John Saxon, ever the reliable mainstay of generic TV entertainment, makes a solid contribution to The Waiting Room, a straightforward enough ghost story in this, the 64th edition of Monsters, a 72 show Horror anthology that ran from 1988 to 1991.
In it, Saxon plays the father of newly wedded Christian LeBlanc and his bride Katharine (Lisa Waltz) who for some strange reason have invited dad along to the hotel where they plan to spend their first night of marital bliss. Things don’t go well. In the middle of the night, LeBlanc gets up and wanders into “Room 14″, promptly disappearing. Saxon is forced to reveal that 20 years earlier, on his own honeymoon at the same hotel, he too had wandered into the aforementioned room and got it on with a mysterious, foxy woman inside, impregnating her before being plagued forthwith by ghostly apparitions of a “Nightmare Baby”. Refusing to do anything about his sons fate other than swig from his hip flask and look miserable, Saxon leaves it to fragile Katharine to confront the ghost and retrieve her husband from the “darkness”…
The non-existent budget and lack of exteriors mean that this Tales of the Unexpected styled “teleplay” relies on its story and the cast’s performances. Everyone duly delivers, not least our man Saxon, who puts in a decent shift and looks suitably depressed whilst recounting the miserable time he’s had following his act of infidelity. Quite why, however, he figured it was a good idea to go back to the cursed hotel, is anyone’s fucking guess…
Although a fairly well put together late night, stripped down, spooker, The Waiting Room was always unlikely to reignite Saxon’s career, but it’s by no means a bad effort either and Special Effects supremo, Dick Smith does a fine job in making him look 20 years younger (through some impressive wig work) in the obligatory flashback sequence.
The Waiting Room is probably worth a watch – there are far worse ways to spend 30 minutes of your life. But then again, there are far better too…
