Main Cast: Zach Galligan, Alexander Godunov, Sophie Ward, Monika Schnarre, Martin Kemp, Bruce Campbell, Patrick Macnee
Release Year: 1991
Country: US
Run Time: 104 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
In the sequel to Waxwork, young Mark Loftmore (Zach Galligan) and his girlfriend Sarah (Monika Schnarre) manage to escape the deadly wax museum before it is destroyed. However, one deadly wax hand escapes destruction and follows Sarah home, murdering her stepfather before she manages to destroy it. When Sarah is accused of the murder, she and Mark must travel back in time to stop the still-present evil. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
Review
If Anthony Hickox's Waxwork proved to be an effectively gory spin on the classic movie monsters of old, Waxwork II: Lost in Time is the cheesed-up return to the formula, minus the now unneeded setup in favor of jumping straight into the homage-filled action. With more time to flesh out the fantasy sequences, the sequel basically becomes one takeoff on a genre classic after another. Everything from Godzilla to Ridley Scott's Alien are reenacted in various cheap and hilarious ways, often showing off the director's attention to detail as he plays around with shot setups and film stocks to effectively achieve the same look and feel as the originals. Nowhere is it more accurately pulled off than in the middle section of the film during a spot-on recreation of Robert Wise's The Haunting, starring none other than future Star Trek alumni Marina Sirtis and cult B-movie star Bruce Campbell (featuring one of the actor's most gruesomely hilarious slapstick sequences outside of his Evil Dead series). With its tongue planted firmly in cheek, Waxwork II reeks of campy fun all the while still delivering the blood and gore that audiences were expecting after the first film. Things slow down a bit in the third act when the story turns to its medieval setting, but picks back up in a slam-bam, raucous climax, where the forces of good and evil fight through over 30 years of various horror and sci-fi films. Incredibly underrated and entertaining to its monster-loving bones, Lost in Time knows exactly what it is: bloody, silly fun. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide
David Carradine - Beggar; Marina Sirtis - Gloria; Drew Barrymore - Vampire Victim; Brent Bolthouse - Cabbie #2; Maxwell Caulfield - Mickey; Michael Des Barres - George; Paul Hampton - Prosecution; Yolanda Jilot - Lady of the night; Billy Kane - Nigel; Ilona Margolis - Zombie Killer; Ivan Markota; Jim Metzler - Roger; Juliet Mills - The Defense Lawyer; Stefanos Miltsakakis - Frankenstein's Monster; Kate Murtagh - The Matron; Buckley Norris - Judge; John O'Leary - Herr Vogel; Bryan Smith - Peasant Boy; George "Buck" Flower - Stepfather; Anthony Hickox - King's Officer; John Ireland - King Arthur; Bob Keen - Mad Monk; Gerry Lively - Lead Prisoner; Eyal Rimmon - Chief Worshipper; Stanley Sheff - Speaker for Jury; Jim Silverman - Lead Prisoner; Frank Zagarino - Zombie Killer #1; Jack Eiseman - Cabbie; Elizabeth Nottoli - Party Babe; Joe Baker - The Peasant; Harrison Young - James Westbourne
Credit
John Chichester - Art Director, Mark Bridges - Costume Designer, Anthony Hickox - Director, Christopher Cibelli - Editor, Steve Hardie - Production Designer, Gerry Lively - Cinematographer, Mario Sotela - Producer, Nancy Paloian-Breznikar - Producer, Anthony Hickox - Screenwriter
The film opens with the final scenes of Waxwork. Then a reenactment of Mark and Sarah leaving the burning waxwork (the part of Sarah had been recast from the first film). They then part ways. Unbeknownst to them, they have been pursued by a disembodied zombie hand, which follows Sarah to her run-down flat, where she is berated by her stepfather, who had warned her about going out with her friends and scolds her for ruining her dress. Shortly after that, the hand scuttles into the room, kills the stepfather with a hammer, and tries to kill Sarah too. She shoves the hand down a waste disposal, covering the room in blood.
The next day, Sarah is blamed for the murder of her father, and brought to court where the destruction of the waxwork is brought up. No one believes her story and Mark disrupts her trial.
The two are temporary dismissed and, in the hope of gathering evidence, the two visit Sir Wilfred's home, where they find a filmreel of Sir Wilfred speaking of his and Mark's grandfather's adventures and of the artifacts they collected together. After finding a secret switch in Sir Wilfred's chessboard a door opens in the wall to a room full of objects.
Mark and Sarah finally come across a small compass-like device, and upon reading the directions in a piece of parchment contained with the device they read that it was used in history by light and dark angels to travel through to another dimension consisting of stories that have become realities (including homages to Frankenstein, The Haunting, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Dr. Jekyll, Alien, Godzilla, Jack the Ripper, Nosferatu, and Dawn of the Dead). When Mark or Sarah appear in each reality they take on the persona of characters in those stories, sometimes having their personalities and memories taken over by those character until they regain their senses.
Mark plans to gather evidence of the reanimated dead to bring back to the real world as proof of Sarah's story in court. According to exposition given by Sir Wilfred in the form of a raven these worlds are where God and the devil battle over the fate of the world, with each victory for good or evil being reflected to good or evil occurring in the real world.
After several failed attempts and being lost in one world after the next they battle it out with an evil sorcerer and Mark is able to send Sarah home with an animated zombie hand as proof of her story. Unable to return with her, Mark instead arranges to have another compass delivered to Sarah after her trial ends so she can rejoin him.
