Reform School Girls (1986)

"Reform School Girls" is a deliciously exaggerated entry in the Women In Prison genre. It's all very campy material that the majority of the actors, to their credit, actually play quite straight. The winks start with the fact that its writer / director Tom DeSimone, had previously made another classic, "The Concrete Jungle". Here, DeSimone, cast, and crew clearly have a ball with the trashy 'n' flashy story. Linda Carol plays Jenny, a newcomer to a reform school named Pridemore Juvenile Facility, who mixes it up with both the overbearing head matron Edna (corpulent, big haired Pat Ast, who's an absolute riot) and swaggering top dog convict Charlie (punk rocker Wendy O. Williams, perfectly suited to the role). Also among the main cast is the B movie goddess Sybil Danning, adding to the in- joke tone of the movie seeing that she plays the ruthless warden here and had already played a convict in the earlier "Chained Heat". Ast, Williams, and Danning are a superb trio and make this fun to watch. Carol, by comparison, by playing a more or less decent person (although tough enough to try standing up to the antagonists), comes off as less entertaining. Ast delights in the over the top nature of Edna, setting a stuffed animal on fire and stomping the life out of a real one. DeSimone delivers enough shower scenes / nudity / sex, melodrama, and violence to keep fans content. The sometimes hilarious script features some choice and quotable dialogue. The soundtrack is absolutely kick ass, with Williams singing such ditties as the anthemic "It's My Life" and the title track. The supporting cast aren't slouches, either; Charlotte McGinnis is the concerned Dr. Norton, Sherri Stoner the young innocent Lisa, Denise Gordy the sassy Claudia, Laurie Schwartz the spunky Nicky, and two "Friday the 13th" franchise alumni, Tiffany Helm ("A New Beginning") and Darcy DeMoss ("Jason Lives") play Charlie's flunkies. The movie progresses agreeably through various sordid episodes before coming to a rousing conclusion. In any event, one element you have to appreciate about this sort of thing is the hotness factor of the inmates. It's not exactly boring at any moment, either. There are certainly no complaints from this viewer. Eight out of 10.

"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.

Cheesy 1980s women-in-prison flick. It's kind of fun. Very much modeled on 1950's seminal wip film Caged, this one stars Linda Carol as a good girl who gets caught up in her boyfriend's crime and gets sent to jail for it where she must deal with a violent lesbian gang (led by punk star Wendy O. Williams), a domineering warden (Sybil Danning) and a sadistic headmistress (Pat Ast). At first, the ridiculous lingerie that all the prisoners wear and all the shower scenes are amusing, but like most low budget schlock it starts to grow tiresome after a while. A couple of great sequences keep it from getting unwatchable, especially the one where Carol has sex with this incredibly ugly dude (who I think is actually supposed to be a stud) who is going to help her escape. Thankfully, the part where Ast discovers the inmates' pet kitten (as happens in Caged) is freaking hilarious, and everything from there to the way over-the-top climax is bad movie gold. I spent much of the movie wondering where the heck I'd seen supporting actress Sherri Stoner before. She looked so damned familiar. Apparently she was the live-action model for Ariel in The Little Mermaid (www.radix.net/~koalatek/sstoner.jpg)! She also voiced Slappy the Squirrel in Animaniacs!

Our fellow travellers at New World Pictures released many a b-classic in their day, such as 'Vamp', 'House', and 'Heathers' to name but a few, but with 'Reform School Girls' they really go all out. They've taken the old "women's prison" cliché and essentially perfected it with this parody-homage hybrid.Linda Carol plays Jenny, a hot teen shipped off by the state to a deteriorating (is there any other kind?) reform school, headed by Ilsa-like Warden Sutter (Sybil Danning) and watched over by the hilariously evil and over-the-top matron, Edna (Pat Ast), who does a terrific job making you absolutely despise her. A state-appointed psychologist (Charlotte McGinnis) becomes concerned by Edna's treatment of the girls, not to mention the occasional "suicide" this treatment produces. As the doctor struggles to get the ever-impotent state to step in, the girls take matters into their own hands and the film culminates in a violent, bloody, punk rock showdown between the broads and the guards.The cast is excellent. You have the usual prison inmate clichés (neccesary for any great women's prison flick) but the actresses are all top notch. Late-great Wendy O. Williams (of punk band The Plasmatics) is AWESOME as 'Charlie', the sadistic cellblock sister with her own gang (beautiful 'Friday the 13th' series alumns Tiffany Helm and Darcy DeMoss), but she is SO wired, SO bad-ass, SO insane, and SO rarely wearing much clothing, that she adds a whole new dimension to an otherwise predictable character. Not to mention the fact that, although she looks great, she's well past reform school age (don't suffer the delusion that this wasn't intentional).Also, Sherri Stoner creates a very sympathetic character as 'Lisa', a sweet, innocent, naive, but also traumatized and neurotic girl who's been shipped from place to place and suffers the most abuse from Edna. You can predict poor Lisa cracking pretty much from the opening credits, but director Tom DeSimone does a GREAT job of building it up and he doesn't cop out. Kitten and stuffed animal lovers beware.Some great 80's punk tracks fuel the reform school fights and riots. There are several shower sequences (and lotsa' boobies), some great b-movie humor, good cinematography and DeSimone keeps it all going at a quick pace... If you're not picking your jaw up off the floor after watching Wendy, in a rage, smash her face through the windshield of speeding truck, then climb onto the top of it to do a brief, spastic, punk rock grease dance, and THEN jump off before it hits its target, consult a physician immediately.Anyway, I give this a ten because not only is it a great, hella-entertaining film by itself, but I'd put it at the number one spot in the women's prison sub-genre (even though it TECHNICALLY does not take place in a women's prison).