Reform School Girls is a fun and entertaining 1980s sexploitation featuring some lovely women and decent enough acting all things considered, along with a wild, chaotic finale.
Reform School Girls
(1986)
Genre(s): Drama, Suspense, Crime
Vinegar Syndrome| NR – 94 min. – $34.98 | March 29, 2022
Date Published: 03/21/2022 | Author: The Movieman
|
|
|||||||||||
Vinegar Syndrome provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Blog Post.
The opinions I share are my own.
THE MOVIE — 3/5 |
|
Plot Synopsis: The Pridemore Juvenile Detention Facility isn’t just a place for troubled teenage girls to serve their time. Instead, it’s a living hell with sexual depravity and violence. Jenny (LINDA CAROL), a fresh inmate, becomes the de facto protector of Lisa (SHERRI STONER), an innocent young girl forced to be a plaything to anyone after her body. Then there’s Charlie (WENDY O. WILLIAMS), a hardened teenaged lesbian who torments her fellow prisoners through brutal acts of sexual sadism. But no one instills more fear in even the toughest girls than the sadistic Edna (PAT AST) who, with a blind eye turned by money-hungry Warden Sutter (SYBIL DANNING), delights in terrorizing her beautiful prisoners. However, the girls have had enough and things are about to change at Pridemore… Quick Hit Review: Reform School Girls is an entertaining exploitation (and send-up) film that features some lovely ladies, most in their 30s (and early 40s) playing teenagers which makes this all the more humorous. On the plus side, I will say some of the acting actually isn’t half bad and for the T&A fans, there are plenty of both. It’s all ridiculous but done in good fun. Of course, it might not be for everybody but fans of the exploitation-like movies, this one hits the right spot. |
SPECIAL FEATURES – 4½/5 |
|
The Limited Edition version comes with a slip cover while the other does not. Both versions are housed in the usual Vinegar Syndrome clear Blu-ray case and the artwork is reversible. Audio Commentaries:
So Young, So Bad, So What? (TRT 54:26) is an extensive making-of featurette with new interviews including writer-director Tom DiSimone, cinematographer Howard Wexler, actors Darcy DeMoss, Tiffany Helm, Winifred Freeman, Lorrie Marlowe and others. Pat Ast: Superstar (7:34) is an interview with theatrical producer Alan Eichler who worked with an knew the late actress. Ode to Wendy (6:44) is another new interview, this with author and critic Breanna Whipple on the life and career of actress Wendy O. Williams. Last up is Video Footage (1:12:07) from the play “Women Behind Bars” and the Original Trailers. |
VIDEO – 4½/5 |
| Vinegar Syndrome releases Reform School Girls onto Blu-ray for the first time, shown in the original 1.85 widescreen aspect ratio and given a new 1080p high-definition transfer, which was taken from a new 2K scan from the 35mm interpositive. For a very low budget exploitation movie made 35 years ago, this one looks rather good, detail is fairly sharp throughout and colors are mostly vibrant. The natural film grain and noise is still apparent giving the video some nice texture. |
AUDIO – 4/5 |
| The included DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track which outputs clear enough dialogue with only a minor amount of hissing detected. Given what I assume wouldn’t be great on location sound design, this is the best a movie like this would ever sound. |
OVERALL – 3¼/5 |
|
Overall, Reform School Girls is a fun and entertaining 1980s sexploitation featuring some lovely women and decent enough acting all things considered, along with a wild, chaotic finale. |
Check out some more 1080p screen caps by going to page 2. Please note, these do contain spoilers.
Just saw REFORM SCHOOL GIRLS and I think that the problem with this so-called “spoof of women in prison movies” just is too well made to be funny or a spoof.. The acting from the leads like PAT AST as evil prison matron, and lead girls in prison is so intense that if it was supposed to be funny… It misses and is actually harrowing… You can’t laugh when a fat psycho stomps on a little baby cat and kills it… You can’t laugh when the movie suggest that fat lesbian matron locks herself with young girl prisoners in the solitary cell and goes in with a huge oversize Dildo in her hand and closes the door and you hear hideous screams… Only the last 15mins with the prison riot and AST running around with a shotgun screaming “I’M IN COMPLETE CONTROL” while the prison riot is surrounding her does it become a bit funny.. Otherwise, REFORM SCHOOL GIRLS plays too serious too well.. to be any kind of comedy.