Based on a 1924 German film, Waxwork is the kind of baffling video rental film that I can’t get enough of. Written and directed by Anthony Hickox (Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat, Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth), it’s all about a wax museum that’s filled with the of course they’re really alive figures of the eighteen (6+6+6) most evil beings to ever be*, which would be the Marquis de Sade, a werewolf, Count Dracula along with his brides and son, a golem, an axe murderer, an alien, a sort of Audrey 3 talking venus flytrap, the Phantom of the Opera, The Mummy, zombies, Frankenstein’s monster, Jack the Ripper, The Invisible Man, a voodoo priest, a witch, a snakeman, Rosemary’s Baby himself and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

As an economical video renting teen, this movie always seemed like a good deal, because you got everything you wanted out of multiple rentals all for the same price.

If I can give you any advice, if David Warner invites you to his wax museum — or if a silver masked man gives you free passes for a matinee — don’t go. Because he has no good intentions.

The kids in this movie ignore this advice and soon, we have Mark Loftmore (Zach Galligan, Gremlins), China Webster (Michelle Johnson, Beaks: The Movie), Sarah Brightman (Deborah Foreman, Valley Girl, April Fools Day), Gemma (Clare Carey, Zombie High), James (Eric Brown, Buzz from Mama’s Family) and Tony (Dana Ashbrook, Bobby Briggs from Twin Peaks) being menaced by all manner of beasts.

As they walk through the wax museum, each installation transforms into a window into another dimension filled with danger. Tony is attacked by a werewolf (John Rhys-Davies) and ultimately killed by a hunter before the werewolf curse takes hold of him. China is turned into a bloodsucker by Dracula (Miles O’Keeffe, Ator himself!). Only Mark and Sarah survive.

A police detective starts investigating the wax museum but he’s soon killed by mummies, just as Sarah pretty much tells Mark that she likes him but it just doesn’t feel right. It’s really a mixed message. But still, better than being killed by undead Egyptians.

Mark’s grandfather, as it turns out, was killed by Warner’s character, but he has the support of the town’s elders, led by Sir Wilfred (Patrick Macnee). They must set the wax museum ablaze if they want to save reality, which means Sarah getting tied up by the Marquis de Sade and whipped, another example of the phenomena where I explain that this scene was for foreign markets to my head shaking wife.

If it hasn’t come through, I love that the characters are watching Dawn of the Dead, which gets homaged in the sequel. As for Mark’s house, it’s the same home from Ben, Willard, Elvira Mistress of the Dark and Witchboard.

You have to love a movie with end credits that say “Dedicated to Hammer, Argento, Romero, Dante, Landis, Spielberg, Wells, Carpenter, Mom and Dad, and many more…”

You can watch this on Amazon Prime and Tubi.

*The original script had the children from Village of the Damned, Jason Vorhees and The Thing in the wax museum. If this was made in Italy, the legal usage of those characters would not matter at all to the filmmakers. For what it’s worth, Jason sort of shows up, as Kane Hodder played Frankenstein’s monster.

Alright, this isn’t a traditional slasher. But hey — it was written and directed by one of the people who was there was the slasher boom got started, Nick Castle.

Also known as Kiss Me, Kill Me and Everybody Gets It in the End, this movie starts by taking a page out of The 10th Victim, as a group of college kids play secret agent with dart guns in a LARP game where two people are assigned to take one another out. Loren Gersh (Bruce Abbott, Re-Animator) is the best player there is, killing everybody before they get close to him. However, when an inexperienced player drops his gun when Gersh gets the drop on him. he finally loses the game. He snaps and kills his opponent for real. And that’s where Tag: The Assassination Game really begins.

He’s going up against Susan Swayze (Linda Hamilton, who married Abbott soon after this movie finished) to see who can be the last killer left alive. However, she’s unaware that he’s using real weapons. She’s helped by school reporter Alex Marsh (Robert Carradine, who would star in Revenge of the Nerds two years later with Anthony Edwards, who is in another movie kinda just like this called Gotcha).

This is one of the few non-Police Academy movies I can think of that stars Michael Winslow, who also has a bodyguard in it that’s played by none other than Forest Whittaker. KROQ DJ Frazer Smith — who was one of the announcers on WTBS’ Night Tracks when music videos took over pop culture — is in this, as is Kristine DeBell, who was A.L. in Meatballs and appears in all of David DeCoteau’s films, including A Talking Cat!?! 

The more raincoater audience among you may also notice Jack Baker, who went from the kids’ show Wonderbug to showing up in all manner of adult fare like the Dark Brothers New Wave Hookers (both one and two!), White Bunbusters and Let Me Tell Ya ‘Bout White Chicks. Ironically, he’s the kid who gets pushed out of the way to get cucked by Big Jim Slade in The Kentucky Fried Movie.

And if you’re wondering, is that the Rylan technician from Castle’s other movie The Last Starfighter as one of the game players, you have an eagle eye. That’s his wife, Charlene Nelson.

So how is this a slasher? Just take a look at it. There are stalking scenes and chases through student dorms. Sure, it starts like a James Bond movie and ends up a romantic comedy, but there are some decent moments.

You can watch this on YouTube. Synapse is releasing this on blu ray soon and we’ll update this post when it’s released.

Filmed in 1980 at the height of the slasher and not released until two years later, Blood Song stars Frankie Avalon, which is mindblowing that an actor that adorned the bedrooms of teenage girls a few decades earlier is now menacing their daughters with a hatchet and, strangely, a wooden flute.

Frankie plays Paul, who watched as his father came home to catch his wife in bed with another and killed them both before taking his own life. Ah, slashers, you seem to come at us with transgression but under your bloody hood beats the heart of a puritan at times and at others, the soul of a man who desperately knows that his wife has the eyes on the crotch of every man she meets and you can’t escape that gnawing feeling.

Meanwhile, Donna Wilkes (Angel, Jaws 2, Grotesque, Schizoid) is Marion, a girl forced to wear a leg brace after the drunk driving accident her father put her through. She can’t wait to escape home, which is filled with rages and screaming and recrimination. However, she can also see Paul’s murders, as they shared the same blood from a transfusion.

Sure, alright. Science.

That said, this is a grimy and brutal film that has no easy ending for the final girl.

Based on a short story by Joseph Shink, who adapted the screenplay with Frank Avianca and Lenny Montana, this somewhat neglected film was directed by Alan J. Levi, who mostly worked in television.

We also took a look at Blood Song as part of our “Exploring: Video Nasties” featurette (Section 3 — non-prosecuted) and our “Drive-In Friday” featurette with our Musician Slashers night of films.

You can watch this on YouTube.

If a slasher film can have a pedigree, which in this film’s case comes from its cast, let this be one of them. Seriously, there are some heavy hitters on hand here!

Detective Dinardo (Mike Connors, Mannix) is on the case in New York City, where those who live in a fancy apartment building are those who are dying horribly. All fingers seem to point in the direction of a doorman (an impossibly young Ian McShane), so Dinardo does what any good cop would do. He puts a rookie named Kate (Anne Archer) into harm’s way.

Other than some TV work, this was the first major acting that Maureen O’Sullivan had done in the twelve years since The Phynx. Further boosting this movies megawattage of stardom are Leon Isaac Kennedy (Penitentiary, as well as an early trailblazer of the porn leak thanks to a film he made with his then-wife Jayne Kennedy), Ruth Ford (who would know of high-living NYC apartments as her two spaces inside the Dakota were valued at $8.4 million when she died in 2009), John Heard (everything from Home Alone to C.H.U.D.), Carrie Nye (who in addition to being in The Seduction of Joe Tynan, was married to Dick Cavett), Murray Hamilton (whose resume is vast, but all you need to do is mention his work as the mayor of Amity), character actor Val Avery and Sully Boyer (The Entity, Smokey and the Good Time Outlaws).

This is Tony Lo Bianco’s only directing job, as he is better known in front of the camera, starring in movies like The Honeymoon Killers, Mean Frank and Crazy Tony and God Told Me To). Also known as The Doorman, it’s part of that subset of late 70’s and early 80’s slashers that depict the juxtaposition between the high rise and the low scum of end of the century — and the world — NYC. You can easily pair this with The Fan, Eyes of Laura Mars or even The New York Ripper.

You can watch this on Amazon Prime.

The seventh film in the Puppet Master series, this is a prequel to 1991’s Puppet Master III: Toulon’s Revenge. It’s written by Charles Band, Benjamin Carr and David Schmoeller with direction provided by David DeCoteau.And no, your eyes do not deceive you. Playing the young Toulon is Gregory Sestero, Mark from The Room.

This begins with Toulon and his puppets on the run, hiding an in an Inn near Switzerland. Blade finds the wooden head of an old puppet named Cyclops, which leads to Toulon telling the puppets about his past his love Elsa and first puppets, which all goes back to 1902 Egypt.

The puppets’ ability to become alive all are thanks to Afzel, a 3,000-year-old Egyptian sorcerer, who stole the secret from the Egyptian god Sutekh. Now, three mummies that follow the teachings of this god are following him around the world. Afzel comes into the lives of Toulon and Elsa, showing them the secret.

The retro puppets include Blade, Pinhead, Tunneler (called Drill Sergeant), Six-Shooter, Doctor Death and Cyclops. We also get to see the surviving puppets from the third film, who are Blade, Pinhead, Leech Woman, Jester, Tunneler and Six-Shooter.

An ironic twist to the casting of this film was that James Franco and Sestero were both up for the same role. Years later, Franco would make the book Sestero wrote, The Disaster Artist, into a movie.