museum, the find out that only two displays remain.  Mark is pushed into a world overrun by zombies and Sarah meets Marque de Sade.  Mark realizes that his belief in the display is required.  He’s able to escape by remembering that it’s not real.  He finds Sarah, who apparently has latent masochistic tendencies.  Yes, she’s enjoying being whipped by the Marquis, who likes to call her names.

Mark is able to pull Sarah out of there only to have Lincoln push two more of their friends into the displays.  Now that he has all 18 sacrifices, the displays come to life.  Hope is not lost, though, as Sir Wilfred brings a large group of people to fight the monsters.  In the end, only Mark and Sarah make it out alive.  Yes, most of the characters die a long and horrible death.  (Well, some are quick deaths, but they’re all horrible.)  They’re followed by a zombie hand, thus setting up the sequel.

This is one of those movies that was right at home in the late 1980s.  Given that it has an R rating, I’m assuming it got a theatrical release.  However, it tends towards made-for-TV in terms of quality.  With most of the effects, you can’t see the strings.  The only noticeable exception is the wax displays.  There were two ways to go: Either make wax replicas of the actors and risk having cheesy wax mannequins or just have the actors stand in place and hope no one blinks.  They went for the second option.  You can see the actors swaying, mostly looking like they’re desperately trying not to ruin the shot.

I’m honestly not sure if this is supposed to be a legitimate horror movie or if it was meant to be satirical.  It name checks a lot of other movies and genres.  (We see a plant that I assume was supposed to be from Little Shop of Horrors, for instance.)  It’s not necessarily scary, but it does earn the R rating in other ways.  The only thing I’d really warn parents about is the Marquis de Sade scenes.  Much of the violence is tame by today’s standards, although some things might scare younger children.

This was the first film that Anthony Hickox wrote or directed, so I can forgive some things.  It did have a few big names, like Zach Galligan.  (This was filmed in between Gremlins and Gremlins 2.)  The movie even went on to have a sequel of its own, picking up right after the events of this movie, but that’s another review.

IMDb page

Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990)

There’s talk of a third Gremlins movie.  There was some debate as to whether it would be a sequel or a reboot.  However, it doesn’t seem to make a difference in some cases.  Sequels are kind of like reboots with a history.   Case in point is Gremlins 2: The New Batch.  It has the same basic plot of a cute mogwai producing more mogwai, which eventually turn in to the titular little monsters.

Billy Peltzer and Kate Beringer from the original movie have moved from Kingston Falls to New York City.  They have jobs in Clamp Tower, working for Daniel Clamp.  Visiting them in the big city are Murray and Sheila Futterman.  Murray still remembers the events of the first movie.

For those that don’t, Billy’s father got a mogwai from a store in Chinatown, which Billy named Gizmo.  There are three rules for a mogwai:  Don‘t expose them to light, especially not sunlight; don’t get them wet; don’t feed them after midnight.  Once again, the rules are broken, although not necessarily in that order.

Daniel Clamp is trying to buy out the same store that Gizmo went back to at the end of the first movie.  After the owner’s death, Mr. Clamp is able to buy and demolish the building to make way for his new project.  Gizmo escapes, only to be captured by someone who works in the Clamp Building.  Gizmo is take to a genetics lab, ostensibly to be experimented on.

Through a coincidence, Billy realizes where Gizmo is and rescues the little guy.  Much of the rest of the movie is similar to the first.  Three new mogwai are formed and immediately torture Gizmo.  They become Gremlins, who make a lot more gremlins, who then terrorize the building’s occupants.  In this sense, the sequel seems like a rehash of the first movie, although it’s not as blatant as I would have expected in a sequel.

There are some new elements, like the gremlins getting into the genetics labs and getting new attributes like wings or a more-developed brain.  There are also a few in-jokes and self-referential humor, like Leonard Maltin briefly reviewing the first movie.  If you haven’t seen Gremlins, some things might seem confusing or go over your head.  Strictly speaking, it’s not entirely necessary, but I would recommend it.

The New Batch also seems to rely more on CGI than on puppets.  The CGI is almost seamless, but is a little obvious in a few places.  I’d say that the puppetry in the first movie could be more distracting than the CGI in this one.  Even the puppetry is better.  It’s actually better than what I’d expect of a movie from 1990.

I’m kind of curious to see what they’d do with a Gremlins 3, especially considering that almost 30 years have passed since Gremlins 2 was released.  It could be that the responsibility of Gizmo is handed off to a new generation with Billy and Kate taking on a parental/Mr. Wing role or that the main characters would be recast or replaced.  (I would hope for the former rather than the latter.)

I am curious as to where Gizmo came from.  I don’t think this was directly addressed in either movie.  One would think that there are more Mogwai, even if they’re not all like Gizmo.  Someone once said that it’s hard to imagine hamsters running around in the wild.  Similarly, it’s hard to imagine wild mogwai/gremlins.  The reason I thought of this is that if Gizmo ever ate after midnight, would that necessarily be the end of mogwaikind?  No one ever seems to be worried about this.

IMDb page

Gremlins (1984)

WARNING:  This movie gives away some details.  I don’t feel that they’ll ruin the movie-going experience, but not everyone might agree.



There was one scene I remember from Gremlins more than any other from that movie.  Kate Beringer (the love interest) is telling Billy about how her father died on Christmas.  She even goes into detail about how he was found a few days later, ruining the holiday for her.  Apparently, there was some controversy when the movie was first released, but it encapsulates the feel of the movie pretty well.  What can be joyous for many can be horrible for a few.  We’re not even talking alone for the holidays horrible.  Christmas is about to get very scary for one small town.

The movie starts with Randall Peltzer looking for the perfect gift for his son.  He finds it in a gift shop in Chinatown.  Alas, the furry little creature, called a mogwai, is not for sale.  Mr. Peltzer manages to get the shop owner’s grandson to sneak the mogwai out the back for a few bills.

There are three rules that the shop owner imparted to Randall.  First, no bright lights.  Sunlight can even kill them.  Second, don’t get them wet.  Third, do not, under any circumstances, feed them after midnight.  The mogwai comes to be known as Gizmo.

Billy is somewhat careful about the first rule.  Gizmo reacts to almost any light, so Billy is always being reminded to be careful.  It doesn’t take long before the second rule is broken.  Billy’s friend spills some water on Gizmo, causing Gizmo great pain.  A few second later, five hairballs pop off, with each forming a new mogwai.  If Gizmo is a well-behaved angel, the five new mogwai are those demon-spawn children you come across every so often.  They always want attention and are harassing Gizmo whenever the get a chance.  It isn’t long before they trick Billy into feeding them after midnight.

Billy’s mother is able to kill four of them, but the group’s leader, named Stripe, manages to escape.  Stripe manages to find his way to the local YMCA where he finds a pool filled with water.  Now, Stripe has an entire army of little troublemakers to help him wreak havoc on Kingston Falls.  They take over a bar, where they drink and smoke and make trouble for Billy’s girlfriend, Kate.  They eventually gather in a movie theater to watch Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, thus leading (hopefully) to Billy’s endgame.  If you know anything about comedies or horror movies, you know it can’t be that simple.

There are several clichés in the movie, although I’m not sure if they were intentional or not.  The most obvious, of course, is the disregard for rules.  Given some of the dialogue, this is commentary on the human tendency to want to be defiant.  Tell someone not to do something, and they’ll have an uncontrollable urge to do it.  There’s also the tendency to have one of a group of antagonists escape and cause more trouble.  Stripe does this twice.  I’ll admit that there was a larger group of Gremlins the second time; it was impressive that Billy managed to get as many as he did.  Still, why always one?

I’ve always found it odd that timing is always so precise.  You can’t feed a Gremlin after midnight.  What if your clock is off?  Am I supposed to take time zones into account?  If Mogwai predate modern timekeeping, how did people know exactly when to stop feeding them?  For that matter, when can you start feeding them again?  Isn’t it really always after midnight?

It’s also strange that they reproduce by getting water on them.  How did a species evolve like that?  For that matter, when a little fur ball pops off, how do we get the sudden increase in mass?  Where does the extra matter come from?  Also, are we to assume that the water is consumed?  When Stripe enters the pool, could we have ended up with an infinite number of Gremlins?

I suppose that might not have been a bad thing, plot wise.  The Gremlins are the main draw here. The humans are mostly caricatures.  You have the hopeless inventor for a father.  There’s the well-meaning kid.  There’s even the mean old lady who threatens to have Billy’s dog put down.

This is not a movie for young kids.  It was part of the first batch of movies to get a PG-13 rating because it was worse than PG, but not quite R territory.  Much of the proposed violence was taken out, but it’s still pretty scary.  I could see some of it giving small children nightmares.  (Consider the story I led with.)

The movie is a solid horror movie.  I imagine a few people, like myself, will watch it because it’s a classic.  If you haven’t seen it before, you might want to watch it anyway.  The effects are pretty good and the storyline, such as it is, works.  I don’t remember much of the sequel, but word is that a third installment is in the works.  It’s supposed to be a continuation of the same storyline rather than a reboot, so you might want to head over to Netflix while you can get streaming.

IMDb page