Les anges du mal 2

"Don't just stand there, bring me something to wipe my shoe."

I had never seen a "women in cages" movie prior to seeing this, so I really had no idea what to expect. Which is good, because no expectations could have prepared me for this, anyway. Reform School Girls is lurid, sordid, exploitative, pure cheese, and yes, even entertaining. If you can handle the absurdity of it all, anyway.

The plot is paper thin (Othello, this is not). A young woman gets sent to a reform school/youth prison after a botched bank robbery, and tangles with the corrupt warden and head matron, as well as a gang of vicious girls. That's basically it. And there's lots of underwear. 

Basically, you probably already know if you like these kinds of movies, or you're a newbie like me. If you're unfamiliar with the genre, aren't easily offended, and have a fondness for campy/tongue-in-cheek absurdity, I suggest you try this out for the sheer novelty of it. I'll be seeing a few more, just to see if they can possibly get even more over-the-top than Reform School Girls.

Reform School Girls' biggest problem is that the line between camp and serious drama appears to be very thin and it's hard to tell exactly what the creators had in mind when they made this. On one had, you have the over the top performance of Wendy O. Williams and Pat Ast, but there are also several unpleasant and sleazier aspects that aren't treated with the same campy, tongue in cheek quality.

It's still very entertaining at times, but it could use a slight trim here and there even at just 94 minutes. If you're in it for the nudity, you'll be happy.

Set in a correctional facility for young female offenders, Reform School Girls is technically a Women in Prison movie, but don't expect anything too sleazy ala the films of Jess Franco—as far as the genre goes, this mid 80s effort from seasoned trash director Tom DeSimone is one of the lighter examples, designed to be fun rather than offensive.

While it does deliver most of the standard WIP ingredients—cat-fights, communal shower scenes, bull dykes, fragile first-timers, and physical abuse—it's all done in knowingly camp fashion with tongue firmly in cheek. The big-breasted women saunter round their dorm in sexy lingerie, the nastier inmates and members of staff are grotesque caricatures, the dialogue is deliberately tasteless ('I thought I smelled fish'), and the plot is about as cheesy as it could get.

Let's face it, any film which sees a scantily clad Wendy O. Williams, lead singer of punk/rock group The Plasmatics, stood atop a speeding bus on a collision course with a sadistic, overweight, shotgun toting head matron called Edna (a memorable performance from Pat Ast) was never intended to be taken all that seriously.

This could be the greatest t&a movie of all time. It's the ultimate 80's women-in-prison movie. It's got loads of nudity, some very sick wardens (the awesome Sybil Danning), and Wendy O. Williams spending most of the film in a g-string! This is a low-budget exploitation film that delivers the goods. There was actually some pretty good acting in the film. If only i would have owned this film when i was 12! It's a fun and cheesy movie that gives you exactly what you'd want from a women-in-prison flick. The scene where Wendy O. Williams crashes a bus is a classic. 80's cheese and squeeze.I highly recommend doing a double feature with Hollywood chainsaw hookers...that'd be a fun night.

It's a WIP movie: Women in Prison. In this "Reform School" the girls night time gear consists of g-string panties, lingerie, high heels... basically sexy to a silly degree. This has all the clichés you want, with nudity, violence, girl fights, all that sort of stuff. Wendy O Williams was great as the ultra violent gang leader Charlie. She also did great work on the sound track.

We know this is a WIP cliché film and the purpose is titillation and all that sort of stuff, but it didn't really seem clear to me. A lot of the violence was pretty brutal for the sort of movie it was and many of the scenes are quite realistic, with realistic, emotional performances from some of the key actors, which is quite at odds with that "women in Prison" titillation theme, especially when you have inmates incongruously wearing high heels, thigh high stockings and g-strings to bed!

It seemed almost like a bizarre mash-up of two different films that'd been crudely rammed together: You have Wendy O Williams and her gang of ultra-sexy, violent, tough girls, and the huge lumpy, hilariously sadistic and over the top Pat Ast as "Eddie" doing their very best to make it a sort of Rocky Horror Show ridiculous soft core romp (which would have been marvellous), VS this other theme with the sympathetic characters Jenny, Lisa and Dr Norton where it's a serious look at abuse of power and the horrible toll abuse takes on its victims- almost as it they're going for Cool Hand Luke or Full Metal Jacket sort of stuff...

That made a weird mix that didn't really fit together well at all. It's as if the film makers were trying to be too smart for the material.