Enough to cause Vincent Price to spin in his grave, this erotic updating of the 1953 Price 3-D shocker isn't quite as awful as its title would indicate. Considering the constraints imposed by the softcore genre, this thriller isn't a completely flaccid effort.
On graduation day at Midville College, senior Josie (Josie Hunter) is notified of her grandfather's death. She inherits his reportedly haunted wax museum and goes to check it out with her close friends Star (Jacqueline Lovell), Andy (Eric Acsell), and Pete (Everett J. Rodd), who secretly loves
Josie. They discover that Josie s grandfather was about to feature a display of classic lovers at the museum. The four move into an apartment attached to the museum, and each in their turn encounters a hooded figure who wields a strange amulet. Star places the amulet on the figures of Cleopatra
and Mark Antony, which then come to life and make love. Josie refuses to believe her, but later Andy has a similar experience. After a visit from an opponent of the museum, Angela Wingate (Elizabeth Kaitan), the quartet discovers that Josie's grandfather owed $27,000 to the bank, which they have
only a month to repay. Meanwhile, Andy and Pete both witness the statues of Romeo and Juliet coming to life. That night, the hooded figure places the amulet on Josie and she seduces the lovelorn Pete until the amulet falls off and she awakens as if from a trance. They capture the hooded figure,
who turns out to be a mute woman who loved Josie's grandfather. She reveals that the amulet's powers can save the museum and gives Star a personal erotic tour by bringing two female figures to life; the quartet of women proceed to have sex. Josie, Star, Andy, and Pete restore the museum; a
sell-out crowd, including Angela Wingate, is impressed by the startling wax figures, which come to life and have sex in front of their eyes.
Produced on a slightly higher budget than the average adult film, THE EXOTIC HOUSE OF WAX is clearly intended as a more "respectable" alternative to hardcore product. The film strives to present a (somewhat) sensible scenario. The lengthy opening scenes do indeed provide a detailed setup for the
sexual sequences that will follow, but there's one key problem with the film: a dullness pervades every sequence.
The half-dozen wax-figure sex scenarios are well done and are graphically on the stronger end of the softcore spectrum. The sequences are of a higher caliber technically than those in other softcore (and most hardcore) features, an aspect which is a staple of the product created by Surrender
Cinema (the company's other cable-ready erotic adaptations of classic films include THE EXOTIC TIME MACHINE and LOLIDA 2000). The cast proves to be an affable ensemble who come across as amusing during their attempts at acting. Straight-to-video superstar Elizabeth Kaitan's involvement amounts to
a mere cameo. (Sexual situations.) leave a comment
