Arriving at a new prison, Carol Henderson, (Linda Blair) finds that the other inmates coming in with her, Val, (Sharon Hughes) Bubbles, (Louisa Moritz) and Blue Eyes, (Jody Medford) are out to protect her from Ericka, (Sybil Danning) Bobbi, (Dee Biederbeck) and Lulu, (Greta Blackburn) some of the tougher inmates. As they all get processed into the facility, they realize that Warden Bacman, (John Vernon) has big plans for them, since they are also in league with her to run a drug ring in the prison. As they spend more time in the prison, they all realize that a war within the prison’s inmates has them all in the palm of Captain Taylor, (Stella Stevens) who has plans on taking control of the prison. Not standing up for the deception, they revolt against the authorities to get better conditions for themselves and throw the corrupt heads in charge out of power.
The News: As far as Women-in-Prison films go, this one is a more classy version, for better or worse. Despite being a mainstream film, this one still features enough requirements of the genre to make it count. There’s the butch authority figure with the manly haircut and the constant cigar-chomping attitude, the women inside taken out to be sold as prostitutes, higher motives for those in charge and then the sleaze angles, featuring everything from the nudity to the sex and much more. There’s a requisite shower sequence that features a couple of full-frontal shots, the dominating one forcing the rookie to wash her down and more that are prerequisites of the style. Even the sex scenes are pretty sleazy, with the fact that they’re recording it and forcing others to watch or perform special moves which is where the sleaze comes in. From the interactions in the yard to the way the newbie is handled by the others all the way to the fight against the higher-ups, this one really plays well with the conventions of the genre, only doing them in a sanitary way without being too dirty or disgusting. The sanitation in here is perhaps the biggest flaw in the film, since it gets to be able to do all of that without going to the lengths the other ones have done, which is what made them fun. Going all the way and being as sleazy and disgusting as they were was what made the others work, but this one here goes around that and makes it too clean-feeling, ruining much of that and feeling too much like a high-brow attempt at making a genre entry, which doesn’t work at all. There’s also the sanitized deaths in here, with really lame kills that don’t have anything to offer up, with just about all of them being done in bloodless manners or hidden so that there’s nothing that can be seen when its done. It’s hard to get into the dirtiness of the film when everything is so clean and sanitized. Aside from these, there’s also some good points to this as well. The riot through the prison at the end is really great, with the fully impressive and full-on action that takes place. It’s a long series of brawls that culminate with some big action in here with a long battle that is perfectly needed to end the film on a great high. The other part that works is a rather tense chase through the catacombs early on, where an unseen force runs down an inmate through a darkened series of hallways, walkways and more, with some tense moments and a great send-off that makes it work. All of these, though, are mostly undone by the rather tame feeling it has.
The Final Verdict: A more upscale exploitation film that offers up what the genre has to offer without the sleaze, this doesn’t really reach the depths the best have to offer. If you want the option of seeing one with getting as offended with the other ones, give it a try but more adventurous exploitation fans have better options.
