Chained Heat (1983)
* 1/2 (out of 4)
Ten years after becoming a star with THE EXORCIST, Linda Blair got top billing for this women-in-prison flick. In the film she plays a sweet young woman who commits a crime and has to spend a year and a half in prison. This prison is full of wicked women, crazy guards and a perverted warden (John Vernon). In terms of American WIP films this one here goes pretty far out but it still can't hold a candle to the various Euro films like Jess Franco's BARBED WIRE DOLLS, SADOMANIA or even any of the ILSA movies. With that said, there's a certain amount of charm that comes with seeing Blair and Vernon doing a movie like this but that's not enough to keep this thing moving throughout the running time. The biggest problem is that the film itself doesn't know what it wants to be. The film starts off extremely corny with all sorts of silly fights, girls cussing at one another and even a shower scene, which is a must for this type of movie. The word exploitation is all over the picture but around the half way mark the film takes a more serious note as it tries to tackle the corruption going on inside the prison. Blair gives a fairly good performance but she has several crying scenes where you can't help but feel bad for her and this isn't the type of feelings that need to be in a WIP film. We really don't need these type of dramatics when the film sets out to be exploitation. Vernon was a real hoot in his pervert role and you can obviously tell that he is enjoying his character and the hot tub he has in the office to sleep with the female prisoners. For fans of filth there's still enough here to enjoy, although it certainly falls into the "so bad it's good" league. Blair's shower sequence has become rather legendary in terms of exploitation over the years but it was somewhat of a letdown.
