Remember House of Wax, the 1953 3-D chiller with Vincent Price as a mad museum curator who dipped humans in wax for that truly lifelike effect? Well, writer-director Anthony Hickox has purloined the plot. This time David (Time Bandits) Warner plays the wax museum owner. Each of his 18 exhibits features a fright figure from the past. Two hapless lovers (Dana Ashbrook and Michelle Johnson) are soon on display as victims of the werewolf and Dracula. That's when their chums Zach Galligan and Deborah Foreman set out in search. Hickox tries to send up every horror movie imaginable. But his plodding pacing, flagging wit and secondhand scares kill the life in the picture faster than a stake through a vampire's heart. Unless you want to look like part of the zonked-out zombie exhibit from Night of the Living Dead, stay clear. (R)
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