Lust for Freedom

I also caught this on USA "Up All Night" a few years ago. My friend and I stayed awake until 3 AM just to finish it. It was too ridiculous to ignore! I also couldn't believe people actually spent money to make this film.

"Lust For Freedom" is the type of movie you watch with your buddies when you're all looking for a few thrills and a bunch of laughs. There is gratuitous violence. There are performances worse than what you see in a soap opera. There are scantily-clad women running around, fussin' and fightin' as they try to escape some slavery ring. If you're on the hunt for MINDLESS ENTERTAINMENT, "Lust For Freedom" is just what the doctor ordered. If you're looking for something even marginally intelligent, don't bother.

Well, let me say that this Troma feature is unlike everything I have seen, an a-typical Troma. This is actually meant to be a lot more serious that the average Troma, and it works fine as a decent semi-exploitation film. I am a fan of Troma films but not really an exploitation enthousiast. The acting is pretty decent. Humorous moments are not a lot, actually they are quite a few. There is some nudity (after all you 're watching a woman-in-prison film...) and a generous amount of violence and sadism. I don't really recommend you to watch it expecting much fun, and if you are looking for casual Troma weirdness & fun, you won't find too much.

Exploitation / woman-in-prison flick enthousiasts , this is a must to discover!!!! You are sure to enjoy it much more than I did.

There may be messages here about the importance of freedom, but they were lost amid guffaws prompted by the abysmal quality of this movie. The screenplay was awful, the acting for the most part dreadful, the editing appalling.

Melanie Coll is marginally better than most in the film, but hers is hardly a sparkling performance. Many of the rest of the cast appear to be enthusiastic amateurs.

It appears that the censors have forced cuts to the version put on to DVD in the UK in 2004, probably because of excessive violence. But the cuts were made with sheep shears rather than anything sharper, so the viewer is left wondering how the action has moved on so quickly and inexplicably.

Don't waste 90 minutes of your life on this garbage.

My review was written in May 1987 after a Cannes Film Festival Market screening.

"Lust for Freedom" is a sexploitation mishmash, the result of Troma acquiring an unreleased feature entitled "Georgia County Lock-Up" and fiddling with it, somewhat in the manner (though less extreme) of Woody Allen's Japanese dub job "What's Up, Tiger Lily?". Result is difficult to endure, though probably better than a straight version would have been.

Reason for this is that producer-director Eric Louzil delivered utterly listless footage, a mechanical and boring run-through of women's prison film cliches. At least the Troma dubbed-in asides, grunts, wisecracks and dumb narration fill in a few of the dead spots.

Melanie Coll portrays an undercover agent for the government who is aimlessly driving through Georgia County (supposedly located near the California border with Mexico and filmed in Ely, Nevada), when he is detained by the sheriff (William J. Kulzer), who escorts her to the women's correctional facility. It turns out this lawless county, under the auspices of dirty old man Warren Maxwell (Howard Knight), grabs women passing through, incarcerates them and sells them as part of a white slavery scam.

Premise is simply an excuse for softcore sex scenes, ranging from 1960s soft porn-style whipping scenes and rape to a sensual lesbo coupling featuring familiar sex stars Crystal Breeze and Michelle Bauer. Deana Booher, known for her tv appearances on Roller Derby and the female wrestling show "GLOW", plays a huge thug who wrestles uppity prisoners to their death.

Drab, ugly visuals make the picture appear to be 20 years older than it is, as does the content. Acting is so bad it's funny at times without the soundtrack prompting.

This Troma Women In Prison film ticks all of the genre boxes and then some. It takes a while to get going, kicking into gear at about the half-hour mark with the obligatory shower scene, after which it's non-stop trash and sleaze all the way, making it hugely entertaining for fans of exploitation cinema.

Melanie Coll stars as Gillian Kaites, a former undercover cop who is framed by a corrupt sheriff, finding herself thrown behind bars at a women's correctional facility where the warden and staff use the inmates for their own perverted pleasures and to line their pockets.

Here's a quick rundown of some of the delights on offer…

Catfights, including a no-holds-barred wrestling match to the death.

Full frontal nudity, most notably from '80s scream queen Michelle Bauer.

A flogging/lesbian sex/rape montage, set to a heavy rock song.

Seedy warden Maxwell (Howard Knight) making snuff movies.

Scar-faced psycho Indian Jud (John Tallman) forcing himself upon innocent inmate Sharon (Elizabeth Carroll).

Elderly white slaver Doc Bass (George Engelson) leering over 17-year-old hottie Holly (Terri Beck).

Jud killing a couple on the highway, setting fire to the man and forcing the woman to crash her car (which explodes).

A violent breakout in which Gillian blasts the deserving guards and warden with a machine gun (resulting in lots of blood!).

High art it most certainly isn't, but for those with a taste for the outrageous, Lust For Freedom is well worth tracking down. I rate it 7.5 out of 10, rounded up to 8 for IMDb.