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Rating: 
Summary: Good fun
Review: If you are familiar with italian horror, you get exactly what you expect here. Adequate to terrible performances, atrocious dubbing, gaudy visuals at the expens of characters you actually care about and imaginatively staged murders. However, this film was better than i expected, since director Stivaletti is primarily a make-up man and tried his hand at directing here for the first time. The (I suspect limited) budget is used well with varied locales for the different scenes, nice art-direction and costumes and crisp camerawork. Pace is well maintained throughout the movie which distracts you from some of the less obvious plot-holes. The waxmaster himself does quite a good actingjob, not hamming it up. As for "the good guys", the leading lady is adequate but at bit dull. Our supposed "hero" is however damagingly miscast and comes over as a complete bore. As is usually the case with italian horror, the visuals are at the fore here with rich colours (which of course includes crimsonred blood), lovingly filmed and accompanied by a good and appropriately romantic score. The finale, as a few others have stated, is quite bad but fun in a way with some terminatoresque touches that are unexpected, to say the least. And the murders, surprisingly few, are competently put together with a sufficient amount of gore to satisfy fans. Overall, entertaining and good fun, if you dont expect "Citizen Cane".
Rating: 
Summary: Wax Mask
Review: Originally intended for Lucio Fulci to directed,his untimely death stopped him from doing so. Dario Argento handed the project over to his fx man Sergio Stivaletti,who I might say did one hell of a fine job for his debut as a director. Lush in atmosphere,Stivaletti gave me the impression of paying homage to his mentor Argento. Image Entertainment has released on good gem that was previously unavailble to us here in North America. I do highly recommend this one,it's worth every penny spent.
Rating:
Summary: Wax Mask
Review: Originally intended for Lucio Fulci to directed,his untimely death stopped him from doing so. Dario Argento handed the project over to his fx man Sergio Stivaletti,who I might say did one hell of a fine job for his debut as a director. Lush in atmosphere,Stivaletti gave me the impression of paying homage to his mentor Argento. Image Entertainment has released on good gem that was previously unavailble to us here in North America. I do highly recommend this one,it's worth every penny spent.
Rating: 
Summary: don't be fooled
Review: Some persons seek Italian movies for various reasons; some like the gore found in them, some look for nudity and nice ladies, others music scores and art direction, and some others just like them due to their differences from American horror movies. This movie is not the case: you will only find poor acting, little nudity, one decent murder scene, poor effects, lousy art direction, poor screenplay and awful direction. I'm a big fan of Argento, Fulci and Bava; my point of view has always been wide and contextualized, but I must say that this movie has no value at all. Don't get fooled by the big names on the cover!
Rating: 
Summary: Far better than expected
Review: This is pretty much a remake of "House of Wax" but updated with CGI effects and liberal doses of nudity and gore. Suprisingly well done, stylish, lowbrow and lots of fun. It maintains an engrossingly weird and dream-like atmosphere--from the lovely opening shot of fireworks bursting over the Eiffel Tower to the bizarre Terminator-eque finale in, of course, a burning wax museum. Costumes, cinematography, art direction and music are first rate and some amusing plot twists occur (courtesy of Lucio Fulci and Dario Argento). Highly recommended to fans of Hammer films and European horror. The DVD is non-anamorphic widescreen. Clean print. Nice, solid transfer. No extras aside from a small effects photo gallery but don't let that deter you.
Rating:
Summary: Far better than expected
Review: This is pretty much a remake of "House of Wax" but updated with CGI effects and liberal doses of nudity and gore. Suprisingly well done, stylish, lowbrow and lots of fun. It maintains an engrossingly weird and dream-like atmosphere--from the lovely opening shot of fireworks bursting over the Eiffel Tower to the bizarre Terminator-eque finale in, of course, a burning wax museum. Costumes, cinematography, art direction and music are first rate and some amusing plot twists occur (courtesy of Lucio Fulci and Dario Argento). Highly recommended to fans of Hammer films and European horror. The DVD is non-anamorphic widescreen. Clean print. Nice, solid transfer. No extras aside from a small effects photo gallery but don't let that deter you.
Rating:
Summary: Far better than expected
Review: This is pretty much a remake of "House of Wax" but updated with CGI effects and liberal doses of nudity and gore. Suprisingly well done, stylish, lowbrow and lots of fun. It maintains an engrossingly weird and dream-like atmosphere--from the lovely opening shot of fireworks bursting over the Eiffel Tower to the bizarre Terminator-eque finale in, of course, a burning wax museum. Costumes, cinematography, art direction and music are first rate and some amusing plot twists occur (courtesy of Lucio Fulci and Dario Argento). Highly recommended to fans of Hammer films and European horror. The DVD is non-anamorphic widescreen. Clean print. Nice, solid transfer. No extras aside from a small effects photo gallery but don't let that deter you.
Rating:
Summary: Fair mix of classic horror with modern style.
Review: Wax Mask has a lot to live up to. Not only is it a retelling of an already classic horror story and film (House of Wax 1953), but it has the cold, mechanical, blood drenched hands of two masters of Italian horror, Dario Argento and Lucio Fulci, dipped in to it. Sergio Stivaletti, special effects man on such films as Argento's Phenonena, Opera, Stendhal Syndrome, and Demons (by Lamberto Bava), and Dellamorte/Dellamore (by Michele Soavi) makes his feature debut as a director. Stivaletti doesn't showcase any revelatory talent, just competent skill learned from his years of working with great Italian horror directors. He has absorbed the style, but doesn't add anything new to it. As far as the typical stumble in plot, occasional flat acting (two things one accepts in Italian horror), a miscast lead actor, and a horrible, but mercifully brief, finale, the film is average, well paced, and thoroughly entertaining. It has modern touches in gore, CGI effects, and some titllation, while maintaining classic horror elements like looming shadows, mad doctor laboratories, and so on, making an intriguing mix of old and new. The DVD looks quite good, a fine transfer with sharp image and great color hues (Stivaletti saturates colors very vividly throughout the film). The only extra is a short slide show of behind the scenes photos. Fans of Italian horror should be well entertained with this modestly priced disc. A C+. As far as this genre goes, you can certainly find better, but most of all, you can find a whole lot worse.
Rating:
Summary: Fair mix of classic horror with modern style.
Review: Wax Mask has a lot to live up to. Not only is it a retelling of an already classic horror story and film (House of Wax 1953), but it has the cold, mechanical, blood drenched hands of two masters of Italian horror, Dario Argento and Lucio Fulci, dipped in to it. Sergio Stivaletti, special effects man on such films as Argento's Phenonena, Opera, Stendhal Syndrome, and Demons (by Lamberto Bava), and Dellamorte/Dellamore (by Michele Soavi) makes his feature debut as a director. Stivaletti doesn't showcase any revelatory talent, just competent skill learned from his years of working with great Italian horror directors. He has absorbed the style, but doesn't add anything new to it. As far as the typical stumble in plot, occasional flat acting (two things one accepts in Italian horror), a miscast lead actor, and a horrible, but mercifully brief, finale, the film is average, well paced, and thoroughly entertaining. It has modern touches in gore, CGI effects, and some titllation, while maintaining classic horror elements like looming shadows, mad doctor laboratories, and so on, making an intriguing mix of old and new. The DVD looks quite good, a fine transfer with sharp image and great color hues (Stivaletti saturates colors very vividly throughout the film). The only extra is a short slide show of behind the scenes photos. Fans of Italian horror should be well entertained with this modestly priced disc. A C+. As far as this genre goes, you can certainly find better, but most of all, you can find a whole lot worse.
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