I hate porn-parodies as a genre, as they have become the last refuge of a porn scoundrel (pretending to be carrying on a tradition of story/characters-driven Adult Cinema when in fact merely stealing intellectual property). But well before the genre was discredited it was normal for pornographers to use mainstream entertainment for inspiration, as is well-demonstrated by this intelligent Paul Vatelli video.
I watched it on a Caballero DVD, titled in the packaging as "Erotic Zones The Movie", but IMDb lists that title for other releases in the series, so buyer beware.
The three vignettes, narrated by a voice imitating Rod Serling's famous style of enunciation, are all both sexy and interesting, even pulling at the heart strings -certainly a rare event in porn. And the acting performances are notably effective.
Billy Dee is moving portraying a janitor at a wax museum, who feels deeply for the figures he watches over, a far cry from the latter-day Ben Stiller comedic approach. His favorite, Cleopatra (played by the Black superstar of the era Jeanie Pepper) comes to life and they have sex after hours, leading to a fantasy ending that mirrors those one has seen on the real "Twilight Zone".
Paul Thomas's segment dealing with computer-generated dream girls has an added charm of those old-fashioned screens one sees on the recent "Halt and Catch Fire" series about the birth of the PC.
Remaining episode is more conventional, but works thanks to the performance of porn character actor Nick Random, bringing a stereotypical rich sugardaddy character to life. It also incorporates a pathos Serling would have appreciated.
