The worst thing about sequels is the predictability of the plot, so any film maker who wants to make good sequel must employ some originality. One of them was Anthony Hickox, author of the Waxwork, 1988 cult horror that, among other things, inspired PC game in the early 1990s. Four years after the first film, Hickox made a sequel Waxwork II: Lost in Time. The plot of the second film starts where the first film ended - in the burning wax museum with two protagonists - Mark (played by Zach Galligan) and Sarah (played by Monica Schnarre) - who barely survived the attack of waxworks coming alive. The monsters are all dead, except for the severed hand that follows Sarah home and kills her evil stepfather. Sarah is accused of murder and, since the jury is not likely to believe her story about wax monsters, Mark must find the evidence in his late uncle's house. He finds time machine instead and wants to use it in order to prove Sarah's innocence. But Mark and Sarah, while travelling through time, get lost and experience all sorts of adventures.
The most inventive thing about this film is the thing that makes the least sense. The protagonists, instead of travelling through time, actually travel through old films or, to be more precise, old horror classics. Nearly entire history of the genre is covered in those episodes - from Murnau's Nosferatu to Scott's Alien. Recognising various film history references throughout those episodes can be great fun, but this is, more or less, the only fun the viewers would experience. Quality of humour is low and the plot advances too rapidly for the viewers to catch glimpses of characterisation or few famous actors in small cameos. Some acting is good (especially Patrick MacNee in the role of Mark's uncle, killed in the previous film), but this film could be recommended only to the most fanatical of horror film buffs.
RATING: 4/10 (+)
(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.movies.reviews on January 17th 2003)
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