Referencing Merriam-Webster once more, an “anthology” is defined as “a collection of selected literary pieces or passages or works of art or music”. It is also defined as “an assortment”. Now, I’ll let you decide for yourselves if the various entries in this year’s Halloween Horrors Contributors Series are “literature” or “works of art”, but I do believe that the gathering of various writers and film topics that this series presents each Halloween season could most assuredly be classified as an “assortment”. It’s kind of like one of those Whitman’s Sampler boxes, mostly because you are assured to bite into a couple of our offerings, put them back, and move on the next one. 

Okay, maybe that wasn’t the best analogy to use. The point is, even when we’ve stuck to specific themes, the Halloween Horrors has always been a collection of different voices and opinions. One might even say that each one of our contributors provides the next chapter in each year’s story. Today’s chapter was provided to us by returning contributor Derrick Kinnison. Derrick first joined us all the way back in 2016 for the 2nd year of the Halloween Horrors series (the first year with the current title) with a love letter to John Carpenter’s The Fog. Since then, Derrick has become something of a mainstay to our annual series, and his enthusiasm does help motivate me to try and present a fun event for readers and writers alike each year.

For his topic this year, Derrick picks a film that definitely fits the term “assortment”, paying tribute to some of horror’s most memorable monsters.

 

Halloween Horrors 2025
“Separate, But Together”
Waxwork (1988)

 

What can I say about Halloween Horrors this year but how absolutely thankful I am to once again be a part of this horrifically fun time! Every year since I first heard about Horror And Sons and the Halloween Horrors series, I have participated and enjoyed every moment of it. Every year, Dustin has come up with the greatest of themes, but this year, when the theme was announced, I thought this was quite genius. Especially the option to play a little “Russian Roulette” and have the mystery title picked for you. Well, I definitely like to gamble, and I had my theme chosen for me. I could not have been more thrilled with the outcome!

Now, when Dustin sent me the mystery title of “Separate, But Together”, I was quite puzzled at first. Quite honestly, until he told me what it stood for, I did not know. However, when I found out the mystery title was deciphered as “Horror Anthologies”, I couldn’t have been more happy as I had so many to choose from. I had so many titles bouncing around in my head, and to be honest, I struggled for a moment. That is, until I had finally come up with the title I decided to reflect upon. The movie I chose was none other than… Waxwork

This is a movie I definitely grew to love as it had everything a horror geek could want, such as campy horror, comedy, mystery.. you name it! Plus, it definitely fell under the anthology theme!

What attracted me the most to this movie was obviously the cover art. How could anyone go wrong when looking at its astounding art?! First off,  you have a mysterious-looking little person (a character that we later find out goes by the name of “Hans”, played by Michu Meszaros) welcoming you to come through a door. Yet, within this door are many terrifying faces, all eerily smiling back at you; all of them grossly melting into one another. How could one go wrong and not choose this title? I know it struck me! 

This movie has always been a Halloween staple for me as it has everything you could want in a horror movie. It also has one of my favorite (if not among the best) werewolf depictions put on screen. For such a short segment in which the werewolf appears, it has always had that much of an impact on me when I say that I absolutely love this werewolf design!

The movie then moves onto the vampire segment. That too, I was always enthralled with. If I am going to be honest with myself, I have always found the “Steak Tar-Tar” with the “extra sauce” quite appealing!

The movie itself was the perfect example of the 80s’ horror scene, even if it was closer to the end of that particular decade. It was mixed with a perfect blend of comedy and horror, and with a little added touch of mystery as well. This is especially true when the movie first opens and we see what appears to be a robbery happening, followed by two men scuffling with each other until one of them is hurled head first into the fireplace, meeting with his demise while the other man gets away with the treasures that were, undoubtedly, not his! This pretty much sets the mystery in place, and the entire time you are wondering just what the first segment had to do with the movie at all! That is, until you get to the middle of the story. You then have a good idea just what the scuffle was all about and you can then put the pieces of the puzzle together when Mark Loftmore (Zach Galligan) speaks with his grandfather, Sir Wilfred (Patrick Macnee).

We then begin this fantastic horror when two young women are on their way to school. They walk by a spooky sort of building that they are most unsure about, especially when a mysterious man all of a sudden appears out of nowhere. David Lincoln, played by the late and great David Warner, holds a conversation with them, speaking of his waxwork that will be opening that night at midnight. It is here that David Lincoln is setting up his fiendish plan. By the end of their conversation, he instructs them that they must bring no more than six people, which he is quite adamant about, and then all of the sudden disappears.

This now sets everything in motion, along with us. As the viewer, we are now succumbed to the many wonderful horrors this film has to offer, and thus becomes the beginning of yet another great anthology! From here we are shown such things as werewolves, (as I mentioned earlier) vampires, mummies, zombies, creatures, psychotic killers, and even a little segment of the sadistic Marquis de Sade; a very, very toned-down Marquis, I might add, for those of us who have read the works of the Marquis.

The movie definitely builds up one after the other and then we find out Mr. Lincoln’s plan. Let’s face it… As we are all horror fans here, we can’t help but want Mr. Lincoln to succeed as we very much want the monsters to finally come alive and wreak havoc upon the world! At least, I wanted it to happen, but, as we all know, the Eighties typically ended with good prevailing against evil and all became well, but not without a fight when Lincoln’s plan almost works and the wax figures are allowed to come alive after the last of the remaining six victims are sacrificed and Mark and Sarah must face the horrors and fight to save the world. It becomes an all-out brawl when his grandfather and others who knew of this evil come to join the fight! It’s a battle between good and evil and a lot of good people die, but not our heroes! They put an end to Lincoln and vanquish the evil by burning the waxwork down and destroy what they think is now the end to the diabolical plan. However, they forgot one tiny detail and this is when we see the severed hand from earlier in the movie when Mark took it from a zombie and stuck it upon the wrought-iron fence surrounding the cemetery. After Mark and Sarah escape with their lives, we then see something moving underneath some burning debris and this is where we soon find that not all the evil is vanquished and it is here we find that very same hand that we had all but forgot, suddenly emerge out of burning debris and escape!

Anyways, I feel that this movie is a staple to a Halloween Horror night, and many other nights that don’t involve Halloween, because regardless, Waxwork is a damn good time for a Friday or Saturday night horror fest, and let’s face it, for people like us, Halloween is 365 days a year, so its especially great when you can go to your physical or digital library and watch this fantastic, cheese-ball fest of a movie.

So, this year, just as many years before this one, Waxwork is always on that list for a Halloween Horror night, leading up to one of the greatest holidays. And so, for this year, if any of you by chance have not seen this particular title (which I’m sure most of you have), definitely put this on your list to watch this year, and with that, I will leave you with some words that may invite you to this particular title, and that is…

“Would you like a closer look?“