Reform School Girls (1986)

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Sweet young innocent Jenny Williams (a perky and appealing performance by Linda Carol) finds herself incarcerated at a harsh juvenile detention facility where she runs afoul of both the vicious staff and predatory inmates alike. Writer/director Tom DeSimone relates the entertainingly trashy story at a zippy pace, maintains a perfectly campy and over-the-top tongue-in-cheek tone throughout, and makes the most out of the blithely outrageous lowbrow humor by providing a wealth of hilarious lines and suitably grotesque caricatures. Moreover, it's acted with gusto by the enthusiastic cast: Legendary punk rocker Wendy O. Williams makes a strong impression with her sensationally snarly portrayal of formidable top con Charlie Chambliss, Pat Ast deliciously hams it up as monstrous head matron Edna, and Sybil Danning has a ball as the strict bible-quoting Warden Sutter, plus there are sturdy contributions from Sherri Stoner as timid and fragile teen runaway Lisa, Charlotte McGinnis as the compassionate Dr. Norton, Tiffany Helm as mean flunky Andrea 'Fish' Eldridge, Laurie Schwartz as the sarcastic Nicky, and Darcy DeMoss as the sassy Karen 'Knox' Charmin. Better still, DeSimone ably covers all the pleasingly sleazy babes-behind-bars bases: Tasty gratuitous female nudity, ferocious catfights, a sizzling group shower set piece (look fast for an uncredited Michelle Bauer in said shower scene), hot gals slinking about in skimpy lingerie, and a rousing climactic riot with the definite astounding highlight being when O. Williams commandeers a bus and stands on its roof as it speeds towards a watchtower. Both Howard Wexler's slick cinematography and Dan Siegel's robust melodramatic score are up to par. The cool rocking soundtrack likewise seriously smokes, with several of the songs sneered out by O. Williams (the theme song in particular is simply fantastic). An absolute wacky'n'tacky hoot.

"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.

Neither a serious WIP drama, like director Tom De Simone's earlier "The Concrete Jungle", nor an outright spoof of the genre in the style of "Naked Gun", "Reform School Girls" is a film that suffers from identity crisis. The serious, sometimes even cruel moments offset the comedy, and the over-the-top moments undermine the seriousness. For a film categorized by Leonard Maltin as a spoof, it's quite astonishing how few not only laughs, but even attempts at comedy this one really contains. It's not a total loss: rocker Wendy O. Williams (who also sings on the soundtrack) has an incredible, ROCKING 37-year-old body which she proudly displays throughout (RIP Wendy), and there is some nice girl vs. girl wrestling. But Sybil Danning, the big "name" of the film, is COMPLETELY wasted - if you're thinking of seeing this for her, forget it. (*1/2)

Myself and a mate promptly decided to watch "Reform School Girls" upon seeing the trailer that advised all intellectual viewers – and I quote – to keep their criticism for themselves...or else we'll nail your tongues to the floor. Subsequently the trailer showed a lot of footage of attractive girls showering and guaranteed there was plenty more where that came from. And they're right, too! This greatest trailer ever also perfectly captures the tone of the film, as it's a demented tongue-in-cheek bad girls penitentiary exploitation flick that definitely shouldn't be taken too seriously. My best guess would be that writer/director Tom DeSimone is a pleasantly deranged and sleaze-obsessed guy that single-handedly wanted to bring homage to all "Women in Prison" movies at once. The lead warden (played by no one less than Sybil Danning) looks an awful lot like Dyanne Thorne when she gave image to Ilsa, the She Wolf of the SS and several of the other supportive characters appear to be pure stereotypes as well. There's the sadistic, corpulent and massively lesbian guard, the kinky S&M leader of the dorm (that looks about three times as old as the other inmates), the vulnerable who shouldn't be there and – of course – the tough black chicks. There's only one man popping up in the film and naturally he's a legitimate bastard. Tons of nudity and outrageous cat-fights make this a very textbook example of politically incorrect 80's exploitation, but it sure it a lot of fun to watch. Only the Italian directors deliver movies of this kind that are even better.