The Wax Museum flicks are like Cannibal crunchers. There just not enough of them. But its one of the aspects that makes them so unique and enjoyable. Here’s a group that I find a need for. If your looking for that pitiful “House of Wax” remake, you won’t find it here. Take a look at all things WAX.

Mystery of the Wax Museum
d. Michael Curtiz 1933 79 min Color
Image Entertainment DVD w/ House of Wax, Theatrical Trailer, House of Wax Newsreel
For many years this was a lost film and would go on to see a near identical remake in the Vincent Price starred mega-classic “House of Wax” ‘53. London-1921, two partners own a wax museum, one [Lionel Atwill] is creator of the wax statues that he considers to be his children, the other is a money hungry slime ball that burns the museum for insurance money, leaving Atwill presumed to dead. Dead? No sir, I don’t think so. He’s now a disfigured cool dude that’s stealing bodies from the morgue that show up under a layer of wax when the museum is re-opened. His final pursuit is to cover Fay Wray, of King Kong fame with wax for his Mary Antoinette display. Grim, classic, vintage horror filmed in two-strip Technicolor and directed by Michael Curtiz who a year earlier directed the atmospheric equally impressive “Doctor X” also with Atwill and Wray. Now on Image DVD with “House of Wax”.

House of Wax
d. Andre De Toth 1953 88 min Color
Warner Bros. DVD w/House of Wax Premiere Newsreel, Theatrical Trailer, Mystery of the Wax Museum Fullframe
The grand daddy of the wax museum films, to this very day in fact, [in my horrortized mind] is this excellent routinely watched remake of the ’33 classic “Mystery of the Wax Museum”. In the role that made him a star, Vincent Price is a museum curator/sculptor who presumed to be dead after his money-grubbing partner sets their New York City wax museum a blaze to collect insurance money. Price resurfaces as a horribly burned and disfigured madman that opens a new House of Wax with a Chamber of Horror’s exhibit that depicts historic violence and the local murders that are occurring in Grand Guignol fashion. Could he also be responsible for the corpses that are missing from the morgue? Excellent use of the turn of the century New York setting from the foggy streets to the gaslight morgue to melancholy museum brought full circle with the eerie theremin laced score to boot. Dark gloom and doom atmosphere aplenty tops off this ultra classic. Look close, Charles Bronson plays Prices deaf mute assistant Igor and Carolyn [Morticia Addams] Jones is the blond that becomes the wax figure of Joan of Arc. Originally released in 3-D, which helps explain the in your face paddleball guy. Warner Bros. DVD also includes the “Mystery of the Wax Museum” ’33.

Bucket of Blood
d. Roger Corman 1959 65 min B&W
Rhino Home Video Fullframe
Not completely a Wax film but this quickie classic from the ‘King of the B’s’ Roger Corman is a lively way to kill a little time. Strange Walter Paisley [Dick Miller] works in a beatnik coffeehouse and is searching for a way to fit in with the artists and poets hang out. So he tries his hand at sculpting to no avail until he accidentally kills his cat and discovers that sculpting is pretty easy when you just cover the dead body with clay. His cat statue becomes a hit at the coffeehouse, so he turns to murder to make human statues that bring him fame and fortune till his secret is discovered.

Mill of the Stone Women
d. Giorgio Ferroni 1960 94 min Color
Mondo Macabre DVD w/ Deleted & Alternate Scenes, 3 Audio Tracks, Theatrical Trailer, Still & Poster Gallery, Production Notes 1.85:1
Tagline: “See a beautiful woman changed into a petrified monster before your very eyes!!” Giogio Ferroni’s “Il Mulino delle donne di pietra” in it’s UNCUT Euro version gets high marks here. Resurrected by Mondo Macabre this slow but rewarding goth-romantik entry based on the Flemish tale of the same name, is reminiscent of “House of Wax” ’53 and wax museum films alike. An artist falls into a web of deceit when he goes to study at a gloomed out creaky old wind mill work shop where a doctor makes stone statues of women murderers and victims for his carousel. Convinced that something is a foul our hero is out to uncover the mystery while the professor and doctor kill women for blood transfusions to keep his daughter alive. Their corpses of course are those stone statues. Shot in sharp Technicolor and loaded with as much atmosphere as an French Italian film can muster with out Mario Bava, this is a must for fans of those wonderful gothic horrors Mario Bava, Richardo Freda and Antonio Margheriti made in the 60’s. True the staues are stone but it all plays like a wax Musuem flick. The original U.S. version took some snipping by censors [why is beyond me]. a. k. a. Drops of Blood, The Horrible Mill Women, Horror of the Stone Women, Icon, Le Moulin des supplices

Chamber of Horrors
d. Hy Averback 1968 93 min Color
Warner Brothers 1.85:1
Tagline: “The unspeakable vengeance of the crazed Baltimore strangler”! This one was etched on my memory at a young age and the title went unknown for about 25 years or so until I [finally] came across it, and of course the purchase was made. Ebay delivered this excellent quality lbx’d import print with nary a sub—popcorn included---for me to feast my eyes on at long last. So here we go with the campy [hey is this William Castle’s idea??] “Fear Flasher” a ‘Flash Red Warning’ and “Horror Horn” to warn the viewer of impending violence. Good thing to, this PG violence is not good for my fragile little mind. Patrick O’Neil is in fine form as a wacked out guy that is arrested while forcing a man to wed him and his dead bride in a shot gun wedding. Escaping the authorities by cutting off his hand, he literally arms himself with several hand attachments that he uses to extract revenge on those who have wronged him. In the vein of the Wax Museum films, and truthfully a bit on the slow side, this Saturday Afternoon Matinee favorite is once again at my beckon call. Note: This now has a DVD release.

Terror in the Wax Museum
d. Georg Fenady 1973 88 min Color
Vestron Video Fullframe
I’m always up for a wax museum flick and this made for TV entry---a memory from my disturbing youth---is a pretty good one that brings to mind Rod Serling’s “Night Gallery” in style and appearance. So onward we go with another one of these Wax Museum flicks very loosely based on “Mystery in the Wax Museum”. John Carradine is Dupree, Owner that along with his mute disfigured assistant Karkoff runs a wax museum of horrors featuring the likes of legendary killers like Jack the Ripper. Mr. Burns is determined to buy the wax figures with hopes of taken them to New York. Dupree doesn’t want to sell and turns up murdered leaving several people suspect. Ray Milland is his associate and Dupree’s niece’s bitch of an aunt [Elsa Lanchester – The Bride of Frankenstein] have arrived to look for a will to see who will inherit the museum. A couple more murders follow with the victims ending up in the museum. Mild, but entertaining made for TV horror who dun-it that's help out with the gloomy 19th century setting. Just dying for a DVD release.

Wax Mask, The
d. Sergio Stivaletti 1997 98 min Color
Image Entertainment DVD 1.78:1
Back to Italy. This was slated to be directed by Lucio Fulci before his untimely death [sadness]. F/x master Sergio Stavaletti steps in to direct this excellent homage to Hammer Studios and all films of a wax nature. Paris 1900. A little girl Sonia Laffont witnesses the murder of her parents by a metallic handed killer. 12 years later, she is employed in a wax museum of horrors that feature’s displays of famous crime scenes run by Boris Volkoff. When more murders occur it looks like the metallic handed killer is back which leads Sonia and a newspaper journalist to investigate. They discover the truth about the life like statues and Volkoff’s connection to the killer. This is a awesome film with beautiful gothic atmosphere, great wax figures, mucho cool killings and top notch visual and gory f/x. Sergio Stavaletti takes care of the f/x and this marks his impressive directorial debut. Written by Lucio Fulci, Dario Argento and Daniele Stroppa. An instant classic interpretation of “Mystery in the Wax Museum” ’33 that no horror fan should be without. This UNCUT letterboxed Image DVD is the way to go on this one. Trust me. a. k. a. Maschera Di Cera

Waxwork
d. Anthony Hickox 1988 100 min Color
Artisan DVD w/ Waxworks II: Lost in Time Fullframe
It’s a rule here to check out all wax museum flicks, as they are generally good. In this case a “Creepshow” meets “Deadtime Stories” like teen kill horror comedy directed by Anthony Hickox; one of those guys who has done very little for the genre. The weak sequel “Waxworks: Lost in Time” and the mediocre “Hellraiser III”, this made for cable outing, his first, is the best? [Please kill these] teens visit David Warner’s creepy wax museum where they step into a scene and are transported into a tale of horror. Tales of a werewolf, vampires, a mummy, Marquis De Sade, zombies, and creatures with the 80’s gore being the best part follow, as irritating Zach Galligan and pretty Deborah Foreman are determined to solve the mystery. The dude with the mangled leg sequence is just gruesomely funny anyway you look at it. The rest is good, bad and definitely campy right up to the long-winded chaotic ending. The moral of the story being; don’t step over the velvet rope. This Artisan DVD has the above-mentioned weak sequel that I just couldn’t bring myself to revisit.