The Wax Mask

The Wax Mask (1997)

M.D.C. - Maschera di cera

Paris, 1900: a couple are horribly murdered by a masked man with a metal claw who rips their hearts out. The sole survivor and witness to the massacre is a young girl. Twelve years later in Rome a new wax museum is opened, whose main attractions are lifelike recreations of gruesome murder scenes. A young man bets that he will spend the night in the museum but is found dead the morning after. Soon, people start disappearing from the streets of Rome and the wax museum halls begin filling with new figures...

Date of release
1997-04-04
TMDB
5.7 / 10 (63)
Runtime
1h 38m
Genres
Horror, Thriller
Director
Sergio Stivaletti

Casting

Interesting facts

Wax Mask is a 1997 Gothic horror film. The film is set in Rome where a Wax Museum has opened up, whose main attraction is gruesome murder scenes. Shortly after its opening, people began to vanish as new figures appear in the museum.

Production

On speaking of his rivalry between himself and Lucio Fulci, Dario Argento stated that at the Rome Fanta Festival in 1994, he saw Fulci in a wheelchair, describing him as being in a "dreadful physical condition". Argento was informed that Fulci was about to have a serious hospital operation. Argento felt that working would help Fulci recover, and decided to back him in a project of his choosing.

The project later became a remake of Andre de Toth's House of Wax. Argento liked this idea, and screened copies of de Toth's film as well as Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933). Fulci and his collaborator Daniele Stroppa decided to claim that a Gaston Leroux short story entitled The Waxwork Museum was their official source of inspiration, in case they had any legal problems with Warner Bros. (which had produced House of Wax).

According to Alan Jones, Fulci and Argento argued about the direction of the film, with Fulci wanting a more atmosphere driven film while Argento wanted to increase the gore. Pre-production lasted longer than expected as Argento was working on post-production and promotion for his own film The Stendhal Syndrome (1996).

Variety stated the budget for the film was under $1.25 million. Stivaletti originally had Robert Englund in mind for the lead, but due to budgetary restraints, Robert Hossein took the role. Most of the special effects shots were to be done during post-production allowing the director to supervise them more closely. The film was in production for six weeks in 1996.

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