The still cute as a button Linda Blair entered the pleasingly sleazy portion of her career with this well regarded 1980's classic in the Women-In-Prison genre. Linda plays Carol Henderson, a basically innocent young woman who'd accidentally killed a man with her car and is sent to prison for 18 months. Well, this particular prison is just brimming with corruption; the prisoners and staff alike are lowlifes. Although it's a guarantee it's been mentioned countless times already, an indicator of how depraved everybody is would be the fact that the genial creep of a warden (John Vernon) has a hot tub in his office, and likes to videotape his dalliances with the prisoners. Director / writer Paul Nicholas and writer Aaron Butler go down the list of W.I.P. requirements quite sufficiently. Our cast is full of damn sexy ladies, and there's a generous dose of full frontal nudity from some players and breast shots at the least from others. We get some steamy heterosexual and lesbian sex scenes, and some notably harsh violence (including rape) and gore. The cast reads like a virtual Who's Who of cult stars and other familiar faces - blonde goddess Sybil Danning and striking Tamara Dobson play rival gang leaders, Nita Talbot a hard nosed investigator, Stella Stevens the crooked captain of the guards, and a hilarious (not surprisingly) Henry Silva her partner in crime. Also appearing are Sharon Hughes (the inspiration for Prince's song "Little Red Corvette"), Kendal Kaldwell, Robert Miano, Dee Biederbeck, Greta Blackburn, Jennifer Ashley, Jody Medford, Monique Gabrielle, Edy Williams, Marcia Karr, Carole Ita White, Susan Meschner, Michael Callan, Jonna Lee, and Irwin Keyes. (Trivia notes: several of the actors here had already appeared in another W.I.P. favourite, "The Concrete Jungle", and Vernon's daughter Kate made her film debut with "Chained Heat" as one of the unnamed extra inmates! Nothing like keeping it in the family.) All of these people are a joy to watch, especially Linda, endearing as ever, Danning, Dobson, Stevens, Vernon, and Silva. Miano excels in his part as the lecherous guard Stone. It's particularly fun to see the ever delightful Louisa Moritz in a special appearance as TV addict Bubbles. Joseph Conlan's catchy music is a nice accompaniment to the various trashy goings-on, and prolific and reliable cinematographer Mac Ahlberg, whose name you'll see in the credits of a number of 80's genre efforts, gives the movie a slick look. An absolute must for any trash lover, "Chained Heat" is great entertainment all the way. Followed by "Chained Heat II" a decade later. Eight out of 10.
Review of Chained Heat
