Human Experiments is a 1979 American horror film about a demented prison doctor who performs gruesome shock therapy experiments on inmates.
Produced and directed by Gregory Goodell from a screenplay written by Richard Rothstein (Bates Motel [1987]; Invitation to Hell; Death Valley), based on Goodell’s storyline. The movie has also been released as Beyond the Gate and Women in Prison.
The movie stars Linda Haynes, Geoffrey Lewis (Trilogy of Terror II; Disturbed), Ellen Travolta, Lurene Tuttle, Mercedes Shirley, Darlene Craviotto, Marie O’Henry, Wesley Marie Tackitt, Caroline Davies, Cherie Franklin, Aldo Ray (Evils of the Night; Star Slammer; Bog), Jackie Coogan (The Prey; Halloween with the New Addams Family; Mesa of Lost Women).
Plot:
Rachel Foster (Linda Haynes) is a country singer travelling alone through the United States. She resists the advances of leche
rous bar owner Mat Tibbs (Aldo Ray) and in her hurry to leave town, she wrecks her car.
Looking for help, she finds what appears to be an abandoned house – but it’s the scene of a grisly multiple homicide perpetrated by a young boy.
Railroaded into prison by the bar owner’s brother Sheriff Tibbs (Jackie Coogan), the innocent musician finds herself at the mercy of prison psychiatrist Doctor Kline (Geoffrey Lewis). Kline has some radical techniques for “curing” criminality, and after a failed escape attempt she undergoes his treatment and loses her mind…
Reviews:
” …nasty and meretricious, albeit fast-moving and action-packed […] ‘back country’ genre piece that clearly owes a debt to Jackson County Jail (1976). Coogan and Ray deliver particularly malevolent cameos…” Phil Hardy (editor), The Aurum Film Encyclopedia: Horror
“If this was any other decade than the 70s, this would be the story of her escape. But nope, the 70s were nothing if not relentlessly downbeat. And scummy. Which is kind of what you expect when a movie ends up being a section 2 video nasty. Geoffrey Lewis excels at playing Dr Kline, the villain of all the many villains in this film.”B&S About Movies
“Goodell and Rothstein are determined to give the audience what they want, but they often seem confused about how to do it, accidentally slipping into absurdity at times, while the ending doesn’t leave scars as a great genre effort should. Performances are interesting and the prison ambiance is weirdly inviting, but Human Experiments is ultimately confused and uneven, becoming the rare fright film that’s more successful depicting everyday torment from angry, stupid men…” Blu-ray.com
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“The whole massacre scene was great and probably one of the best setups for a women in prison movie I’ve seen before. The mid-part with her entering the prison and adjusting there isn’t very good and gets a little slow. It does pick up again near the end, which saves the movie.” Cinema Terror
“Goodell, making his debut here, is too well-mannered for this sort of thing and refuses to go as far as the premise would allow, leaving us with a curiously tame exploitation film. All the elements are there for something completely nuts – brainwashing, women in prison, manipulation, loss of identity – but it feels almost polite, certainly rarely confrontational and in the end just boring.” The EOFFTV Review
“It’s all quite distasteful, from the leering nude scene accompanying Rachel’s arrival at prison to the surprising sequence in which her attempt at private self-pleasuring is rudely interrupted […] Human Experiments is too dumb and linear to seem trippy, per se, but it’s also sufficiently perverse and rangy to leave familiar exploitation-flick rhythms behind.” Every ’70s Movie
“The most grotesque scene has our heroine trapped in a cell with a lot of creepy-crawly insects, a scene which is rather disgusting but it also strains credibility, given the situation. Throw in one of those ambiguous endings, and you have just one more thing not to like about the movie.” Fantastic Movie Musings and Ramblings
” …Human Experiments is somewhat of a precursor to the much trashier 1985 WIP potboiler Hellhole. It doesn’t have the merciless scenery chewing of a heroin-addicted Ray Sharkey, but it does have a committed performance by Haynes in what was her only top-billed headlining gig. She’s an absolute trooper in this.” Good Efficient Butchery
“this flawed but memorable (and sometimes very effective) macabre spin on the women-in-prison trend works best as a rare starring vehicle for Haynes (Rolling Thunder) before she left the screen soon after. She pretty much has to carry it all on her shoulders, and the fact that it never really gets campy or overly sleazy is actually a plus in this case as you feel a genuine sense of menace against her from Lewis.” Mondo Digital
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“Tension and mood are admirably maintained; Goodell knows how to hold our attention by feeding us information bit by bit, letting the accumulation draw us in. When Haynes is sent down for the murders, the usual clichés of prison life beckon, but the film plays skillfully inside the formula, with the heroine’s gradual collapse under pressure given time to escalate believably.” Stephen Thrower, Nightmare USA
“Does Human Experiments talk to us much about the ordinary prison experience? Probably not, even though its theme of corruption – of wrongdoing not being reported to preserve self-interest – is far from uncommon in any era. Despite this, it’s very much a movie of its time… but it’s such a different prison movie it deserves to be better known.” Prison Movies
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“Human Experiments is a genuinely interesting film. There’s more character development for Rachel than you would probably expect from a picture like this, one that essentially plays with women in prison film stereotypes for most of its running time. We get to feel for her as her story evolves, and Haynes does a fine job in the lead role […] Geoffrey Lewis may be an atypical choice for the role of Dr Kline […] but he’s good in the movie.” Rock! Shock! Pop!
“The title is a bit misleading as the main experiment doesn’t happen until the last twenty minutes. Also, don’t expect it to be exploitative and trashy just because most of the action takes place in a women’s penitentiary. The horror here is more psychological than anything, which isn’t exactly a bad thing.” The Video Vacuum
TV spot:
Beyond the Gate trailer:
Trailer:
Free to watch online:
This film should not be confused with Strange Behavior, which was retitled Human Experiments for a 2003 British VHS release by Vipco.
In the UK, the film earned notoriety for being targeted by the Director of Public Prosecutions during the ‘video nasties‘ furore in the early 1980s.
Although it was listed on the first “video nasty” list issued by the DPP on July 4, 1983, the film was unsurprisingly never prosecuted because it had originally been passed uncut with an ‘X’ rating by the BBFC for a cinema release by New Realm in 1979.
