Joel Bennett Movies
- 1985
- R
It's hard to be critical of an exploitation film that revels so gleefully in its awfulness. To begin with, we're presented with dazed, glassy-eyed heroine Judy Landers, whose condition is readily explained by a bout with amnesia brought on by the brutal murder of her mother at the hands of a sleazy villain, Ray Sharkey. She is sent to the prison-like Ashland Mental Hospital for therapy, at first blissfully unaware of the diabolical mind experiments being performed on the all-female patients in the title dungeon by leering mad doctor Mary Woronov (who's done more than her share of leering in films of this type). Sharkey's not out of the picture -- he's lurking about the grounds, hoping to wring some secrets from our heroine about the documents he tried to obtain from her poor mom. The usual women-in-prison accouterments abound, from glue-sniffing lesbians to lecherous guards. The exploitation elements seem somewhat restrained (Landers doesn't even get her hair mussed) and they make the film look more like a sleazy made-for-TV movie with a few nude scenes thrown in for spice. ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ray Sharkey, Judy Landers, (more)
Wildly disparate characters are not much balance for the lack of action and interaction in this film by director and co-writer Krishna Shah. A series of people go to a drive-in movie theater one night where not a lot happens until the final, inexplicable scene. These movie-goers include a local politician looking for drug dealers, a young couple harassed by bikers, two old biddies dealing in illegal substances right under the nose of the politician (not literally), and another couple in distinct disagreement about sex: what is too little for one is too much for the other. Throw in a prostitute, a dwarf, a few overeaters, a tipsy projectionist, some other characters, and a double-feature horror movie on the screen, and the 89 minutes of running time are filled, terminated by a climax that seems to come out of nowhere. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Emily Longstreth, Pat Jack Kirton, (more)
