Some things are so deliciously awful, they're exquisite. This is usually the case with wax museums. Even really good ones usually seem just a little bit off. Like, how come so much painstaking attention is given to facial detail when the wax figure is only 4 and a half feet tall? I mean, I know Tom Cruise is short, but he's not
that short. The Canadian side of Niagara Falls has a good bad wax museum called
Movieland Wax Museum of the Stars. You want stars? They got 'em, all staring weirdly out at you with
unlifelike hair and a yellow pallor. Wax museums also remind me of the scariest episode of the Twilight Zone I've ever seen. It's called "The New Exhibit" and it's the one with Martin Balsam where he's a wax museum curator and his museum is going to be demolished. He can't bear the thought of his wax "friends" being thrown out like so much summer squash, so he takes his chamber of horrors home with him to his nagging wife. They're broke but he keeps them in an air-conditioned basement and one by one they come to life and kill people. Now, I was about six years old when I saw this
episode. My mom, the parent with good judgement, must have been out of the room and my dad, being a true dad, let me stay up way past my bedtime and watch the scariest show ever broadcast on television. I literally had nightmares about that one, and I'm sure Dad got an earful from Mom about it, too. Here's the
Movieland wax museum's website:
http://www.cliftonhill.com/niagara_falls_attractions/movieland_wax_museum/
