Expérimentations humaines

Country music singer Rachel Foster is wrongfully accused for family mass murder.She ends up in a women's prison led by Warden and Dr.Kline.It seems that both of them are conducting bizarre psychological experiments on the inmates where they are mentally broken down and rebuilt with a totally new personality.Wonderfully hokey and very tame exploitation flick with fairly gruesome mass murder aftermath and a bit of graphic nudity.The ending is pretty stupid and there is mildly infamous scene of Linda Haynes covered in insects which probably was the main reason of putting "Human Experiments" on video nasties list.7 country singers out of 10.I must say that I enjoyed this absurd exploitation classick.Am I the only one?

Bar-room singer Rachel Foster (Linda Haynes) is wrongly convicted of murder and winds up in a correctional facility where mad Dr. Kline (Geoffrey Lewis) is conducting experiments on the prisoners.

Considering its lurid title, promisingly perverse premise and 'video nasty' label, I was expecting (or should that be 'hoping for') Human Experiments to be a sleazy slice of 'women in prison' depravity in the vein of fellow 'nasties' Women Behind Bars or Love Camp 7; instead, it turned out to be an extremely tame addition to the WIP genre, offering very little in the way of true deviancy, but plenty of the dull kind of drama that typifies your average made for TV movie of the era (unsurprisingy, writer/director Gregory Goodell would go on to make plenty of these!).

Apart from the typically indelicate induction routine suffered by all new prisoners in exploitation movie jails (stripped naked, showered and given the once over by a tough nurse), and a brief (non-explicit) masturbation scene, nothing particularly sexy or sordid happens in this prison, with a distinct lack of hot lesbian inmates, despicable male guards, or communal bathing. Dr. Kline's experiments also prove to be extremely disappointing: there's no electrodes on the nipples or surgery without anaesthetic, but rather a series of psychologically traumatising episodes designed to reduce the prisoner to a childlike state, after which they are to be rebuilt as model citizens.

If you don't like creepy crawlies, then the scene where Haynes is covered in cockroaches, spiders and other assorted bugs might prove cringe-worthy, and trash fans should find the delightfully silly (and rather unlikely) ending to be amusing, but in all honesty, this is one of the least offensive 'video nasties' on the entire list and only worth watching if you're intent on seeing all of the films vilified by the BBFC during the 80s.

3.5 out of 10, generously rounded up to 4 for a fun cameo from Aldo Ray as a lecherous bar-owner, and the brief full-frontal nudity from Ms. Haynes.

A women's prison doctor with a thing for creepy crawlies torments an innocent inmate. The main actors here all had careers beyond grindhouse, so the acting is better than most. I found the script unclear at points, and pointlessly interrupted three times by musical numbers, twice to showcase the leading lady's vocal skills--not bad, but out of place here--and somebody must have owed something to the band that plays a gratuitous concert for the ladies, apropos of nothing.. For a women's prison movie they certainly didn't take much advantage of the obvious opportunities for sexploitation. Prisoners are stripped, of course, but they all abide by the prohibition of physical interaction as barked to them by the matron over the loudspeaker. And it's even coitus interruptus alone as, just as our gal's about to stick her hand in her panties, it's lights on for a surprise rollcall. Talk about torture by deprivation! Add up the plus and minuses and you come up with something middling.

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.

Country singer Rachel Foster (Linda Haynes) is undoubtedly the unluckiest person alive as she stumbles upon a young kid who has just slaughtered his family. She shoots the kid (he goes into a coma), resulting in a life sentence after the crooked Sheriff pins all the murders on her. But this is no ordinary prison as the Warden (Mercedes Shirley) and Dr. Kline (Geoffrey Lewis) are conducting bizarre behavioral experiments on their charges. My Aldo Ray mini-marathon continues with this sleazy exploitation flick. Ray pops up in the first 15 minutes as a lecherous bar owner who tries to get it on with our lead. There are some memorable bits in this and, on a whole, it is a pretty solid WIP entry with a few nice twists. Lewis does a great job as the creepy doctor and their is a nice supporting role from Ellen Travolta. Haynes is an attractive lead and isn't afraid to deliver the genre required nudity. The only odd thing is the filmmakers having her sing to terrible vocals supplied by someone else. The film's oddity highlight though is the Warden booking the band Satan & The Lucifers to perform for her inmates. Director Gregory Goodell excels in the film's last third where Foster's nightmares come to life to haunt her. Sadly, he went on to Lifetime movies exclusively after this.