Exit Reviews

Straight-to-video sexpot Shannon Whirry tries to extend her market range in this suspense thriller, though not so far as to totally alienate her heavy-breathing fans. When her boyfriend, the son of a local politician, proposes marriage, student Diane (Shannon Whirry) fears he will discover that she works part-time as a stripper. She resolves to make that night's performance her last. But while she's onstage, the club is robbed by armed bandits. When the holdup goes awry and the building is surrounded by police, gang leader Charles (David Bradley) decides to hold the dancers and patrons hostage. Among the hostages is Alex (Joe Bucci), a former federal agent. Working together, Diane and Alex are able to get most of the hostages into the club's freezer room (which locks from the inside). Enraged, Charles locks the outside as well and turns the room's thermostat to below freezing. Diane is allowed to leave the club to accompany an injured hostage, as Charles tries to bargain with the police. She sneaks back into the club through an air vent in order to help the freezing hostages. When the club's power is cut off, she and Alex take advantage of the confusion to overcome Charles, setting him on fire with alcohol. Diane's boyfriend and his father decide not to hold her former employment against her, while Alex declines a job offer from the sheriff, having decided from the evening's events that he prefers a quieter life. A sort of overripe Jacqueline Bissett, Shannon Whirry has built a substantial following in a seemingly endless series of straight-to-video sexploitation features. If the title of this film doesn't seem to have much to do with the plot, maybe it can be understood as her attitude toward the nudie genre. So as a more "dramatic" actress, Whirry limits her fleshy exposure to a steamy love scene and one interrupted strip routine. The bare torso primarily displayed in EXIT belongs to male newcomer Joe Bucci, who spends a long stretch of the film tied like Samson to two dancers' poles. The symbolism is probably accidental, as the position seems to have been chosen because it provides maximum bicep distension. EXIT is a serviceable thriller whose main problem, aside from the usual limits of a low-budget feature, is that it has too much plot and too little development: many things happen, but few are particularly interesting. (Violence, nudity, sexual situations, profanity.)