You do not want to see what happens next.
Waxworks (1992) is a first-person point and click adventure game that's almost identical to the Elvira games (which also deserve a place here).
You travel back in time to different levels such as an Egyptian pyramid, Jack the Ripper-era London, a zombie-filled graveyard, and perhaps the worst, a mineshaft filled with plant mutants. What makes the game so scary? The death scenes
, which are all stellar examples of The Many Deaths of You and Have a Nice Death. It's strongly advised that you don't watch the video while you're eating.
- Just look at one of the zombie deaths, which sees you disemboweled Romero-style, or the "tongue mutant" death in the mines, which covers your face with disgusting boils. Or the vampire, who wastes no time in chowing down on your neck for a One-Hit Kill.
- The mutants themselves deserve a mention here. Body Horror doesn't begin to describe them, let alone the horrific Facial Horror they inflict on you if you die to one of them.
- The "vines" you encounter will kill you by grabbing you by the head and one arm and slowly tearing off both.
- While not quite as overflowing with gore as the other levels, Victorian London is just oozing with atmosphere and dread, as you search for clues that will lead you to Jack the Ripper, all while avoiding policemen and angry mobs around every corner, lest you be treated to a grisly (and graphic) hanging or a taste of mob justice.
- The final battle against Jack the Ripper himself. You step through the warehouse door, which is locked behind you, find yourself standing on a pier overlooking the Thames... and then one of the most notorious serial killers of all time steps into view. From this point on, it's kill or be killed.
- Stand around too long outside the warehouse door? Jack will creep up on you and slash your throat before you can even react.
- Even the music in the death sequences does a good job conveying the unique tone of horror in each era, from the chilling, sinister howls that plays over the graveyard ancestor's disemboweled body; to the cold, clamoring bass that accompanies the Victorian-era ancestor as he faces the barbaric injustices of London; and especially the mournful drum that plays as the mine ancestor suffers a Cruel and Unusual Death.
- The Pyramid, which makes the other waxworks look like a puppet show. Not only is it full of violent guards and psychotic priests, it's also filled with lethal traps and incredibly difficult puzzles just to get through the damn thing, and even if you manage to pass all of them, you still have the High Priest of Anubis, your own brother waiting for you...
- One of the first things you find inside the pyramid? The body of the murdered architect of the Pyramid.
- The fight with Ixona the Witch in the fifth and final waxwork — or as it can also be considered, a lesson in the noble art of the No-Holds-Barred Beatdown. Here, you use various items belonging to the various evil twins you've defeated in the game to battle her — although using the High Priest's Amulet and Necromancer's Ring are optional for defending yourself with, you must first throw a vial of acidic poison at the Witch to distract her as she's having her hand cut off, which burns her flesh and visibly causes her extreme agony, then you shoot her through the eye with a bolt from a Crossbow found nearby, before finally stabbing her through the neck with Jack the Ripper's Dagger when she's twitching and bleeding on the ground, causing blood to gush from from her nose, mouth, neck and wrist stump as she simply stops moving.
