Wonderful character development!

good back-story, and good acting

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Struggling country singer Rachel Foster (an excellent and appealing performance by the lovely Linda Haynes) gets arrested on a trumped-up murder charge and sent to a harsh correctional facility where evil psychiatrist Dr. Hans R. Kline (well played with subtly sinister menace by Geoffrey Lewis) conducts mind-altering experiments on the inmates. Director Gregory Goodell relates the engrossing story at a steady pace, grounds the absorbing premise in a plausibly sordid everyday reality, adroitly crafts a low-key, yet creepy, sleazy, and oppressive atmosphere, takes a cool and surprising detour into grim horror territory in the last third, and delivers a satisfying smattering of tasty gratuitous female nudity. Haynes makes for a strong and sympathetic damsel in distress. Moreover, there are sturdy supporting contributions from Ellen Travolta as the compassionate Mover, Lurene Tuttle as crazy old bat Granny, Mercedes Shirley as the ineffectual Warden Weber, Marie O'Henry as the sassy Tanya, and Cherie Franklin as a hard-nosed guard. Popping up in small, yet memorable roles are Aldo Ray as lecherous bar owner Mat Tibbs, Jackie Coogan as the corrupt Sheriff Tibbs, and Bobby Porter as deadly psycho kid Derril Willis. Richard Rothstein's compact script offers a nice mix of horror and exploitation elements. The slick cinematography by Joao Fernandes gives this picture a pleasing polished look. Mark Bucci's shivery score hits the shuddery spot. Well worth a watch.

Bar-room singer Rachel Foster (Linda Haynes) is wrongly convicted of murder and winds up in a correctional facility where mad Dr. Kline (Geoffrey Lewis) is conducting experiments on the prisoners.Considering its lurid title, promisingly perverse premise and 'video nasty' label, I was expecting (or should that be 'hoping for') Human Experiments to be a sleazy slice of 'women in prison' depravity in the vein of fellow 'nasties' Women Behind Bars or Love Camp 7; instead, it turned out to be an extremely tame addition to the WIP genre, offering very little in the way of true deviancy, but plenty of the dull kind of drama that typifies your average made for TV movie of the era (unsurprisingy, writer/director Gregory Goodell would go on to make plenty of these!).Apart from the typically indelicate induction routine suffered by all new prisoners in exploitation movie jails (stripped naked, showered and given the once over by a tough nurse), and a brief (non-explicit) masturbation scene, nothing particularly sexy or sordid happens in this prison, with a distinct lack of hot lesbian inmates, despicable male guards, or communal bathing. Dr. Kline's experiments also prove to be extremely disappointing: there's no electrodes on the nipples or surgery without anaesthetic, but rather a series of psychologically traumatising episodes designed to reduce the prisoner to a childlike state, after which they are to be rebuilt as model citizens.If you don't like creepy crawlies, then the scene where Haynes is covered in cockroaches, spiders and other assorted bugs might prove cringe-worthy, and trash fans should find the delightfully silly (and rather unlikely) ending to be amusing, but in all honesty, this is one of the least offensive 'video nasties' on the entire list and only worth watching if you're intent on seeing all of the films vilified by the BBFC during the 80s.3.5 out of 10, generously rounded up to 4 for a fun cameo from Aldo Ray as a lecherous bar-owner, and the brief full-frontal nudity from Ms. Haynes.

The most gnawing thing about this movie is the incredible rock band that plays for the inmates, yet they seem to have never existed beyond the movie. When trying to track the band members, one only gets dead ends, yet they sound like a fusion of the old Journey with a little r& b thrown in. Lounge act they are not, and had to have worked at getting this gig together for the movie. Maybe when this DVD comes out, we will finally get the lowdown on who they were, and if they ever did produce an album. This isn't a spoiler, it's a teaser. There is a wealth of character actor talent here that is both campy and serious in dialog. Linda Haynes is the perfect victim who doesn't give up until the very end, which is quite interesting and ties into the beginning in a bizarre way.

****Possible Spoilers****This is a step up from this producers previous efforts and although this film begins well it doesn't follow through. Linda Haynes is excellent as a singer who travels from town to town playing one night gigs as a singer/songwriter. She rebuffs advances from the local bar-owner and he responds by paying her short of the money agreed. As his brother is the town sheriff she finds she is in no position to argue. Driving away the next day she swerves to avoid someone who runs out in front of her car - although it would have helped if she had not been trying to write sheet music while driving! She gets out of the car and looks for the casualty but can't see anyone so she wanders up to a nearby house to use the phone and this is where she gets into really big trouble because she walks into the middle of a massacre. Up until now the film has been suspenseful and the characters interesting but after a quick voice over narration we find Linda committed to life imprisonment in a women's prison. This is where credibility and interest end however as the prison is presided over by a Warden and Psycho - psychiatrist who are developing new methods of rehabilitation by driving inmates out of their mind and reverting them back to their childhood so they can be brought up as nice, decent people instead of criminals. The whole scenario then becomes ludicrous and unbelievable and more's the pity after such a good beginning. There are a couple of scenes which will shock you but not in a bloody or violent way and both are in the first part of the movie. You may find the scenes with the bugs unpleasant in the second half of the film although the photography is so dark it's difficult to see them properly anyway. Linda Haynes is memorable in this role, she is convincing mainly because as a singer she is only average and she doesn't have the prettiest looks which is exactly what this role demands. Her acting is believable and she does have a beautiful body which the film makers exploit in a couple of scenes although the movie veers towards their previous hardcore efforts with an unnecessary (but thankfully curtailed) masturbation scene.