Your Daily Dracula – Waxwork II Lost in Time (1992)

Steve Painter as Nosferatu, Waxwork II Lost in Time (1992)

Zach Galligan and Monica Schnarre enter ‘God’s Nintendo Game’, where Good and Evil eternally battle in time and space zones that resemble horror movies, allowing director Anthony Hickox to do an expert pastiche of the black‑and‑white distortion of The Haunting, although his low‑budget attempt at the epileptic look of Alien comes off as more reminiscent of the numberless B‑picture imitations than of the original model.  Zipping between the middle ages, where Alexander Godonov attempts to usurp the throne of King Arthur, and brief sketches that allow glimpses of a zombie shopping mall, Baron Frankenstein (Martin Kemp?!), a silent and jerky print of Nosferatu, and Godzilla ‑ cuing the neatest gag, as Godonov and Galligan briefly turn into dubbed Japanese ‑ the characters pick up enough plot coupons to be rewarded with an ending.  Despite amusing cameos (Bruce Campbell, Juliet Mills, Michael Des Barres, David Carradine) and a genuine affection for old movies, the film is handicapped by the incoherence that hurt the 1988 original and lacks the earlier film’s extensive and eye‑opening gore.

First published as an Empire VHS review. NB: Drew Barrymore was visiting a friend on the set and talked into making a tiny cameo appearance as a vampire’s victim.