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      Wax Mask

      1997 1h 38m Horror List
      Reviews 21% Audience Score 250+ Ratings Soon after a wax museum opens in Rome, people begin disappearing and more wax figures begin appearing. Read More Read Less

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      Wax Mask

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      Audience Reviews

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      sean s This movie has nice visuals and atmosphere and is based on an old movie from before. Compared to a lot of horror movies today, this one actually has a plot line and is kind of interesting, but is kind of twisted as those old European movies from the 1970s. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member Madness from start to finish. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/11/23 Full Review Audience Member Fun through back to Vincent Price’s classic and the Hammer films. Visually stunning and fun. They simply don’t make this type of horror anymore. Dub is bad, but there wasn’t an alternative for subtitles. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 10/26/19 Full Review Audience Member Though a tad kitschy at times, “Maschera di cera” (The Wax Mask) proved more interesting than expected. This Italian costume horror piece based on a story by Gaston Leroux has good suspense moments, lots of creepy elements, a complicated-enough story and an interesting cast, performing well. In the beginning, one has an inkling as to who is behind everything, but this doesn’t spoil the movie (in fact, we are sort of hoping for this person to be the evil genius). We gradually get to know more about people’s backgrounds and their motivations, just like the reporter character (played by Riccardo Serventi Longhi) who investigates the mysterious murder and disappearance cases. The link between him and the possible crime scene is the beautiful Sonia Lafont (Romina Mondello) who got employed there, again for a logical reason (given the killer’s background). All twists and turns in the story make good sense, except for the ending, which is in itself an intriguing open ending that nicely matches a horror movie (expressing the “I will be back, I haven’t been defeated” message), but raises the necessary questions. Are we to understand the person walking out of the burning building at the end can shift shape easily, or that he was really dead all that time (how could one possibly fake being human with no more than a metal skeleton and a layer of wax?), or that some murders were committed by his helpers instead of by him? The whole thing about the wax figures not being actually dead is very implausible too). Apparently we are supposed to suspend a good deal of disbelief here (as the genre requires generally), but still it bugged me I couldn’t make good sense of the ending while the rest of the story was understandable enough for me. I found the costume setting very agreeable – if well done, it compensates for many things, like the kitschy display of bare-breasted young ladies and prostitutes on the job (including sadomasochist action). However, these erotic details have certain functions in the story, which makes them excusable, like the occasional blood and gore, which is virtually indispensable in horror. Contrary to my initial belief, this film proved worthy of multiple watching. For a Robert Hossein fan like me it is canonical by definition, but apart from that I would definitely recommend it to any fan of costume drama with a horrifying touch to it. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/14/23 Full Review Audience Member Stivaletti's effects are the only real reason to watch this, and even those are compromised by some awful CGI. Neither Lionel Atwill nor Vincent Price turned into a T-800 Terminator at the end of their versions, as I recall. Rated 1 out of 5 stars 01/26/23 Full Review Audience Member Rare film that was produced by Argento and written by Fulci/Argento, the dream team. One of the only reasons to have is the dedication to Fulci at the beginning, as he snuffed it just before principal photography and the special efects guy stepped up. For Argento/Fulci completionists only. Quite a cool Gothic film nonetheless Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/17/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

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      Wax Mask

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      Movie Info

      Synopsis Soon after a wax museum opens in Rome, people begin disappearing and more wax figures begin appearing.
      Director
      Sergio Stivaletti
      Screenwriter
      Dario Argento, Lucio Fulci, Daniele Stroppa
      Genre
      Horror
      Original Language
      Italian
      Release Date (Streaming)
      Oct 21, 2019
      Runtime
      1h 38m
      Sound Mix
      Surround
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