An exercise in early 70’s B-movie popcorn fun, with an excellent cast of veteran stars. I love wax.

This should have worked. All the elements of a decent horror movie are here: a freakish hunchback, the woman who played the original Bride of Frankenstein, wax museum statues coming to life, Ray Milland from Frogs and The Thing With Two Heads, the evening storms in turn-of-the-century London, and John Carradine from whatever he was in. What could possibly go wrong?

The real problem here is that the story is so bland. The few moments when there is some action are just fine but there’s no build-up of suspense. In fact, most of the movie consists of dialogue and mundane activity that doesn’t help create any kind of momentum or interest. 

It’s not a bad movie. It’s a blah movie. Sometimes bad is better.

Featuring Scooby-Doo plotting and conspicuously dubious continuity, "Terror in the Wax Museum" is a horror snoozer whose charm almost makes up for its dullness and other assorted flimsy qualities. That charm stems mostly the cast and premise which find Elsa Lanchester, Ray Milland, and John Carradine involved in the creaky shenanigans that follow a disappearance tied to a wax museum. The production does its best with obviously limited resources, but the film can not overcome the electricity-free narrative and ramshackle cinema on display. It all settles as watchably lackluster.

1970’s – Watchlist

HALFWAY TO 🎃HORRORWEEN🎃

53/100

The kind of horror movie you can watch just before bed and guarantee that you'll have no nightmares at all.
It's charmingly camp, the overly cockney nature of the locals could have been toned down a bit, governor!
The conclusion is rather unsatisfying but it's nice to see the movie play out a bit like a murder mystery rather than a straight up horror.

An early 70s cheesy yet enjoyable classic "B" movie whodunit directed by Georg Fenady. The film possessed a creative story concept and an extraordinary veteran cast, however it was squandered by weak and uninspired direction and writing, although both the film score and the production design were great.

Overall, a great popcorn film despite its many flaws. I love Horror films involving wax/wax museums with the 1988 Waxwork still being one of my all time favorites, and I am now happy to count this film among them.

Perfectly acceptable Wax-sploitation. 

Features an A+ cast of B-Movie stalwarts, including John Carradine. In fact, compared to most of Carradine’s mid-70’s output, it’s practically The Godfather. 

Although released in the 70’s, it’s got a 60’s Amicus Horror vibe, with more than a pinch of Scooby Doo thrown in for good measure.

An entertaining movie with some bad editing here and there. But that aside, the deaths are good and not over the top. 

Quite the ending to this movie for sure.

Trippy.

Needs more John Carradine

Simpático whodunit de terror con un montón de estrellas de Hollywood en su ocaso y un final al más puro estilo Scooby Doo.

Watched on Prime Video.

An entertaining movie with some bad editing here and there. But that aside, the deaths are good and not over the top. 

Quite the ending to this movie for sure.

More a murder mystery than a horror film. The veteran cast is fun to watch. It plays like a 1940s B-movie and is a decent time-killer if taken in that vein.

More of a Scotland Yard who done it disguised as a horror film in a wax museum. Not terrible. Probably would of enjoyed  it more if I hadn’t watched a shitty faded pan and scan.

Featuring Scooby-Doo plotting and conspicuously dubious continuity, "Terror in the Wax Museum" is a horror snoozer whose charm almost makes up for its dullness and other assorted flimsy qualities. That charm stems mostly the cast and premise which find Elsa Lanchester, Ray Milland, and John Carradine involved in the creaky shenanigans that follow a disappearance tied to a wax museum. The production does its best with obviously limited resources, but the film can not overcome the electricity-free narrative and ramshackle cinema on display. It all settles as watchably lackluster.

A lively reworking of House of Wax with gleefully hammy performances, a very loud score and a few heavy handed yet enjoyable scares.

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

Needs more John Carradine

I guess there’s something to making a 70s movie that’s desperately trying to feel like an early 30s movie. But had this been made in the 30s, it woulda been an hour long.
Instead this uneventful, set-bound thriller moves at a snail’s pace.

Perfectly acceptable Wax-sploitation. 

Features an A+ cast of B-Movie stalwarts, including John Carradine. In fact, compared to most of Carradine’s mid-70’s output, it’s practically The Godfather. 

Although released in the 70’s, it’s got a 60’s Amicus Horror vibe, with more than a pinch of Scooby Doo thrown in for good measure.

I wanted to like this one because it had an interesting premise and a good cast. Wax museums fascinate me in a way, though I've never visited Madame Tussaud's or anything. But the movie just sort of laid there like a dead...um...dead thing. The plot just kind of putters about, going nowhere. Shani Wallis sings the same awful song three times. Then, bam, mystery solved. Except...I must have missed something because I have no clue who the killer is. I don't remember seeing him before and they never mention the killer by name. Admittedly, I watched this over two mornings in bed when I came home from work, so I was sleepy. I will say this...except for one blink and a couple tiny movements, the people playing the wax figures did an excellent job of standing still. Even in difficult-to-maintain poses. Better than in any other wax museum movie I've seen.