The Exotic House of Wax (1997) User Reviews

Hot Wax ?

[berw · 3/10 · 24 April 2002]

Well, what an awful music. The Surrender Cinema's guys should choose other composers...

The movie ? Uh... Not very beautiful actresses (except Jacqueline Lovell), an horrible story, an horrible light, soft and not good sex scenes (except, except, except a FOUR LESBIANS SCENE!!! Woah!)

For Lovell's fans only...

Could have been better -- much better.

[scorpioprimus · 3/10 · 9 October 2006]

I wish I could give this a better rating, as the premise is intriguing, but there are too many goof-ups in the movie for me to really like it even as a genre film. One thing that I noticed was that some of the actresses play more than one of the wax dummies (i.e., Cleopatra is also one of the lusty French maids). Not a big deal, except that the establishing shots clearly show both displays are present at the same time, and you start wondering how it is the same wax dummy is in both places at once. One of the other "wax dummy" actresses has clear tan lines from a string bikini, and I keep asking myself whether French maids 1) had bikinis, and 2) had time to work on their tans. OK, most viewers probably won't care, but it was distracting.

The script has the hint of potential: with a few more rewrites it could have made a hilarious R-rated comedy. As it is, if you even try to follow the plot there are too many "what the heck? where did that come from?" moments where the screenwriter suddenly got a bright idea. The acting of the leads is so-so, but acceptable: some of the leads have potential for regular work. Jacqueline Lovell makes an offhand reference to another of her roles when referring to her "twin sister" being abducted by aliens. An amusing in-joke if you've seen "Femalien", but it doesn't detract from this movie if you don't catch the reference.

You might want to watch this if you're a fan of one of the featured actors, or want to see a cheesy movie, but otherwise pick something else.

Girl inherits wax museum and has to save it from bank.

[TroyAir · 26 May 1999]

Blake Pickett (female) plays the lead character in this soft porn film. The film opens with Pickett and Jacelyn Lovell sitting in their apartment talking when their boyfriends enter the room in graduation gowns. Seems that the foursome are college students about to make their way into the world when the phone rings. Now, for some reason the telephone is packed up in a moving box but is still plugged into the wall (hmmm). Anyway, Blake gets word that her grandfather has died and has left her some inheritance. The four college grads go to the attorney's office for the reading of the will (but for some reason they are the only ones at the reading - I guess their parents weren't interested in their share of the inheritance). Blake inherited her grandfather's wax museum, complete with IRS tax levies for back taxes and bank foreclosure.

The twenty-something college graduates visit the museum and start exploring the displays. They learn a) that their grandfather was about to open a new exhibit displaying the greatest lovers in history and b) that a local civic committee led by Elizabeth Kaitan wants to shut the museum down because of the erotic wax exhibit. Conveniently, the grandfather had an apartment in the back of the house of wax that has plenty of room for all four of them, so they decide to stay at the house of wax and try to get it ready for showing.

Over a series of nights they discover that a strange figure is haunting the museum, and that the wax statues come to life and engage in sex at midnight, but only if a magic medallion is worn. So, in order to save the museum, the foursome decide to open an exhibit and advertise "animated erotic wax figures".

Now, both lead actresses do a pretty good job. Blake Pickett has one of the leanest bodies in the business and she looks fantastic (very trim and toned), particularly in her soft porn scene where she's wearing the medallion and having sex with her boyfriend. She writhes like a snake, and the music isn't intrusive to the scene. Jacelyn Lovell has done enough of the Surrender Cinema films that she's gotten plenty of practice at soft porn. The other actors/actresses are attractive and fit, though for entertainment I tried to count how many had silicone implants (I think Blake does, but I didn't see a scar so I'm not sure). Elizabeth Kaitan is always lovely (and is all-natural). In fact, she looks better now than she did 10 years ago when she starred in the classic "Slave Girls From Beyond Infinity". All those sessions with the personal trainer are paying off, girl! I'm kind of surprised she didn't have a better role in this film, but its good to see her working.

Anyway, if you enjoy costume sex, this is a pretty good film. If you enjoy "traditional" sex, this is a pretty good film. If you're looking for bondage or something harder, you may do better with Cheri Caffaro's "Ginger" films. This film is typical of the Friday night cable tv movies that are/were shown on Cinemax and Showtime. In fact, I remember when Showtime was first starting out and they would show these aerobics clips where 3 women would exercise on a rotating platform with the camera zooming in for close-ups on certain body parts. This movie reminds me of that style of film-making.

Legacy of Lust...

[barnthebarn · 1/10 · 30 March 2005]

The Erotic House of Wax is an episode of Scooby Doo without the Scooby gang and with an hour or so of very tedious (when isn't it?) lesbian action thrown in. Be it one, two, three, four, ten, twenty women, every angle (quite literally) is covered (or rather uncovered). On the press releases it says that 'most wax museums are boring, but there's a new one in town' (yeah right - this one really is very boring). Music is grand but key historical figure waxworks (such as Shakespeare) romping with young women is pure idiocy to say the least. Director Sybil Richards makes loads of these Surrender Cinema movies for Full Moon and whilst the music and production is amazing this whole sub-genre is a disappointing project for the Full Moon studio and merely a cash in on stuff never more professionally done but plentiful elsewhere all the same.

Good Story, Soft Core Porn

[Shaithis · 6/10 · 14 January 2000]

Ever watch a porno and wonder 'man, if only they had a decent story to go along with it' ?

Well, that about sums it up with this movie. Basically a softcore porno by the guys at Surrender Cinema, it's pretty good.

Mind you, I like to watch tons of sex and nudity like the next guy, but I found myself fast forwarding past some of the long sex scenes because well, there's so many of them. But that give tribute to the fact that I wanted to see the story behind all the sex as well. Pretty good.

This was OK but think about it...

[JennLynn · 29 August 1999]

This was ok. A stupid plot. Caught this on Cinemax last night, and skip it if you see it is playing. Yes, there was a lot of sex, but wax figures having sex? Well, the "Erotic Wax Museum" was a good idea after they saw that the wax figures were having sex. But really, this was dumb. And how, towards the end, two of the leads went into lesbian lust with two wax figures? Come on... that needs some improvement.

Good, early, Surrender softcore.

[dbrown-070204 · 7/10 · 29 March 2004]

This review contains spoilers.

Exotic House of Wax is one of Surrender's earlier titles and was made around the same time as Femalien, Virtual Encounters 1, and Virtual Encounters 2 (there's even a small relationship between EHOW's story and the one in Femalien). It isn't in the same league as those titles, but it's still good.

There are 6 sex scenes. 3 are boy/girl. 2 are boy/girl/girl. 1 is girl/girl/girl/girl. There's also a short shower scene with Blake Pickett. The best scene was the lesbian foursome. That's Jacqueline Lovell's only scene, but she was great. Romeo and Juliet's boy/girl scene and Blake Pickett's boy/girl scene were also exceptional. The other three scenes were decent, but nothing memorable. The actors/actresses stayed in their costumes a little too long for my liking and the camera was too close to the action a lot of the time. Also, this being a Surrender title, there was no audio other than the music during the sex scenes. Although 6 scenes doesn't sound like much, Surrender's scenes run longer than your typical softcore title. However, I felt this video did devote a little too much of its running time to the story.

All but two of the women were beautiful and had great bodies. Those other two were not what I would call unattractive, but just didn't compare to the other women.

I'm a big Jacqueline Lovell fan and consider her scene second only to her lesbian scene from Femalien. For that reason alone, I consider this a worthwhile purchase.

This was (unfortunately) one of Surrender Cinema's better flicks...

[Mangler · 9 March 1999]

I've seen most of them and, like other guys, F-Fwd to the sex scenes. I don't drool over them, rather I look for some level of realism in the scenes, the "eloquence of their efforts" or reality of their faking. I'm REALLY bored with the ho-hum 'undress and caress' stuff Shannon Tweed is notorious for - all of her films were meant for insomniacs!

I pessimistically look for anything that says 'fake' (except the silicon of course) such as the way over-used 'girl riding the guy's thigh' scene, both standing upright with him behind her, either of them grinning their super-plastic Ken & Barbie doll look with 'ain't I beautiful?' smiles, yada, yada yada, you get the picture.

Even though most of the scenes in this flick failed my aforementioned checks there was one scene that I had to have worn out rescanning - I'm still convinced the scene where she's laying on her back on a wall was severely cut by the editors just to scathe the MPAA X rating! This scene alone warrants a 'very-watchable' status for this one, and I'm gonna rent it again...

this was really bad. don't rent it.

[jt-39 · 24 December 1998]

even by the extra-low standards for soft porn, this movie fails to entertain. if you find yourself up late watching skinemax and this comes on, don't hesitate. turn it right away. (especially because there's way too much exposition before you get to the good stuff.)

Getting out of the crap zone

[BrianPatrix · 10 December 1998]

Pretty good for its genre, the actresses are at least pretty, the actors are not offendingly ugly. Story's okay, not too good but what do you expect? Not worse than your regular police/sitcom episode. And the girls are extremely(-ish) well built. Enjoy!

A good start

[Mangler · 20 October 1998]

Worth viewing with at least one eye!

I remember this. Hmm, bad memories.

[mdf_316 · 14 June 2001]

I remember staying up late, very late to watch this.

Oh man, I was so deeply disappointed. The sex scenes are worthless. The plot is even more so. The acting is the pitts. There are some nice bodies, I guess. But come on! First of all, the wax idea? Didn't work very well. The sex scenes are horrible -- they are in incredible slow motion, and it looks as if no excitement comes out of it.

What an incredible waste of film...

Hot wax on wax

[Dr. Gore · 23 October 2005]

*SPOILER ALERT* *SPOILER ALERT*

A hot babe inherits a hot wax museum. She enlists her friends to help her save the dilapidated junk pile. Soon she discovers the building's hidden secret: It's an erotic house of wax! MOO-HA-HA! There's an ancient horny amulet that turns wax figures into carnal creatures. Could this be the solution to her money problems? Could copulating wax people help the museum survive? What a great business strategy! Throw a sex amulet on some wax dummies and let the money pour in.

"The Exotic House of Wax" is not the best skin flick I ever saw but it gets the job done. Josie Hunter is the hot babe who gets her hands on the wax museum and her hands all over one of her guy friends. That was a decent scene. She should have put on the amulet a lot sooner. Most of the scenes with the wax people getting it on were fair. Whenever you hear a cheesy rock guitar crank up, you'll know that wax sex is coming soon. There was one sex scene that worked wonders for me. It involved Jacqueline Lovell, two female wax figures and another woman with large breasts. Let's just say that that was some hot wax friction. "The Exotic House of Wax" is worth watching if you're a Lovell fan.

One last thing, do you think wax figures get turned on by having wax poured on them? One sex scene had a woman pouring hot wax from a burning candle onto an animated wax woman and she squirmed with pleasure. You'd think they'd be sick of wax. It's like pouring an extra layer on them. These are the things I think about. Wax on a wax figure? Sure, why not? She seemed to like it and that's good enough for me.