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Powerful

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

The acting in this movie is really good.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Linda Blair has stated that she was sold this film as a "female Midnight Express." Yes, it has elements of that. But it's more like an adult remake of Born Innocent. Linda's character even has the same name, Chris. Born Innocent represents Linda's best work as a juvenile. Her performance is better in Born Innocent than in The Exorcist. Red Heat may well be her best performance as an adult. Yet this is one of the most difficult Blair films to find. I don't think it ever got a proper theatrical release in the United States, although it may have played the grind house circuit. I first saw in on VHS year ago, and watched it recently again on YouTube. It's a wildly entertaining film that's face-paced and got it all - nudity, rape, cat fights, shower scenes, suicide, etc. You've seen it all before, but the setting in an East German prison before the wall came down (actually filmed in Hungary) adds a great deal to the mood and tone of the film. For Linda Blair fans, this film is essential. For fans of women in prison flicks, it's not to be missed.

Perky American tourist Christine Carlson (a winningly vibrant and charming performance by Linda Blair) gets arrested on false charges of espionage while vacationing in East Germany. Christine winds up incarcerated at a brutal women's penitentiary, where she runs afoul of vicious top con Sofia (ably played to the nasty hilt by Sylvia Kristel). Meanwhile, Christine's dedicated soldier fiancé Mike (a solid and likable portrayal by William Ostrander) does whatever he can to spring her from the joint. Director Robert Collector, who also co-wrote the tight and engrossing script with Gary Drucker, covers all the satisfyingly seamy babes-behind-bars bases: a handy helping of tasty female nudity, a group shower scene (yep, Linda does indeed show us her yummy stuff in said scene), lesbianism, rape, degradation, fierce catfights, and an exciting last reel breakout. This film further benefits from sound acting by a capable cast: Sue Kiel as fiery and dedicated political activist Hedda, Elisabeth Volkmann as stern warden Einbeck, Herb Andress as sadistic head guard Werner, Barbara Spitz as friendly and helpful English inmate Meg, and Kati Marothy as the meek and browbeaten Barbara. Moreover, the oppressive fascist regime setting is inspired and the potently brooding mood of pervasive gloom, despair, and utter hopelessness inside the prison works extremely well. Wolfgang Dickman's slick cinematography gives the picture an impressively stark and stylish look. The first-rate urgently propulsive score by Tangerine Dream does the stirring pulsating trick. Recommended viewing for fans of 80's exploitation sleaze.

Women-in-prison flick involving an innocent American tourist in West Germany who is mistaken for a spy, grilled until exhaustion sets in, and sent to jail without a word to her soldier-fiancé. After publicly nixing her hit "Chained Heat" on just about every talk show of the 1980s, it's amazing that star Linda Blair would even think of doing another jailhouse underachiever. This one, filmed in chilly blues and grays, is just as seedy and depressing. The roster comes complete with a decadently lascivious guard (gaunt, kinky Sylvia Kristel), a terrified blonde, a friendly butch, and lots of malicious broads. Blair manages (somehow) to keep her dignity and has a few strong scenes, including being interrogated and collapsing under pressure or standing up to the review board with a firm "F*** you!" The direction is fairly tight, and the movie is engrossing almost in spite of itself. *1/2 from ****

An average women-in-prison exploiter, but for a change it is set in East Germany during the period of the cold war. Remarkable are a couple of casting choices: Elisabeth Volkmann, best known from numerous silly sex comedies and the TV sketch series "Klimbim" plays the tough warden, and the usually so vulnerable Sylvia Kristel plays the inmates' top bitch (in a red wig), the kind of role normally played by the likes of Pam Grier or Sybil Danning. Volkmann has enough acting range to pull it off, but Kristel is completely and utterly miscast.Otherwise, this follows the genre rules extremely faithfully. We have all the compulsary ingredients: shower scenes, mistreatments by the staff, cat fights, revolts, escapes, etc. Virtually a remake of Chained Heat.