BA_Harrison 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) masturbation 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.

udar55 Country singer Rachel Foster (Linda Haynes) is undoubtedly the unluckiest person alive as she stumbles upon a young kid who has just slaughtered his family. She shoots the kid (he goes into a coma), resulting in a life sentence after the crooked Sheriff pins all the murders on her. But this is no ordinary prison as the Warden (Mercedes Shirley) and Dr. Kline (Geoffrey Lewis) are conducting bizarre behavioral experiments on their charges. My Aldo Ray mini-marathon continues with this sleazy exploitation flick. Ray pops up in the first 15 minutes as a lecherous bar owner who tries to get it on with our lead. There are some memorable bits in this and, on a whole, it is a pretty solid WIP entry with a few nice twists. Lewis does a great job as the creepy doctor and their is a nice supporting role from Ellen Travolta. Haynes is an attractive lead and isn't afraid to deliver the genre required nudity. The only odd thing is the filmmakers having her sing to terrible vocals supplied by someone else. The film's oddity highlight though is the Warden booking the band Satan & The Lucifers to perform for her inmates. Director Gregory Goodell excels in the film's last third where Foster's nightmares come to life to haunt her. Sadly, he went on to Lifetime movies exclusively after this.

tvsgael2-2 The most gnawing thing about this movie is the incredible rock band that plays for the inmates, yet they seem to have never existed beyond the movie. When trying to track the band members, one only gets dead ends, yet they sound like a fusion of the old Journey with a little r& b thrown in. Lounge act they are not, and had to have worked at getting this gig together for the movie. Maybe when this DVD comes out, we will finally get the lowdown on who they were, and if they ever did produce an album. This isn't a spoiler, it's a teaser. There is a wealth of character actor talent here that is both campy and serious in dialog. Linda Haynes is the perfect victim who doesn't give up until the very end, which is quite interesting and ties into the beginning in a bizarre way.

The_Void I'd heard nothing but bad things about this film prior to seeing it, but yet I still went ahead and watched it purely because it was one of the films banned by the DPP back in the early eighties. Judging by the title, I was expecting this film to have been banned for scenes ghoulish experimentation, but it would seem more likely the DPP opted to take it out of circulation simply to spare film viewers from its inherent boredom. Apparently, Human Experiments is a 'women in prison' flick, but instead of ritual torture and nudity, all we have is a film where absolutely nothing at all happens. Human Experiments is by far one of the most tiresome movies I've ever had the displeasure of watching, and honestly; the only good thing I have to say about the film is that at least it only lasts about eighty minutes. They are eighty very long minutes, however, and unless you've decided to see everything on the Video Nasty list as I have, there is absolutely no reason to see this film. For once, I agree with the censors - this movie really shouldn't be viewed by anyone!