Wax Museum Morgue: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}{{Needs Image}}
The
Methods of preserving a human corpse in a
Sometimes a
If the method of preservation involves a [[No OSHA Compliance|large laboratory filled with open vats of wax or chemicals]], you can expect the villainous madman or his henchmen to [[Karmic Death|wind up falling or tossing themselves into one of the vats]] at the end of the story. (They rarely get made into statues, though. Probably because the last and only people to possess the
A form of [[Uncanny Valley]]. Subtrope of [[Dead Guy
{{examples}}▼
{{deathtrope}}
== Anime and Manga ==▼
▲{{examples}}
* Anime example: The ''[[Cutey Honey|New Cutey Honey]]'' [[OVA|OVAs]] had our heroine face the Jewel Princess, a [[Psycho Lesbian]] who turned the young women who caught her fancy into crystal statues to decorate her lair.▼
▲== Anime and Manga ==
* Used in the ''[[Weiss Kreuz]]'' CD Drama "Tearless Dolls", in which one of many [[Mad Artist|Mad Artists]] employs the replacing-the-blood-with-glycerine method to living victims. What makes it even creepier is that {{spoiler|one of the girls used in the experiment is ''Omi's cousin and ex-girlfriend Ouka Sakaki'', who was shot to death some time ago, and her grief-stricken and maddened father (and Omi's uncle) [[Big Bad|Reiji Takatori]] asked the artist to pretty much make her corpse into a human mannequin, apparently as a way to cope with the loss of [[Daddy's Girl|the only of his children that he gave a damn for]].}}▼
▲* Anime example: The ''[[Cutey Honey|New Cutey Honey]]'' [[OVA
▲* Used in the ''[[Weiss Kreuz]]'' CD Drama "Tearless Dolls", in which one of many [[Mad Artist
* Mr. 3 of ''[[One Piece]]'' is a [[Mad Artist]] whose Devil fruit ability is to generate nigh-infinite amounts of liquid wax from his hands that hardens very quickly and becomes harder than steel when it does so. Besides making weapons from it in combat, in his free time, he entraps victims in wax "in the name of art" and ostensibly keeps them for display purposes. He even has his partner, Miss Golden Week, paint them pretty colors. Of note, he has nearly done so to Nami, Vivi and Zoro at the same time.
* ''[[Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service]]'' uses plastination-without-consent as the main focus of one of their stories. It starts with a trip to the Body Worlds exhibit, hoping to meet lots of new <s> dead people</s> clients to provide their services for...
* Kise Eiji from ''[[Psyren]]'' used his [[Psychic Powers|powers]] to create statues by merging people with cement or similar. From the looks on their faces, it was extremely painful.
* A nonlethal variant occurred in ''[[Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne]]''. {{spoiler|Chiaki's father}}, under [[Demonic Possession|a demon's influence]], abducted several women, drugged them into a state of suspended animation, and posed them identically to the models in a real wax museum one floor above them. He intended to "complete" his collection with
* A non-villainous example in ''[[Pokémon Special]]''. After {{spoiler|the five Dex Holders from the FRLG arc are [[Taken for Granite]]}}, their petrified bodies are taken by allies to the museum-ish area of the Battle Tower, put on display as to ensure they will be in place {{spoiler|to be unpetrified by Jirachi's wishes}}.
* [[Lupin III
== Comic Books ==
* An odd case of this occurs with [[The Mighty Thor]] foe the Grey Gargoyle. Turned to a substance resembling stone, victims would usually return to normal after a certain amount of time. However, he discovered a way to arrest the process. He then established an identity for himself as a sculptor and began selling his victims as statutes.
* In one ''[[Knights of the Dinner Table]]'' story, the Untouchable Trio (Plus One) find themselves in an underground maze full of remarkably lifelike 'statues' of various monsters. They eventually discover a medusa and realise that all of the statues are actually real monsters that have been petrified. After killing the medusa, they realise that they are now in the middle of a maze, [[No Ontological Inertia|surrounded by a menagerie of revived monsters]]...
== Film ==
* ''Mystery of the Wax Museum'' (1933), ''House of Wax'' (1953) and ''Terror in the Wax Museum'' (1973) are probably the definitive movie examples of this trope. The 2005 remake of ''House of Wax'' bears little resemblance to the awesome 1953 film which starred [[Vincent Price]] (and was, in fact, a remake of ''Mystery of the Wax Museum''). Instead, it's a partial remake of a relatively obscure Chuck Connors horror called ''Tourist Trap'' (1978), even duplicating that film's main plot twist.
** It does, however, have the bonus of having Paris Hilton stabbed through the head with a pipe, which is worth the price of admission alone.
* ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'' had a few examples:
** In the movie ''[[Hercules (
** The movie ''[[Blood Lust]]'' featured [[Hunting the Most Dangerous Game|a villain who liked to hunt humans as prey]] and who had his crack staff of henchmen preserve the bodies for display in an underground gallery. One of the hunter's henchmen winds up falling into a vat of chemicals and dying, but the hunter himself avoids that
** ''[[Manos:
* Happens to [[Peter Cushing]] in the horror omnibus ''The House that Dripped Blood''.
* Another movie example: The temple where the snake-headed, snake-bodied Medusa lived in ''[[Clash of the Titans]]'' contained the statues of unfortunate heroes who were petrified by her glance. (This kind of petrification was ''not'' reversible.)
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* The creature from ''[[Jeepers Creepers]]'' decorates its lair with the preserved bodies of its victims, attached to the ceiling no less.
* ''[[Carry On]] Screaming'', a horror-comedy, had this as the central plot, with a scientist entitled Dr. Watt having young women turned to mannequins. As he's lowering one into the vat that will bring about the transformation, this exchange occurs between his sister Vampyra and him:
{{quote|
'''Dr. Watt:''' What thing? What are you--''(laughs)''--oh, you mean "frying tonight"! }}
:: Later on, when he's pulled into the vat, he goes down with those very words.
== Literature ==
* The premise behind the ''[[Goosebumps]]'' short stories "How I Won My Bat" and "Broken Dolls."
* The White Witch's Castle in ''[[Narnia|The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe]]'', which contained the bodies of those she had [[Taken for Granite]] with her wand. (This petrification was reversible, though.)
** The prequel, ''The Magician's Nephew'', has the Witch awakened from a cross between this and [[Sealed Evil in
* Robert W. Chambers' short story ''The Mask'', from ''[[The King in Yellow]]'', in which an artist created a liquid that turned anything stuck into it into stone. He killed a lot of flowers and bugs. Then his wife fell in. This petrification was also reversible, but by the time anyone found out, the artist had shot himself.
* ''The Abominable History of the Man With the Copper Fingers'', by [[Dorothy L. Sayers]], has sleuth [[Lord Peter Wimsey]] uncovering the truth about a jealous sculptor's surprisingly lifelike copper statue of his mistress (hint: electroplating is involved).
* An evil master vampire in [[Christopher Moore]]'s ''[[
* One of the ''[[
** Also used in the Agent Provocateur comic book, but with sand statues.
* ''Humility Garden'', a novel by Felicity Savage, has a magical version of this as the title character's job. Especially beautiful people are killed in a way that leaves a psychic imprint of them as a statue. This is a highly respected art form and carries political power.
* In Christopher Rice's novel ''Snow Garden'', one of the characters is statue'd to death. The killer simply made a statue around him to kill him...
* In ''[[Coraline (
** Unusually for this trope, though, they're harmless, nice people, who just have an odd way of grieving.
* Medusa's shop of "garden statues" in ''[[Percy Jackson and The Olympians]]''.
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* In [[John Christopher]]'s ''[[The Tripods]]'' series, the narrator Will is taken by his alien master to a museum that displays outstanding specimens of humanity. There he is sickened to see the corpse of his friend Eloise, preserved in a glass case. When Will last saw her, Eloise had been voted queen of the tournament and thus won the right to serve the Tripods. She went happily.
* Book 34 of the ''Shivers'' series by M.D. Spenser, ''Weirdo Waldo's Wax Museum'', features this trope played straight. However, beyond the stereotypical wax displays usually used, the museum in question has multiple displays that demonstrate the history of man's cruelty. Including racial and religious persecution, wars, slavery, genocides, and the Holocaust. The families invited to the museum each represent a different stereotype: rich, poor, jock, nerd, religious, and redneck. Their host has done this to demonstrate their unwillingness to co-operate and constant bickering and judgement of one another.
* [[Roald Dahl]]'s short story The Landlady (from ''[[Tales of the Unexpected]]'') in which a businessman arrives to a creepy hotel.
* Mentioned but not seen in Robert A. Heinlein's novel ''[[Glory Road (novel)|Glory Road]]'' to show cultural differences. One of Star's relatives would place the bodies of her just-dead husbands into stasis, and display them in the parlor.
== Live
* An episode of ''[[Friday the
▲* An episode of ''[[Friday the 13 th The Series]]'' had Micki and Johnny falling victim to a hillbilly family who preserved corpses by stuffing them. (They obviously hadn't had a lot of practice doing this, judging by the condition of their victims.)
* The [[Made for TV Movie]] ''KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park'' featured a version of this plot with mind-controlled teens disguised as animatronic robots.
* In the ''[[
* One ''[[CSI]]'' episode had a killer stuffing the head of a woman and hanging it on the wall. [[It Makes Sense in Context|He though she was an alien space lizard disguised as a human]], though.
* The episode "Elegy" of ''[[The Twilight Zone]]'' involved three astronauts landing on an asteroid where the inhabitants appear to be frozen in scenes of idyllic [[The Fifties|1950's]] life. Of course, the immortal robotic caretaker informs them that the asteroid is really an exclusive cemetery where the rich can eternally partake in their favourite activity after death. And by the way, what would they most like to be doing right now?
* One ''[[
== Tabletop Games ==
* One ''[[Dungeons
▲* One ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'' adventure module (available on the Wizards site) has an encounter where a prison guard of [[Bedlam House]] has been reduced to near-death and partially baked into a gargoyle statue. A player with more [[Genre Savvy]]-ness than [[Failed a Spot Check|ranks in Spot]] will notice the "statue's" moving eyes, assume that it is an actual gargoyle and swiftly kill an innocent.
== Video Games ==
* Rugal Bernstein of ''[[
* Sander Cohen of ''[[
▲* Rugal Bernstein of ''[[The King of Fighters (Video Game)|The King of Fighters]]'' dipped his opponents in metal after beating them and kept them as statues.
▲* Sander Cohen of ''[[Bio Shock]]'' has filled his part of the city with plaster "sculptures" that bleed when you hit them. In one shop you walk past a series of them lining the entrance hall and, if you use the weapon upgrade station in the basement, they're not there anymore when you leave. Then you start to notice that ''other'' statues aren't fully stationary anymore either...
** Also in Fort Frolic is Martin Finnegan, who has taken to posing victims before freezing them.
* In one wilderness area of ''[[Baldur's Gate
* [[Are You Afraid of the Dark?|Are you afraid of the dark?: The tale of Orpheo's curse]] has a wax exhibit in Orpheo's theater. Your character realizes that they all look ''oddly'' like your friends.
== Western Animation ==
* In ''[[Riddick|The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury]]", the antagonist wants to add Riddick to her collection.
* In ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'', Doofenshmirtz's petrification ray misfired and hit a live T-rex that had wound up in a museum. Said T-rex was mistaken for a statue, and probably stayed in the museum permanently.
==
* ''[[Last
▲* ''[[Last Res 0 rt]]'' has Geisha - who wound up a contestant on the show for ''thirty-nine'' counts of murder. To be more precise, he's classed as an assassin-grade Gorgon and was caught with thirty-nine 'statues' of people he had kidnapped, tortured, and then murdered by turning them into stone. And those counts of murder only apply to the ones they could be people - the actual toll is likely far higher, considering that he only got caught because he stopped using 'untouchables'.
== Real Life ==
* Interestingly enough, [[Truth in Television|there are real-life ways to embalm a body to give it a lifelike appearance.]] This usually involves replacing the blood of a cadaver with glycerine, thus preserving the cells and organs. (Argentine political icon Evita Peron was preserved in this way.) There are no records of any madmen using this particular method to kill people and create statues of them, however. The closest thing real-life may have to the "museum of real life bodies as art" is the [
▲* Interestingly enough, [[Truth in Television|there are real-life ways to embalm a body to give it a lifelike appearance.]] This usually involves replacing the blood of a cadaver with glycerine, thus preserving the cells and organs. (Argentine political icon Evita Peron was preserved in this way.) There are no records of any madmen using this particular method to kill people and create statues of them, however. The closest thing real-life may have to the "museum of real life bodies as art" is the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_Worlds Body Worlds Travelling Exhibition], which features corpses who were preserved with a process called ''plastination''. The exhibition's developer and promoter, Gunther von Hagens -- although he's never been accused of killing anybody -- ''has'' been accused of using the bodies of prisoners, hospital patients, and others who could not have given him their consent to use their bodies in this way. (Certainly some of the children and fetuses featured in his exhibition could ''not'' have.) Reportedly, legal harassment over these and other issues was so great in von Hagens' native Germany that he vowed to take the exhibition out of the country permanently. At the time of this writing, it is now touring the United States and Canada.
* Trophy hunting, [[Captain Obvious|obviously]].
* Honoré Fragonard was a French artist, veterinarian, and anatomist who created some [https://web.archive.org/web/20080525103916/http://musee.vet-alfort.fr/Site_GB/index2.htm rather disturbing displays in the late 1700s].
* At least two modern "sculptors" too (one of them the guy behind the exposition "Bodies").
* Probably the closest [[Real Life]] has come to the shocking ''discovery'' of a
* A corpse left in anaerobic conditions, such as a sealed crypt or the bottom of a lake, will sometimes have its tissues transformed by ''Clostridia perfingens'' bacteria into a body-shaped mass of adipocere: a pale decompositional wax. It won't be pretty or resemble the original person very closely, but it's a case where Nature invokes this trope on its own.
* Supposely, the famous urban legend of "La Pascualita" in Chihuahua (Mexico). It says that a seamstress whose daughter Pascualita died when she was about to get married got to have said daughter's lifeless body transformed into the main mannequin of her store. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUG6MSkIfFY Here is a video.] Even if it's not true, you have to admit that said mannequin looks DAMN human-like.
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Death Tropes]]
[[Category:Horror Tropes]]
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