Human Experiments (1979)

Memorable, crazy movie

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Struggling country singer Rachel Foster (an excellent and appealing performance by the lovely Linda Haynes) gets arrested on a trumped-up murder charge and sent to a harsh correctional facility where evil psychiatrist Dr. Hans R. Kline (well played with subtly sinister menace by Geoffrey Lewis) conducts mind-altering experiments on the inmates. Director Gregory Goodell relates the engrossing story at a steady pace, grounds the absorbing premise in a plausibly sordid everyday reality, adroitly crafts a low-key, yet creepy, sleazy, and oppressive atmosphere, takes a cool and surprising detour into grim horror territory in the last third, and delivers a satisfying smattering of tasty gratuitous female nudity. Haynes makes for a strong and sympathetic damsel in distress. Moreover, there are sturdy supporting contributions from Ellen Travolta as the compassionate Mover, Lurene Tuttle as crazy old bat Granny, Mercedes Shirley as the ineffectual Warden Weber, Marie O'Henry as the sassy Tanya, and Cherie Franklin as a hard-nosed guard. Popping up in small, yet memorable roles are Aldo Ray as lecherous bar owner Mat Tibbs, Jackie Coogan as the corrupt Sheriff Tibbs, and Bobby Porter as deadly psycho kid Derril Willis. Richard Rothstein's compact script offers a nice mix of horror and exploitation elements. The slick cinematography by Joao Fernandes gives this picture a pleasing polished look. Mark Bucci's shivery score hits the shuddery spot. Well worth a watch.

Anyone who has waded through the infamous video nasty list will no doubt come to the conclusion that an alarming number of the films really have little to no shock content whatsoever. Human Experiments is a perfect example of this. It's really extremely difficult working out what exactly it was that the British censors objected to here. Maybe they just chucked every woman in prison flick onto the list irrespective of substance? Hard to say but there truly is no troubling content in this film. And that is a real shame because there isn't an awful lot in this film of any real interest. Its video nasty status is clearly its only real selling point so you may feel a little short changed with this one.Its story has a female country and western singer wrongly accused of slaughtering a family and sent to a correctional facility where she is subjected to experimental aversion therapy techniques.It starts quite well but once we reach the prison things start to become really quite uneventful. For a woman in prison flick there is a very low level of sexploitation content. The 'human experiments' of the title are somewhat underwhelming to say the least. The main shock scene is certainly the part where the heroine is covered in insects and spiders. I personally found that somewhat disturbing so fair enough on that score. This scene comes late in the movie and it does have to be said that in the latter 20 minutes or so things do pick up a bit. Better late than never I suppose. It ends with a strange and senseless ending. In the final analysis, this isn't very good but it's offbeat enough to bring it up to the level of mediocre.

This is basically a Woman in prison flick mixed with a Mad Scientist flick. Call it a WIPWMS flick then.A country singer (The lovely Linda Haynes) meets a child that just killed his family. So she shoots him in self-defense. However the sheriff (Jackie Coogan???) Frames her and sends her to prison.They do it differently in this prison. The inmates are nothing more that fodder for a bunch of twisted experiments. Geoff Lewis hams it up as the local Dr. Frankenstein wannabe. And John Travolta's sis Ellen also appears. Ms. Haynes was not afraid to do nudity but why they dubbed a singing voice I'll never understand. Especially since the voice was crap.The best scenes were the nightmare/hallucinations becoming reality. You have to wait for 2/3 of the film to get to it though. And I wonder how many punk clubs tried to book Satan and the Lucifers after seeing this. Otherwise....it's all been done better. Watch for Aldo Ray as a slimy barman in an early scene.

I like hardcore horror, but this banned film (sometimes marketed as a women in prison movie) is not very interesting and may be Scientologist propaganda.Shocker scenes include the discovery of a massacred family and the full frontal nude spraying of inmates. Otherwise I found little of interest other than a scene involving the bloody and semi-topless lead covered in real live bugs, many of which were huge and bizarre.Is the main character being psychologically tormented by an evil doctor or is she seeing things that are not there? I didn't really care, but it's all resolved at the end. Quite a far fetched and annoying end at that.