"Carol Henderson" (Linda Blair) is a young woman who has just been sentenced to 18 months in a very harsh prison on the charge of vehicular manslaughter. When she gets there she is totally unprepared for what awaits her as "Warden Bacman" (John Vernon) is not only corrupt--but due to one of his subordinates named "Captain Taylor" (Stella Stevens)--he is incapable of exercising even the slightest control over some of the more reprehensible situations that develop within the prison. As a result the women are often beaten, sexually abused and sometimes even murdered. And because she is new Carol soon finds herself in the center of it all. Now rather than reveal any more about the story and risk spoiling it for those who haven't seen it I will just say that this was an average "Women-in-Prison" (WIP) movie which certainly had the potential to be much better. Although the cast was pretty good the story itself seemed to jump too quickly from one scenario to another without the necessary development to back them up. Additionally, some of the scenes were simply too unrealistic which caused the film to lose its credibility. On the other hand, this film certainly had its share of eye-candy with Sharon Hughes (as "Val") and Monique Gabrielle ("Debbie") being my personal favorites. Again though, had some of the scenes been more plausible, in addition to having a more thorough setup between them, it could have been a much better movie. As it is, I have to give it a rating of only average.

(Credit, IMDb) Linda Blair plays Carol, a young woman who must serve 18 months in prison after killing a man (by accident). The prison turns out to be brimming with decadence, corruption and sleaze, where the other female inmates are sadistic crack-selling lesbian rapists and the guards and warden are no better. Racial tensions are high as the inmates is divided into two factions, blacks and whites, who must either join together against the management or kill each other trying.I love exploitation movies, as long as they are entertaining. This one could cure someone's insomnia with how boring it is. Not only is it extremely sleazy, but so boring, it's hard to pay attention at times. There is rape, prison corruption, laughable dialog, stereotyping, racism, plenty of cursing, among other things. But they forget to add entertainment, excitement, suspense, etc. Linda Blair looks like she doesn't wanna be there. According to IMDb trivia, the script changed on her, so I can't blame her. John Vernon hams it up like no tomorrow. Overall, avoid it. Even the biggest exploitation fans may have trouble getting into this one1/10

The still cute as a button Linda Blair entered the pleasingly sleazy portion of her career with this well regarded 1980's classic in the Women-In-Prison genre. Linda plays Carol Henderson, a basically innocent young woman who'd accidentally killed a man with her car and is sent to prison for 18 months. Well, this particular prison is just brimming with corruption; the prisoners and staff alike are lowlifes. Although it's a guarantee it's been mentioned countless times already, an indicator of how depraved everybody is would be the fact that the genial creep of a warden (John Vernon) has a hot tub in his office, and likes to videotape his dalliances with the prisoners. Director / writer Paul Nicholas and writer Aaron Butler go down the list of W.I.P. requirements quite sufficiently. Our cast is full of damn sexy ladies, and there's a generous dose of full frontal nudity from some players and breast shots at the least from others. We get some steamy heterosexual and lesbian sex scenes, and some notably harsh violence (including rape) and gore. The cast reads like a virtual Who's Who of cult stars and other familiar faces - blonde goddess Sybil Danning and striking Tamara Dobson play rival gang leaders, Nita Talbot a hard nosed investigator, Stella Stevens the crooked captain of the guards, and a hilarious (not surprisingly) Henry Silva her partner in crime. Also appearing are Sharon Hughes (the inspiration for Prince's song "Little Red Corvette"), Kendal Kaldwell, Robert Miano, Dee Biederbeck, Greta Blackburn, Jennifer Ashley, Jody Medford, Monique Gabrielle, Edy Williams, Marcia Karr, Carole Ita White, Susan Meschner, Michael Callan, Jonna Lee, and Irwin Keyes. (Trivia notes: several of the actors here had already appeared in another W.I.P. favourite, "The Concrete Jungle", and Vernon's daughter Kate made her film debut with "Chained Heat" as one of the unnamed extra inmates! Nothing like keeping it in the family.) All of these people are a joy to watch, especially Linda, endearing as ever, Danning, Dobson, Stevens, Vernon, and Silva. Miano excels in his part as the lecherous guard Stone. It's particularly fun to see the ever delightful Louisa Moritz in a special appearance as TV addict Bubbles. Joseph Conlan's catchy music is a nice accompaniment to the various trashy goings-on, and prolific and reliable cinematographer Mac Ahlberg, whose name you'll see in the credits of a number of 80's genre efforts, gives the movie a slick look. An absolute must for any trash lover, "Chained Heat" is great entertainment all the way. Followed by "Chained Heat II" a decade later. Eight out of 10.

"Chained Heat" is the kind of Women-in-Prison film for those who don't like the genre.**SPOILERS**Arriving at a new prison, Carol Henderson, (Linda Blair) finds that the other inmates coming in with her, Val, (Sharon Hughes) Bubbles, (Louisa Moritz) and Blue Eyes, (Jody Medford) are out to protect her from Ericka, (Sybil Danning) Bobbi, (Dee Biederbeck) and Lulu, (Greta Blackburn) some of the tougher inmates. As they all get processed into the facility, they realize that Warden Bacman, (John Vernon) has big plans for them, since they are also in league with her to run a drug ring in the prison. As they spend more time in the prison, they all realize that a war within the prison's inmates has them all in the palm of Captain Taylor, (Stella Stevens) who has plans on taking control of the prison. Not standing up for the deception, they revolt against the authorities to get better conditions for themselves and throw the corrupt heads in charge out of power.The News: As far as Women-in-Prison films go, this one is a more classy version, for better or worse. Despite being a mainstream film, this one still features enough requirements of the genre to make it count. There's the butch authority figure with the manly haircut and the constant cigar-chomping attitude, the women inside taken out to be sold as prostitutes, higher motives for those in charge and then the sleaze angles, featuring everything from the nudity to the sex and much more. There's a requisite shower sequence that features a couple of full-frontal shots, the dominating one forcing the rookie to wash her down and more that are prerequisites of the style. Even the sex scenes are pretty sleazy, with the fact that they're recording it and forcing others to watch or perform special moves which is where the sleaze comes in. From the interactions in the yard to the way the newbie is handled by the others all the way to the fight against the higher-ups, this one really plays well with the conventions of the genre, only doing them in a sanitary way without being too dirty or disgusting. The sanitation in here is perhaps the biggest flaw in the film, since it gets to be able to do all of that without going to the lengths the other ones have done, which is what made them fun. Going all the way and being as sleazy and disgusting as they were was what made the others work, but this one here goes around that and makes it too clean-feeling, ruining much of that and feeling too much like a high-brow attempt at making a genre entry, which doesn't work at all. There's also the sanitized deaths in here, with really lame kills that don't have anything to offer up, with just about all of them being done in bloodless manners or hidden so that there's nothing that can be seen when its done. It's hard to get into the dirtiness of the film when everything is so clean and sanitized. Aside from these, there's also some good points to this as well. The riot through the prison at the end is really great, with the fully impressive and full-on action that takes place. It's a long series of brawls that culminate with some big action in here with a long battle that is perfectly needed to end the film on a great high. The other part that works is a rather tense chase through the catacombs early on, where an unseen force runs down an inmate through a darkened series of hallways, walkways and more, with some tense moments and a great send-off that makes it work. All of these, though, are mostly undone by the rather tame feeling it has.The Final Verdict: A more upscale exploitation film that offers up what the genre has to offer without the sleaze, this doesn't really reach the depths the best have to offer. If you want the option of seeing one with getting as offended with the other ones, give it a try but more adventurous exploitation fans have better options.Rated R: Graphic Language, Full Nudity, Violence, drug use and a couple mild sex scenes