Director Tom DeSimone had already directed two women in prison films starring Pam Grier, and so he had experience in that genre. This deals with juvenile girls (some of whom look like they've been around the block more times and the good humor man) and features a ruthless warden (Sybil Dang) and an even more evil matron (Pat Ast), as well as a bunch of very masculine female guards who are rather too attentive during shower scenes. The new fish enter the scene with a few experienced sharks, and immediately clash with the bigger barracudas on campus.
Obviously Ast is spoofing Hope Emerson in "Caged", and while she's funny, her acting style is straight out of early John Waters. In fact, this film is almost like an early John Waters film without Waters even having been involved, and it's missing the tasteless intentional comedy of actors like Divine, Edith Massey and Mink Stole. Ast, with her face on the poster, gets the best material, but she's trying to chew up scenery that can't be swallowed.
As for the other actresses, they are just downright dreadful, but then again, outside of few of them in those Pam Grier movies, so was that cast. I'd rather watch the films that this is spoofing because after a while, it becomes completely grating to just be forced to accept the caterwauling of these not quite young women as acting when even braying seems subtle. Charlotte McGinnis as a psychiatrist is completely out of place because she seems to be the only one taking the part seriously and not trying to get laughs when there aren't any. Worth a one-time watch as a curio, but nothing else. When the camp in the original movies is so good, a parody of it just seems unnecessary.
Obviously Ast is spoofing Hope Emerson in "Caged", and while she's funny, her acting style is straight out of early John Waters. In fact, this film is almost like an early John Waters film without Waters even having been involved, and it's missing the tasteless intentional comedy of actors like Divine, Edith Massey and Mink Stole. Ast, with her face on the poster, gets the best material, but she's trying to chew up scenery that can't be swallowed.
As for the other actresses, they are just downright dreadful, but then again, outside of few of them in those Pam Grier movies, so was that cast. I'd rather watch the films that this is spoofing because after a while, it becomes completely grating to just be forced to accept the caterwauling of these not quite young women as acting when even braying seems subtle. Charlotte McGinnis as a psychiatrist is completely out of place because she seems to be the only one taking the part seriously and not trying to get laughs when there aren't any. Worth a one-time watch as a curio, but nothing else. When the camp in the original movies is so good, a parody of it just seems unnecessary.