''Reform School Girls'' is a 1986 American

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol, penitentiary, detention center, correction center, correctional facility, or remand center, is a facility where Prisoner, people are Imprisonment, imprisoned under the authority of the State (polity), state ...

black comedy Black comedy, also known as black humor, bleak comedy, dark comedy, dark humor, gallows humor or morbid humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally ...

film, written and directed by

Tom DeSimone Tom DeSimone (born 1939) is an American director, writer, producer and editor, perhaps best known for directing the cult films '' Chatterbox'' (1977), ''Hell Night'' (1981), and '' The Concrete Jungle'' (1982) and a number of pornographic films ...

. It stars Linda Carol, Wendy O. Williams,

Pat Ast Patricia Ann Ast (October 21, 1941 – October 2, 2001) was an American actress and model. She was best known for starring in Andy Warhol films and being a Halston model and muse in the 1970s. Early life Patricia Ann Ast was born on October 21, ...

Sybil Danning Sybil Danning (born Sybille Johanna Danninger; May 24, 1952) is an Austrian–American former actress, model, and film producer. She is best known for her frequent appearances in B movies during the 1970s and 1980s. Biography Early life Dannin ...

and

Sherri Stoner Sherri Lynn Stoner (born July 16, 1959) is an American actress, animation executive, and writer. She also voiced Slappy Squirrel in the children's television series ''Animaniacs'' and for one short segment in its revival. Biography She has wor ...

, and depicts the story of a young girl (played by Carol) who is sent to a

reform school A reform school was a Prison, penal institution, generally for teenagers, mainly operating between 1830 and 1900. In the United Kingdom and its colonies, reformatory, reformatories (commonly called reform schools) were set up from 1854 onward f ...

for girls that is operated by a sadistic and evil warden. She also has to deal with the local bully (Williams). After directing two other

women in prison film The women-in-prison film (or WiP film) is a subgenre of exploitation film that began in the early 20th century and continues to the present day. Their stories feature imprisoned women who are subjected to sexual and physical abuse, typically by ...

s, ''Prison Girls'' (1972) and '' The Concrete Jungle'' (1982), DeSimone decided to make a film that would be a spoof of the genre. The role of Warden Sutter in the original script was a man. Producers wanted Danning to play the character of Edna, but DeSimone thought she wasn't good for that part so he changed the role of Warden Sutter to a woman and had Ast play that role instead. The film received mostly negative reviews from critics.

Plot

The film is a

satire Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of exposin ...

of the

women in prison Approximately 741,000 women are incarcerated in correctional facilities, a 17% increase since 2010 and the female prison population has been increasing across all continents.secret society A secret society is an organization about which the activities, events, inner functioning, or membership are concealed. The society may or may not attempt to conceal its existence. The term usually excludes covert groups, such as intelligence ag ...

of girls who are loyal to her and to whom she offers protection. The two main new girls break several of Edna's rules and are punished decisively for their infractions. Jenny comes to the school after becoming mixed up in a shoot out. When she and another group of girls arrive, they are forced to strip in front of the prison nurse and then take a shower, while being informed that they will be "inspected inside and out". Afterwards, they are forced to stand naked along a wall while the nurse sprays them with delousing fluid. Jenny later tries to break out after befriending a male driver with whom she has a romantic encounter in the back of his truck. She makes arrangements that he will drive her off the premises but is discovered by a guard and after a scuffle she is apprehended and immediately cast into isolation, where Edna forces her to strip naked before using a firehose to spray her with cold water. Lisa is a runaway who is captured and placed in the reform school, here Jenny is confronted by Charlie and inevitably results in a fight, Jenny is swiftly overwhelmed and left lightly hurt in-front of the other girls, She suffers several losses while at the school including having the cat she adopted stomped to death by Edna. Lisa is punished with isolation. After the death of her cat, Lisa attempts to climb to the top of the tower, followed closely by Edna. When she reaches the top she stumbles backward as Edna confronts her, breaks through the barriers and falls to her death. This causes Jenny to smash through a window, which starts a riot which is only quelled when Warden Sutter shoots a shotgun into the ceiling. The film culminates in a protest scene after Dr. Norton, a psychiatrist, forces a meeting of administrators over the conditions and treatment of inmates at the school. She intended to have Jenny testify but a doctor determines, despite all evidence to the contrary, that she is ill and will not be able to attend. Therefore, four other inmates are chosen and none of them has any complaints. During the meeting Jenny knocks out a guard and steals her keys, which allows all the girls to march out into the main open area and voice their grudges. Edna, however, gets a hold of a gun and opens fire on them. Edna shoots Charlie and climbs up the tower from which Sutter has broadcast religious-oriented messages as the girls are going to sleep. Charlie climbs a fence and commandeers a school bus, which she drives toward the tower with Edna standing at the top. Just before impact, Charlie leaps from the bus and it explodes as it hits the tower. The scorched body of Edna tumbles to the ground and many of the girls cheer. Charlie crawls and before she dies shouts out, "See you in hell, Edna!". The final scene shows Jenny released and getting into a cab. She waves at Dr. Norton, who is implied to be in charge of the new, more benevolent order at the school, and three other girls who are still incarcerated.

Cast

* as Jenny * Wendy O. Williams as Charlie Chambliss *

as Edna Dawson *

as Warden Sutter *Charlotte McGinnis as Dr. Norton *

as Lisa *

Denise Gordy Denise Georgette Gordy is an American former film and television actress and singer. She is a niece of Motown founder Berry Gordy and the mother of actress Bianca Lawson. Family and career Denise Georgette Gordy was born in Detroit, Michigan, t ...

as Claudie *Laurie Schwartz as Nicky * Tiffany Helm as Andrea "Fish" Eldridge *

Darcy DeMoss Darcy L. DeMoss (born August 19, 1963) is an American film and television actress whose credits include ''Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives'', ''Eden'', ''Erotic Confessions'', ''Pale Blood'', ''Stickfighter'' and ''Vice Academy 3''. She playe ...

as Karen "Knox" Charmin *Andrea Darnell as Paula *Robin Watkins as Kelly *Winifred Freedman as Terri

Production

Tom DeSimone said all of the actresses were well aware that there would be nudity in this movie, particularly shower scenes. "This was all agreed upon before signing on. If you couldn't handle being nude on the set, there was no contract. I didn't want certain girls excluded from being nude out of respect for the ones who were willing. It wouldn't have been fair, so everyone had to agree to be nude at one point or another," he said.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack for the film was released by

Rhino Records A rhinoceros ( ; ; ; : rhinoceros or rhinoceroses), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant taxon, extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates (perissodactyls) in the family (biology), famil ...

. It contains four songs by Wendy O. Williams; "It's My Life", "Bad Girl", "Goin' Wild", and the title song "Reform School Girls" recorded for the film.

Reception

''Reform School Girls'' received a negative to mixed critical reception. The film holds a 25% rating on review aggregator site

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

based on eight reviews.''Reform School Girls''
on

References

External links

* * {{Wendy O. Williams 1980s American films 1980s comedy thriller films 1980s English-language films 1980s exploitation films 1980s prison films 1980s satirical films 1986 black comedy films 1986 crime drama films 1986 films American black comedy films American comedy thriller films American crime drama films American exploitation films American prison films English-language black comedy films English-language comedy thriller films English-language crime drama films Films directed by Tom DeSimone New World Pictures films Women in prison films