Jailbait (2014)

Anna Nix is sent to a juvenile prison for the murder of her abusive stepfather. In the prison, she discovers relationships, drugs, complex mental illness, and her eventual search for redemption.

Director:

Jared Cohn

Writer:

Jared Cohn (screenplay)

Stars:

Sara Malakul Lane, Erin O'Brien, Steve Hanks

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Sara Malakul Lane	...	Anna Nix
Erin O'Brien	...	Kody
Steve Hanks	...	Frank Baragan
Andray Johnson	...	Correction Officer Brown
Jennifer Robyn Jacobs	...	Genie (as Jennifer Jacobs)
Samantha Cardona	...	Jane
Robert Sisko	...	Stepfather
Cynthia Dallas	...	Correctional Officer Linda Rays
Bill Devlin	...	Mr. Perillo
Marguerite Nocera	...	Dr. Xan
Barrett Perlman	...	Jo
Laura Alexandra Ramos	...	Camille
Christabel Rivero	...	Betty - Anna's Mother
Tammy Klein	...	Judge
David Brite	...	Mr. White

Storyline

A gritty coming of age thriller about a young girl sent to juvenile prison for the murder of her abusive stepfather. The film follows Anna Nix's journey into the dark world of an all girls jail where she discovers complex relationships, drugs, mental illness, and her eventual search for redemption.

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Plot Keywords:

prison | drugs | murder | shaved labia | rear entry sex | 

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Thriller

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Certificate:

TV-MA

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

18 February 2014 (USA)

Also Known As:

17 & Life: Jailbait

Filming Locations:

Terminal Island, Wilmington, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Asylum, The, Broken Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

90 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Based on the graphic novel of the same name.

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Goofs

Anna gets a tattoo of the gang she hooks up with but later in the shower scene when she gets beat up by Killa Kelz, the tattoo is gone.

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Quotes

Judge: The defendant, Anna Nix, is hereby sentenced to four to nine years in a maximum security juvenile correctional facility.

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Soundtracks

Another Morning
Written by Erik Flores
Performed by Monstro Flora

User Reviews

Finally a new women-in-prison movie, and it's pretty good

Anna is a nice girl, a good student, plays the cello and is raped regularly by her old stepfather. Her mother pretends nothing is going on. One day when he again tries to rape her she pushes him away into a window, the pieces sever his carotid and he dies.

Anna ends up in jail. Her cellmate is also nice and just keeps to herself reading books but develops a romantic interest in Anna. Anna attempts to mind her own business and not bother anyone which doesn't go well in jail. But she quickly catches the attention of Kody, the leader of one of the inmate groups. But Kody only has relatively good intentions when it comes to Anna. The leader of the rival group also notices Anna but she is only interested in beating her up.

Reluctantly Anna joins Kody's group as refuge. But they can't help her with the warden who seems fairly nice on the surface but quickly takes advantage of her. Kody introduces Anna to drugs but sticks only to smoking. Anna meanwhile keeps getting herself in trouble, rejects the help of Kody, ends up in solitary confinement repeatedly, and starts injecting hard drugs. Things quickly go downhill for Anna. She becomes addicted, ends up in a longer stint in solitary, tries to commit suicide, ends up in the psych ward, the warden continues to abuse her. To help her though he gives her a cello to practice for the talent show. Anna has a parole hearing coming up and the warden promises to put in a good for her if she continues doing him "favors." When the day arrives, of course, he doesn't keep his word which forces Anna to think of another way out.

I'm glad to see The Asylum going beyond wild sci fi movies and copies of Hollywood films and returning to its roots by trying something more original. Jailbait is a sexploitation movie of the women-in-prison variety, the kind no one makes anymore, which is why so many reviewers seem to be surprised. So yes, there's going to be nudity and sex. Imagine, the horror! Not to worry though, for some reason, the girls tend to cover their bodies quite a bit. And as a B- movie there's going to be production and acting issues. It's not like big studios would ever dare make a movie like this. The problems are the usual- weak acting by secondary characters, unpolished story, sound issues, odd sets, etc. A lot here seems episodic and repetitive.

But on to the positives. Sara Malukul Lane is gorgeous and so is Erin O'Brien. Sara's acting is a bit flat though but you do end up caring for her. Steve Hanks on the other hand is a great actor and you like him more than you should. Interesting that they didn't make his character just purely evil but also gave him a benevolent side. The story itself is good but the script needed a bit more work, and the main characters more depth.

I'm giving this movie a high score because it resurrects women-in-prison movies that have all but vanished. Perhaps The Asylum will also dare to make some day a movie of another pretty extinct kind- nunsploitation. Also commendable is the commitment by the actresses to their roles. Some of the stuff they go through couldn't have been easy. If you've never see a movie of this genre, check it out.