Human Experiments (1980)

Réalisateur:

Gregory Goodell

Scénaristes:

Gregory Goodell (story)
Richard Rothstein (writer)

Date de sortie:

26 septembre 1980 (Finland)

Genre:

Drame | Thriller

Intrigue:

A demented prison doctor performs gruesome shock therapy experiments on inmates.

Plot Keywords:

Prison | Doctor | Brainwashing | Country Singer | Patient

Récompenses:

1 win & 1 nomination

Avis des utilisateurs:

Not great perhaps, but neither boring nor "nasty"

Ensemble

Linda Haynes	...	Rachel Foster
Geoffrey Lewis	...	Doctor Kline
Ellen Travolta	...	Mover
Lurene Tuttle	...	Granny
Mercedes Shirley	...	Warden Weber
Darlene Craviotto	...	Rita
Marie O'Henry	...	Tanya
Wesley Marie Tackitt	...	Jimmy
Cherie Franklin	...	Cell Guard
Aldo Ray	...	Mat Tibbs
Jackie Coogan	...	Sheriff Tibbs
reste de la distribution par ordre alphabétique:
Stan Bohrman	...	Judge's voice (voice)
Teda Bracci	...	Inmate
Millicent Crisp	...	Laura
Maryanne Furman-Barrett	...	Martha
Gayle Gannes	...	Inmate
Jinaki	...	Nursery Guard
Phil Proctor	...	Prosecutor's voice (voice)
Ginny Siegel	...	Pong Game Inmate
Joyce Davis Smith	...	Warden's Secretary
Arthur King Williams	...	Lucifer
Roberta Jean Williams	...	Nurse #1

Autre(s) titre(s):

Beyond the Gate
Women in Prison (USA) (video title)

Durée:

82 min

Pays:

USA

Langue:

Anglais

Couleur:

Couleur

Rapport de forme:

1,85 : 1

Son:

Mono

Classification:

Australia:R | Finland:K-18 | UK:18 | USA:R | Iceland:(Banned) (original rating) | Iceland:16 (cut)

Anecdotes:

Although passed uncut for cinema by the BBFC the uncertified video appeared briefly on the UK list of video nasties in 1984. To date it has never been released since.

Connexions De Film:

Référencé sur Discovering 'Evil Dead' (2002) (V)

Not great perhaps, but neither boring nor "nasty"

This movie is most famous for having been banned in Britain during the "video nasty" scare of the early 80's. I can only suppose the idiots mistook it for a Nazi death camp exploitation flick, like the similarly titled "S.S. Experiment Camp", because it's really not all that shocking or offensive. 70's actress Linda Haynes plays a country singer. Haynes was very cute and sexy, but she was a TERRIBLE singer, which might explain why her character only gets booked by horny hicks at honky-tonk bars out in the middle of nowhere. While driving back from one of these gigs, her car breaks down. She goes to a farmhouse to use the phone, only to discover that a pre-teen boy living there has slaughtered his entire family with a shotgun. She shoots the homicidal tyke in self-defense and ends up being blamed for all the murders.

The movie for awhile turns into a rural WIP movie like "Jackson County Jail"--there is a "de-lousing" and shower scene, some aborted lesbianism, and a brief cat fight--but not as much as usual in a WIP film (gratefully, perhaps since all the other prisoners are generally unattractive). But this particular prison also has a bent psychiatric doctor played by Geoffrey Lewis (side-kick to Clint Eastwood and the father of Juliette Lewis). He has some crackpot therapy where he breaks the worst offenders down to the level of infants, where they're clutching teddy bears and sucking their thumbs, and then he tries to "rebuild" them as respectable citizens. So far, however, all his "experiments" have gone horribly awry.

The scenes of the prison authorities breaking the Hayne's characters will are pretty effective--the crackpot shrink is also a frustrated entomologist, so at one point they pour disgusting insects all over her, and they do other stuff like stage mock executions and try to convince her she's going insane. None of this rises much above the level of a TV movie though, and it hardly justifies this movie's "nasty" status. The image of grown women reduced to infantilism is kind of disturbing, but if this were a Jess Franco or European WIP film, they probably would have tried to make this sexy somehow, which would have been far more disturbing.

The ending is REALLY stupid, but I didn't find this movie boring generally speaking. And it certainly didn't deserve the "nasty" treatment it got from the British censors.