Waxworks 1924

Waxworks

1924 · Germany · Directed by Paul Leni, Leo Birinski · 83 min

StrangeTense Great first watch · Moderate Fantasy horror

A poet invents stories for three wax figures, moving from exotic adventure to historical nightmare and a final pursuit through distorted space.

What to expect

Paul Leni turns anthology structure into a tour of expressionist design. Each episode alters scale, rhythm, and threat, while the wax museum lets storytelling itself become the frame’s dangerous attraction.

How to ease in

The film is three tales rather than one continuous plot. Treat each wax figure as a new visual world, and expect the final Jack the Ripper section to be brief and dreamlike.

Heads-up

A quick, non-exhaustive note Includes Orientalist caricature, violence, execution, murder, anti-Semitic associations in historical casting, and nightmare imagery.
Momo's Note May contain spoilers Who is Momo? →

A poet invents stories for three wax figures, moving from exotic adventure to historical nightmare and a final pursuit through distorted space.

The poet is hired to make fixed figures move through language, then the figures begin to control his imagination. I like how authorship turns into the fear of being entered by one’s own atmosphere.

Open the note ↓

The poet is hired to make fixed figures move through language, then the figures begin to control his imagination. I like how authorship turns into the fear of being entered by one’s own atmosphere.

— Momo

Momo thinking about this film

Credits & versions

Version map

Wikidata 83-minute listing83 min83 minutes reproduces the single duration stated by the source. The listing does not identify a cut, score, territory, frame rate, source element, or restoration.Runtime reference · Checked 2026-08-22

Where to go next

Want a gentler, shorter, or stranger next film? Ask Momo for something like this →
Momo is on shift. Visit Momo Cinema →

Continue through the catalogue →