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theharpermovieblog · 1 year

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#HARPERSMOVIECOLLECTION

2023

I re-watched Waxwork 2: Lost In Time (1992)

I needed something stupid and easy to watch. This was pretty perfect for that.

After escaping the magical Waxwork of the original, Sarah's step-father is killed by a rogue severed hand, and Sarah is blamed. Her boyfriend Mark suggests traveling through time to find a way of proving her innocence.

I'm an unashamed fan of the first Waxwork. It's a cheap, silly, 1980's B-horror movie with an inventive plot, which allows for a bunch of random horror scenes in one movie.

Waxwork 2 is attempting to do the same thing. Placing our main characters in several different cliche' horror and adventure scenarios.

Director Anthony Hickox hits and misses a lot. His one solid hit for me is the original Waxwork. His ridiculous, lame sense of humor works there. His love of horror flicks is evident, and overall he makes a real fun B-movie with a great werewolf scene as a bonus. Other movies of his, like Hellraiser 3 and Sundown, aren't all that great, but can be fun in moments. And, many others of his are just awful.

As far as Waxwork 2, it's actually fairly entertaining if you go with it. A lot of the jokes are terrible and it loses some of the charm of the original, but it still offers random cliche horror payoffs without sitting through any of the plot to those cliche films.

The black and white ghost scenario is the best one. Bruce Campbell actually pulls off the silly humor and it looks good. The Alien scenario has some fun gross practical effects to make it fun as well.

The movie moves into a medieval scenario in its second half. It's ok, and there's a lady to panther monster transformation, but I prefer the straightforward horror stuff.

The special effects in this movie are obvious, yet fun practical

effects. The story is simple enough, despite being about time travel. The majority of jokes aren't funny, but the light atmosphere and the jokes that do work allow you to laugh with and at the film. There's a lot of character actors here who are really chewing the scenery in their parts. Zack Galligan is enjoyable as the hero. Monika Schnarre who is taking over the role of sarah is pretty bland and almost dead eyed for a lot of the movie. Deborah Foreman's mousey repressed energy is sorely missed.

Overall, I liked this better than I remember. It makes me wish they actually had made the planned third installment in the series. If ever a franchise was begging to be remade, it's this one. There's a small lore built into these films that could easily be expanded upon.

Yes, it's cheap, cheesy, below mediocre in execution, and my entire credibility as a film person comes into question just from endorsing it.....and maybe its because I watched this immediately after a very intense movie about rape and torture, but I had fun with this. When at the end we enter a flurry of random horror scenarios during a shitty sword fight through time, I was smiling.

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fridaythe13ththeseries · 1 year

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Epitaph for a Lonely Soul

Episode Recap #64: Epitaph for a Lonely Soul Original Airdate: February 3, 1990

Starring: Louise Robey as Micki Foster Steve Monarque as Johnny Ventura (as Steven Monarque) (credit only) Chris Wiggins as Jack Marshak

Guest cast: Neil Munro as Eli Leonard Monika Schnarre as Lisa Caldwell Barclay Hope as Steve Wells Sam Malkin as Max James Mainprize as Hank Gerry Salsberg as Father of Teenager Joan Karasevich as Mother of Teenager Tony Desmond as Teenager (as Antony Desmond) Jackie McLeod as Melanie Sanders Claire Cellucci as Linda Curry

Written by Carl Binder Directed by Allan Kroeker

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Stormy night at a mortuary. We see a painting of the founder of the mortuary, a man named Morton, who has recently died. Then a young woman in a casket, being touched up by the mortician, who then takes a photo of the dead woman. He adds it to an album with many photos of dead bodies in caskets. He then greets Steve Wells, who is back to visit his dead love, the woman in the coffin. The mortician, Eli Leonard, offers words of comfort, but he unsettles Steve by touching the woman's cheek tenderly. Steve has some music in his car to be played at the funeral, but Eli tells him to take his time.

Eli then greets a man outside from another funeral home that is too busy, so he has asked Eli to take the body of a young guy killed in a motorcycle crash. In the van is an old embalming machine used by the deceased owner, Morton, on his late wife, who people thought might have been still alive. Eli says it's a collectors item and asks to keep it, which the man agrees to before leaving.

Eli is later shown getting ready to embalm the young man. Steve is walking around, looking for Eli. As the embalming proceeds, Eli decides to use the antique device, and hooks it up. As he uses it, a beam of energy is transferred from it to the body. Steve has opened the door and is watching. Eli is shocked to see the body quiver then sit up and scream. Steve is shocked, too, and quickly takes off.

Cut to credits.

Curious Goods is having a party to for the Antique Dealers Association, since Jack is the current treasurer. Jack doesn't care for the date of a woman named Melanie. The man, the police commissioner, mocks Jack's interest in the occult. He then tells Micki and Jack about a man ranting about a corpse that sat up at a mortuary. He laughs it off when Jack asks if he investigated the claim. Jack and Micki decide to look into the story, however.

Eli is examining the now-alive young man, who doesn't answer questions, but moans when his arm is moved. Eli realizes old man Morton used the antique to kill his wife, and then when he used it, it reanimated the young man. He then takes the antique and uses it to re-kill the guy.

Jack and Micki visit Steve, who tells them about his fiancée Lisa, who recently died of a heart defect. He says the police think he was seeing things, but he assures them he wasn't.

Eli is talking to the body of Lisa about how alone he has been. He says destiny brought them together and kisses her hand as the doorbell chimes. He greets Jack and Micki, and brings them to the very dead body of the boy, the sight of which is jarring. He says Steve is going through a rough time, and that he has seen others swear people think the dead might be alive, through a sort of denial. Jack thanks Eli for his time. Eli gives Jack his business card.

Later, at Lisa's funeral, Steve is still distraught. Eli closes the casket slowly, then we see him wheeling it away. He swaps it out for an identical one that goes to the cemetery. Steve and the gathered crowd believe they are saying good bye to her. But Steve is still suspicious of Eli.

That night, Eli is lighting candles. He has Lisa on his embalming table. He removes her engagement ring. He kisses her before using the old machine on her, the beam of energy reviving her dead body. Lisa's eyes open. Eli helps her sit up, calling her his love.

In a bedroom, he kisses her, even though she sits unresponsive. He begins undressing her, then lays her down and kisses her again. Lisa, still stone-faced, responds by touching his head, so he lays on her.

Next day, Steve goes to Curious Goods. He asks Micki what they found out, and Micki tells him what Eli said. Steve denies imagining it, saying the boy screamed. Micki wonders if he is just grieving. Steve says he'll talk to Eli himself and leaves, Micki attempts to stop him.

At the funeral for the young man, Eli has made him look presentable and his parents weep. Upstairs, Lisa lies in bed, awake but quiet. Eli escorts the grieving parents out, then goes up to check on her, giving her some clothes as a gift. Lisa tries speaking, asking where she is. She doesn't recall anything, not even her name. Eli says she's been sick, and that he is her husband and her name is Deborah. The doorbell rings and he tells her to stay in the room.

Steve and Micki are looking at the body in the casket, and Steve listens for a heartbeat. Finding none, he goes off to find Eli, even though Micki protests. The find Eli, Micki tries to apologize, but Steve pushes Eli about what he say. Eli and Steve argue. Lisa hears Steve's voice and moves to the door. Steve bursts into the embalming room, with Micki and Eli following. He tells them what he say. Eli takes Micki out to talk to her, and Steve finds Lisa's ring on the table. Eli snaps at Micki, saying he'll call the police. She goes to try and convince Steve to leave. He agrees, saying he's just upset, and they go.

Out in his car, Steve shows Micki the ring. She says all that proves is that Eli is a thief, but Steve wonders what else he has going on.

Back inside, Eli helps a confused Lisa to bed, and she says she knows that voice.

At night, Micki has tried to call Steve, who isn't answering. She wants to help, but Jack says the man will get through it eventually.

Cut to Steve at the cemetery, digging up Lisa's grave. He breaks through the coffin and sees no body. He curses at Eli.

Steve goes back to the funeral home, finding an open window. Inside, he looks for Eli or Lisa's body. He goes upstairs and finds Lisa in the bed. He touches her and is shocked when she wakes and recognizes him. They hug, but then Eli shows up and stabs Steve with the antique, killing him and again powering up the cursed item.

Micki is concerned that Steve hasn't answered, and despite Jack's calming words, insists on checking on him. Jack says the mortician made sense. But Micki remembers Steve mentioning the body moved after being stuck with some device. Jack says Eli isn't mentioned in the manifest, but he can look for some sort of medical equipment. Micki goes to check Steve's apartment while Jack researches.

Lisa wanders the mortuary, looking for Steve. She goes to the basement and finds Eli at the crematorium. Eli says she doesn't need to worry, she's his wife, but Lisa wants Steve and calls Eli crazy. Eli says she owes him for her second chance. He hugs her, saying he doesn't have to be alone anymore, but she runs off. He chases her and grabs her and puts her inside a coffin, calling that her home. He locks her in it and sobs.

Micki calls Jack, saying Steve never made it home last night. Jack says he found a mortician's aspirator in the manifest, sold to a man named Morton, who previously owned the mortuary Eli works at. Micki is going to check it out, and Jack warns her to be careful.

Eli is wondering where he went wrong with Lisa. He thinks if he had waited longer, she would have been easier to control, so he looks through his album and finds a woman named Linda, who died two years ago. He loads up the van with shovels and picks and takes off.

Micki sneaks inside the mortuary, looking for Steve. She hears a woman in the casket and opens it and is shocked to see Lisa sit up, alive.

Eli digs up the grave of Linda and gets her body.

Micki calls Jack and tells him about Lisa. Jack tells Micki about Morton having multiple wives and dying while embalming one. Jack asks about Steve, and Micki says he's dead, killed by Eli. Jack says he's on his way over. Micki comforts Lisa.

Micki and Lisa go to look for the aspirator in the embalming room, and Micki finds it just as Eli comes in and knocks her out.

Lisa is tied to a chair, Micki tied to an exam table, and Linda's body between them. He tells them he's going to revive Linda and call her Deborah. He's clearly unhinged, and Micki tries to talk to him, to no avail. He uses the aspirator to revive Linda. He helps her sit up. He says two years will have wiped her mind clear. He then tells Micki if he embalms her correctly, in a few years she'll be ready for him, too. He tries to kiss her, but Micki spits on him. Just as he's about to use the machine on Micki, the bell chimes. He tapes her mouth shut.

Jack is inside, looking for them. The lights go out. Micki struggles to grab scissors off a tray. Jack goes upstairs, calling for Micki. Micki slowly gets a hand loose. Eli, in the shadows, is about to attack Jack, when Micki calls out and Jack changes course.

Micki has pulled the tape off her mouth and is trying to talk to Linda to get her to help them. Linda is still in a fog.

Jack looks for Micki, then is confronted by Eli and they tussle, Jack knocking Eli into a coffin, then trying to get into the embaling room as Eli comes up behind him and attacks, and they struggle again.

Micki is slowly getting through to Linda, asking for help from the woman.

Jack and Eli struggle at the top of the basement steps, but Micki suddenly comes up and smashes a vases on Eli's head, sending him tumbling down the stairs. Eli lands on the aspirator, which drains him partly before he yanks it out. But he stumbles toward the oven and is lit on fire as Micki and Jack watch. He knocks over chemicals, lighting the entire room on fire. Micki and Jack rush to save the other women, but when they open the door, they find the fire has rushed up the vents and the whole room is suddenly ablaze. They try to get to the women, but they are behind the flames and refuse to move, preferring death. Micki and Jack reluctantly leave, making it outside, coughing, as the building is engulfed in flame.

Another day, at the cemetery, Jack joins Micki, telling her he got the aspirator from the ashes and it is safely in the vault. Micki says loneliness drove Eli mad, and Steve to keep pursuing the truth. Micki thinks Steve and Lisa are reunited, somewhere, and leaves Lisa's engagement ring with flowers on her grave.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My thoughts:

Well, creepy episode, but also kind of sadly romantic for poor Steve and Lisa, in an odd way.

Eli is super unsettling, first as just an odd mortician, then as a creepy, pseudo-necro monster. Ick doesn't do him justice.

I liked Steve sticking to his story, sure he saw what he saw, regardless of those trying to say he's just grieving. I don't think I would forget a dead body sitting up, either.

Wonder what the cemetery thought of TWO dug up graves and missing bodies?

How did Jack and Micki explain what happened at the mortuary? Or did they just take off before the firemen and police arrived? That makes the most sense.

Jack also had to be sneaky getting the undamaged cursed item from the rubble with no questions. Couldn't have been easy.

And I get leaving the ring at Lisa's grave, but some one will find it, like the cemetery groundskeeper. Why not either bury it or mail it back to Lisa's family? A nitpick, but still.

One other nit: with all the times they have gone through the manifest, neither of them recalled that item when the man in question was a mortician? Seems like an item you'd remember. And saying that, no one ever made like a list of items and names from the book that would be easier to check each time? I quibble, I know.

I did like the team of just Micki and Jack working together.

And Lloyd! Well, not Lloyd, but Barclay Hope, the actor who played Lloyd, as Steve, who is much nicer than Micki's ex-fiancé.

Next week: Midnight Riders

#friday the 13th: the series #micki foster #80s tv #jack marshak #robey #louise robey #chris wiggins #curious goods #aspirator #season three #episode recap

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