Lust for Freedom

I saw this film on USA's Up All Night and it was like finding a priceless gem. It is a great film that everyone should see because it tells about the importance of freedom and how quickly it can be taken away from us. In the wake of 9/11 I think that is the most important message of all. A fine young actress named Melanie Coll stars as a policewoman who is framed and thrown into a hellhole prison and must fight to survive. She gives a really gutsy performance as the courageous young officer.

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.

Lust for Freedom lands squarely in the low-rent world of 1980s exploitation cinema, bathed in sleaze and saturated with the aesthetic of a late-night cable fever dream. It flirts with the rebellious tone of grindhouse prison flicks, but its attempts at empowerment feel shallow, almost accidental. There's a grimy atmosphere that lingers, not from tension or danger, but from a lack of polish. The cinematography veers between basic and barely functional, with flat lighting, jarring edits, and a handheld style that feels more like necessity than intention. The film never cultivates suspense or urgency; instead, it ambles from scene to scene with a kind of tired shrug.

Performances are exactly what you might expect from a cast assembled more for their willingness than their experience. Judi Trevor, in the lead role, delivers a performance that wobbles between wooden and wildly overdone. She tries to bring fire to her character's struggle, but too often it gets buried under stiff line readings and melodramatic reactions. However, Elizabeth Carlson manages to stand out, even in a supporting role. There's a raw energy in her delivery, a glint of self-awareness that suggests she understood the absurdity of the material and leaned into it just enough to make her scenes feel alive.

Despite its efforts to frame a story of resistance against systemic abuse, the film never quite transcends its base instincts. It wants to be angry, even revolutionary, but can't stop ogling its own characters long enough to build real substance. The prison setting lacks grit or believability; it feels more like a set dressed with props from a discount surplus store. The soundtrack doesn't help either, often clashing with the tone or simply feeling out of place.

What Lust for Freedom does capture, if accidentally, is a kind of cultural snapshot. There's a chaotic energy, a sleazy optimism, that could only exist in a very specific kind of 1987. But that's not quite enough to save it from its own misfires.

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.

"Lust for Freedom" is a pretty typical entry in the familiar "Women In Prison" genre from Troma films, and considering the often outrageous and overtly campy nature of many Troma productions, this is actually played rather straight most of the time. That's not to say that it's not without its cheesy charms, of course. Most of the villains *are* overplayed. However, co- writer / director Eric Louzil ("Class of Nuke 'Em High" Parts 2 and 3), making his directing debut, handles things in a surprisingly tame fashion at first: it's a half hour into the story before we get our first shower scene, and he actually makes the viewer until the thing is half over before he starts treating us to more truly exploitative moments, with many appreciable leering shots of the female anatomy. There's also a sufficient amount of gore in the more violent moments.

Gorgeous and sexy Melanie Coll, who somewhat resembles Virginia Madsen, stars as Gillian Kaites, an undercover detective who loses her partner / fiancée in a sting gone bad. Needing a breather, she heads for the hills, only to fall prey to a very crooked ring of corrections officers who abduct mostly innocent young women and keep them prisoner. Gillian doesn't care much about anything since the loss of her beloved, but after witnessing enough depravity towards her fellow inmates, she's motivated to start kicking ass.

In general, "Lust for Freedom" just might not be sleazy or grimy enough to suit the tastes of some trash fans watching. Its script is largely of the routine variety, and Louzils' pacing is a little sluggish, but there's adequate entertainment in eyeing the assorted attractive female cast members. As was said, some of the performances are pretty unsubtle: Judi Trevor as hostile matron Ms. Pusker, Howard Knight as cheerful warden / judge Maxwell. Elizabeth Carlisle is a hoot as tough gal inmate Vicky, as is the towering Dee Booher as thuggish con Big Eddie. John Tallman is likewise fun as the creepy Jud, Elizabeth Carroll is appealing as the innocent Sharon, and William J. Kulzer is very effective in a low key turn as the morally compromised but not completely villainous sheriff; Kulzer also worked behind the scenes, functioning as stunt co-ordinator, associate producer, and special effects creator. Coll is decent in the lead.

If you're an addict of this sort of entertainment, you may be reasonably amused by this one.

Seven out of 10.