Human Experiments

nice movie 🍿

source: Human Experiments

This is basically a Woman in prison flick mixed with a Mad Scientist flick. Call it a WIPWMS flick then. A country singer (The lovely Linda Haynes) meets a child that just killed his family. So she shoots him in self-defense. However the sheriff (Jackie Coogan???) Frames her and sends her to prison. They do it differently in this prison. The inmates are nothing more that fodder for a bunch of twisted experiments. Geoff Lewis hams it up as the local Dr. Frankenstein wannabe. And John Travolta's sis Ellen also appears. Ms. Haynes was not afraid to do nudity but why they dubbed a singing voice I'll never understand. Especially since the voice was crap. The best scenes were the nightmare/hallucinations becoming reality. You have to wait for 2/3 of the film to get to it though. And I wonder how many punk clubs tried to book Satan and the Lucifers after seeing this. Otherwise....it's all been done better. Watch for Aldo Ray as a slimy barman in an early scene.

For those expecting wild and raunchy exploitation goodness, Human Experiments will come up short. It's nowhere near as memorable as other woman-in-prison films and it doesn't quite pack a punch in the horror/suspense department either.

Going into this, I guess I was expecting "Human Experiments" to be a little more of a 'sleazy' WIP exploiter, but it turned out to be more along the lines of a standard horror/thriller flick. Could've still been fine but unfortunately it wasn't... Passing through a hick sh*thole town, a struggling singer winds up in a car wreck and, while searching for a phone to call for help, comes across the grisly remains of a murdered family that she is subsequently blamed for and sentenced to life. While locked away in a prison/loony bin, she comes to find that some suspicious sh*t is going on with the resident head-shrinker who happens to be conducting experiments on the female inmates' psyches as a way to rehabilitate/brainwash them. There's really nothing "graphic" or interesting to speak of as to this movie. It's slow, shoddily written, contains a few off-screen deaths and an extremely anticlimactic ending. Nudity and sexual material is also drastically minimal. In all, "Human Experiments" seemed like a film with a premise that those involved had no idea how to properly execute. It fails as a horror flick and DEFINITELY fails as a WIP movie. Check out "Ilsa" "Sadomania" or "Last Orgy of the Third Reich" instead. More horror/exploitation reviews at http://swinesewage.blogspot.com/

HUMAN EXPERIMENTS (1979) is another one of those low budget American B-movies that somewhat randomly made the UK's "video nasties" list; a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, I guess. There's certainly nothing particularly explicit about the plot or any of the content here. The set-up is the usual women-in-prison story in which an innocent woman (Linda Haynes) finds herself set up by a corrupt justice system and sent to a women's prison presided over by the sinister Geoffrey Lewis, an armchair expert in human psychology who enjoys conducting mind-control experiments on his inmates. It's a slow and scuzzy affair, packed with nudity but without much in the gore department; there's a scene of a woman being covered in insects but that's about as horrifying as it gets. Haynes gives it her all in the lead and Lewis typically impresses as the villain of the piece, but this is one of those films that just plods along aimlessly until the (twist) ending thankfully rolls.

Struggling country singer Rachel Foster (an excellent and appealing performance by the lovely Linda Haynes) gets arrested on a trumped-up murder charge and sent to a harsh correctional facility where evil psychiatrist Dr. Hans R. Kline (well played with subtly sinister menace by Geoffrey Lewis) conducts mind-altering experiments on the inmates. Director Gregory Goodell relates the engrossing story at a steady pace, grounds the absorbing premise in a plausibly sordid everyday reality, adroitly crafts a low-key, yet creepy, sleazy, and oppressive atmosphere, takes a cool and surprising detour into grim horror territory in the last third, and delivers a satisfying smattering of tasty gratuitous female nudity. Haynes makes for a strong and sympathetic damsel in distress. Moreover, there are sturdy supporting contributions from Ellen Travolta as the compassionate Mover, Lurene Tuttle as crazy old bat Granny, Mercedes Shirley as the ineffectual Warden Weber, Marie O'Henry as the sassy Tanya, and Cherie Franklin as a hard-nosed guard. Popping up in small, yet memorable roles are Aldo Ray as lecherous bar owner Mat Tibbs, Jackie Coogan as the corrupt Sheriff Tibbs, and Bobby Porter as deadly psycho kid Derril Willis. Richard Rothstein's compact script offers a nice mix of horror and exploitation elements. The slick cinematography by Joao Fernandes gives this picture a pleasing polished look. Mark Bucci's shivery score hits the shuddery spot. Well worth a watch.

Rachel Foster (Linda Haynes) is a country singer making her way through the United States who gets caught in the clutches of bar owner Mat Tibbs (Aldo Ray, paging Bill Van Ryn). As she hurries to escape, she wrecks her car and walks into a murder scene that she gets blamed for by Tibbs' brother, the town's sherriff (Jackie Coogan). If this was any other decade than the 70s, this would be the story of her escape. But nope, the 70s were nothing if not relentlessly downbeat. And scummy. Which is kind of what you expect when a movie ends up being a section 2 video nasty. Geoffrey Lewis excels at playing Dr. Kline, the villain of all the many villains in this film. Director Gregory Goodell moved on to make TV movies after this which makes perfect sense. Sadly, Haynes quit acting and didn't resurface until Quentin Tarantino started looking for her.

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) * 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.

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?