Watch The Wax Mask For Free

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Blistering performances.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

The Wax Mask (1997) ** (out of 4) A masked maniac breaks into the home of a couple and brutally murders them but their young child survives the whole ordeal. Flash forward many years and this woman is now working at a wax museum when she begins to notice that several recent missing persons appear as "dummies" at the museum.THE WAX MASK comes from producer Dario Argento who had meant for this to be a comeback film for his rival Lucio Fulci. Fulci helped on the story and the screenplay and was set to direct it but he sadly passed away weeks before production. He was replaced by special effects artist Sergio Stivaletti who had worked on films like DEMONS, DEMONS 2, OPERA, THE CHURCH and many others.It's really too bad Fulci passed away because you can't help but wonder what he might have done with the material. As is it, director Stivaletti has created a good looking picture, which is obviously another remake of MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM. Most people know the story from its remake HOUSE OF WAX but either way this here is a more sexual version and of course there's a bit more gore than average.The biggest problem with this movie is that the direction itself is somewhat lifeless as there's really no style to be found and I'd argue that there's no suspense either. The film at least looks good and we are given some pretty Italian ladies showing off their naked bodies, which is always a plus. The special effects are decent for what they are but at the same time you'd expect something a tad bit gorier than what we actually got.I would say that the atmosphere is spot on and you also really do feel as if the setting is authentic. The 1900 Paris is quite believable and I thought the director really captured the look and spirit of the time. Still, in the end, there's not enough going on in the picture to warrant its 98-minute running time.

If you know anything about Italian horror of the past few decades, then surely the names associated with this film will have some meaning to you. Written in big letters on the front of the VHS box is "Dario Argento presents...", and surely Argento's name means at least there is some attempted style and class injected into this film. Secondly, the director is none other than Sergio Stivaletti, the man responsible for the many gory FX of films like DEMONS, here making the transition from SFX man (although he did do the SFX in this film too - multi-talented, you see) to director. He does a good job, keeping the right mix of all the correct ingredients (somehow the analogy of a director strikes me as somebody stirring a stew and trying to get even qualities of the correct ingredients). Finally, partially responsible for the screenplay is Lucio Fulci, to whom this film is dedicated, as it was the last film he worked on before his death. His ghostly presence is noticeable in the gory proceedings and it's great to have him on board.While the film is essentially a remake of MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM (itself already remade in 1953 as HOUSE OF WAX), don't let that put you off. It almost rivals those two classics, becoming something of a classic in its own right. There are plenty of reasons for genre fans to enjoy watching, and even the dubbing is hardly noticeable these days. The acting is of a high calibre, from Mondello who adds depth to her role of the female lead, becoming more than just a pretty, screaming face. The perpetrator of the gruesome crimes is played by a memorably stony faced actor too, on the outside dignity and aloofness, on the inside a raving maniac. Especially sinister are the man's two servants, both twisted and perverted characters, one of whom ties a victim down, cuts her arms and lets pigs feed on her blood. He also indulges in some kinky games with a local prostitute. The only bland actor is the heroic male lead, but then again they usually are and there's no point breaking tradition.The plot has enough new twists and turns in the tale to keep fans of the original wax films interested. There is a healthy dose of Gothic atmosphere, and sumptuous costumes and sets, which really help to make the period believable. There is also a high level of gore and nudity (plenty of the latter) for exploitation fans to enjoy, the bloodiest moments being where a man has his hand ripped off, his throat slashed and his heart torn out...and these are just in the opening moments! Some clever CGI work is used effectively, while the SFX crew really did themselves proud with the gruesome make-ups. There's even a TERMINATOR-inspired monster on the rampage at the end of the film, except this is more chilling as it's made of bone instead of metal - yes, a living skeleton! THE WAX MASK is everything you could hope for a modern horror film and shows that if the effort is made, you can still make good, atmospheric period pieces like this.

Wax Mask is an energetic and full blooded horror romp that doesn't tread much new ground but has a fun time all the same.Unsurprisingly, this is a retelling of the familiar "House of Wax" story, but with some more modern and ghoulish overtones. Still with a period setting, the creation of the wax statues is rather more hi-tech than in previous versions of the tale, but the outcome is still the same.It's very well photographed and things move along at a pretty nice speed so it's certainly never boring. There are several graphically gory scenes and they do rival some of the stuff being done by Dario Argento in the late 1980's to early 90s (Argento is involved here too, but not as director). Colours are bright and location settings look great.Sadly the acting is fairly flat, although the English dub is the main culprit here, with a terrible job done, with vocals that show no sensitivity to any possible subtlety in the original performances. Its so bad it almost renders the whole movie as one giant cartoon. So don't expect to have any emotional attachment to any of the characters, but you can still enjoy the vibrant gore and the outrageous liberties taken with the possibilities of biology and science of the period (you'll know what I mean when you see the ending!). So realism is pretty much out the window, and yet, it's still a great fun movie to watch if you don't try and take it seriously

If you are familiar with italian horror, you get exactly what you expect here. Adequate to terrible performances, atrocious dubbing, gaudy visuals at the expens of characters you actually care about and imaginatively staged murders. However, this film was better than i expected, since director Stivaletti is primarily a make-up man and tried his hand at directing here for the first time. The (I suspect limited) budget is used well with varied locales for the different scenes, nice art-direction and costumes and crisp camerawork. Pace is well maintained throughout the movie which distracts you from some of the less obvious plot-holes. The waxmaster himself does quite a good actingjob, not hamming it up. As for "the good guys", the leading lady is adequate but at bit dull. Our supposed "hero" is however damagingly miscast and comes over as a complete bore. As is usually the case with italian horror, the visuals are at the fore here with rich colours (which of course includes crimsonred blood), lovingly filmed and accompanied by a good and appropriately romantic score. The finale, as a few others have stated, is quite bad but fun in a way with some terminatoresque touches that are unexpected, to say the least. And the murders, surprisingly few, are competently put together with a sufficient amount of gore to satisfy fans. Overall, entertaining and good fun, if you dont expect "Citizen Cane".