Chained Heat (1983) Jensen Farley/Action RT: 88 minutes Rated R (language, violence, rape, full frontal nudity, sex, drug use, racial comments) Director: Paul Nicolas Screenplay: Aaron Butler (Vincent Mongol) and Paul Nicolas Music: Joseph Conlan Cinematography: Mac Ahlberg Release date: May 27, 1983 (US) Cast: Linda Blair, John Vernon, Sybil Danning, Tamara Dobson, Stella Stevens, Henry Silva, Sharon Hughes, Susan Mechner, Greta Blackburn, Robert Miano, Edy Williams, Jennifer Ashley, Kendal Kaldwell, Dee Biederbeck, Leila Chrystie, Jody Medford, Louisa Moritz, Nita Talbot, Michael Callan, Mae Campbell, Monique Gabrielle, Carol White, Irwin Keyes. Box Office: $6.1M (US)
Rating: *** ½
Yes, I freely admit it. I like women’s prison movies. They’re an integral part of exploitation cinema. Titles like The Big Doll House (and the sequel The Big Bird Cage), Black Mama, White Mama and Caged Heat are classics of the subgenre. Chained Heat is the mother of all women’s prison movies! Check out the awesome cast- Linda Blair (Savage Streets), John Vernon (Animal House), Sybil Danning (Howling II: Your Sister Is a Werewolf), Tamara Dobson (Cleopatra Jones), Stella Stevens (The Poseidon Adventure), Henry Silva (Sharky’s Machine), Louisa Moritz (Death Race 2000), Nita Talbot (Frightmare), Monique Gabrielle (Deathstalker II), Carol Ita White (The Concrete Jungle) and Irwin Keyes (The Exterminator). Chained Heat also includes all the usual elements of the subgenre- fights, lesbianism, nudity, a shower scene, corrupt guards, perverted warden, drugs, prostitution, rape, racial tensions and a riot. It’s a lot of fun (provided you like this kind of movie).
Carol Henderson (Blair), sentenced to 18 months for a fatal hit-and-run, is new to the penal system. I’m guessing she’s never seen any of the above mentioned movies either as she’s constantly surprised by the sleazy goings-on in her new digs. Just moments after being processed, she witnesses a racially motivated attack and gets accosted by queen bee prisoner Ericka (Danning). The warden (Vernon) has a hot tub in his office and gets off on taping his sexual encounters with inmates. The warden’s assistant, Captain Taylor (Stevens), and an accomplice (Silva) smuggle drugs in and inmates out for purposes of prostitution. Racial tensions get worse after the attack. Black queen bee Duchess (Dobson) demands to know who started it. Taylor wants the warden’s job and she’ll do anything to achieve this goal. That, of course, includes murder. When things go too far, the inmates band together to bring down the corrupt administration. This entails getting an incriminating videotape to law enforcement officials investigating the facility.
Unfortunately, the only version of Chained Heat available on DVD is a censored version with a lot of the violence and nudity cut out. Seriously? Where’s the fun in that? I didn’t know this until after I watched it this past weekend. I knew something was off. I remember it being more graphic when I saw it on video in November ’85. I wanted to see it at the movies, but it was a parental OMDB (Over My Dead Body) title so I had to content myself with seeing Flashdance instead. In any event, I now have a new mission in life; to find an uncensored copy of Chained Heat.
Even though it’s cut, I still got a lot of enjoyment out of Chained Heat. The cast is a virtual who’s who of B-movies. Blair is awesome as the naïve young prisoner who finds her inner bad ass. Vernon makes a great sleazy villain. Danning is smoking HOT! Dobson (in her final theatrical feature) is totally bad ass. One of my favorite character actresses, Carole Ita White (listed in the credits as Carol White), plays Spider, a lesbian inmate with a violent streak. Although her part is small, she definitely stands out. I love seeing her in exploitation flicks. The late Irwin Keyes shows up briefly as Silva’s character’s driver. I could go on and on about the cast of Chained Heat. It’s pure coolness.
The storyline isn’t all that different from other WIP movies. The situations and character types are pretty much the same. It’s fairly well-made. I think it’s great! Great in terms of trash cinema, that is. Chained Heat is most definitely trashy. It’s also sleazy, violent and perverted. It’s pure camp! That’s what I love about it. It doesn’t even try and pretend it’s anything else. Director Paul Nicolas (The Naked Cage) understands what fans of the subgenre expect and gives it to them. It isn’t art in the traditional sense of the word; it’s its own kind of art. It’s a lot of fun too. If you like such movies, you should definitely check it out.
