I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Film Perfection

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Here's one of my favorite Women In Prison flicks. Hell Fire On Ice aka Sweet Sugar was directed by the genius who brought us Werewolves On Wheels. And after viewing both multiple times, over the years, I'd say Sweet Sugar is as good of a Women In Prison flick as the other one is a Werewolf/Biker flick. In other words, this movie rocks! Hell Fire On Ice is a touching, thought-provoking, often humorous look into the troubled life of a head-strong hooker named Sugar. After being set up by a corrupt politician, and instead of going to prison, our lovely heroine ends up serving 2 years at a Costa Rican, sugar cane plantation. The feisty Sugar isn't above a little back-breaking labor, beatings, and other forms of cruelty, but what she's about to find out is that the guy that runs the place, the sadistic Dr. John, subjects the prisoners to cruel medical experiments. Sooner or later, it might be wise for sweet Sugar to make friends with some of these ornery gals, and break out of this hell hole. And to think. All this just for marijuana possession! Silly dialogue, Over-the -top performances, and stupid humor make Hell Fire On Ice a riot. Just like every other Women In Prison flick I've come across, Hell Fire On Ice offers enough comical bickering and random nudity to go around. A trashy good time. Not necessarily one of my all-time favorite B-movies or anything like that, but well worth at least one viewing, that is, if chicks & schlock is what you like. And if you're all about chicks behind bars, you'll be needing to see Women's Prison Massacre asap. Perhaps a double-feature is in order. To my knowledge, there's still no DVD available, so I hope you have a vcr! 5/10

If you're a fan of 70's era WIP films, this is clearly one of the best in the genre. Free-spirited, big-busted Sugar Bowman (Phyllis Davis) is framed for drug possession by one of her sleazy lovers and is then shipped off to a Costa Rican sugar cane plantation to do hard labor for a couple of years. There she meets some of barely-dressed fellow sisters-in-crime, including feisty prostitute Simone (Ella Edwards), rich-bitch-murderess-in-hiding Fara (Jacqueline Giroux) and naive underage blonde Dolores (Pamela Collins). As if the long hours, lousy pay, exhausting work and leering guards weren't bad enough, the ladies also have to deal with pervert prison camp director Dr. John's (Angus Duncan) various sadistic and degrading "experiments." One involves shooting them up with an aphrodisiac, and another involves heaving domesticated cats (given a special serum to make them rabid) at them! When the girls are pushed too far, they decide to overthrow the plantation and escape. SWEET SUGAR is a great 70s exploitation/drive-in flick that manages to amuse, entertain and basically hit all the right notes for one of these things. It's full of witty one-liners, action, violence, some mild lesbianism, whipping, obligatory topless scenes from all of the female stars, a great break-out finale featuring machine guns and explosions and an incredible theme song I just can't get out of my head. Hell, even some cannibalism, voodoo and gore are thrown in for good measure. Most of the actors give it their all and deliver fun and lively performances. Davis and Edwards are spirited heroines. Duncan is hilariously OTT as the mad scientist. There are also amusing turns by Cliff Osmond as the most sadistic guard (playing it straight to good effect) and Albert Cole as a comic hustler trying to get his dimwitted friend Ric (James Houghton) laid. Also appearing in roles are blaxploitation star Timothy Brown as Mojo, a male prisoner at an adjacent facility, and THE HILLS HAVE EYES star James Whitworth as another guard.Though released on VHS about half-a-dozen times under multiple titles (CHAIN GANG GIRLS, CAPTIVE WOMEN 3, etc.) over the years, this has become somewhat hard to find these days. I'd love to see a DVD release sometime soon.

Thanks to a friend I used to work with at a local video store, we had weekend contests to see who could find the Most Gawd-Awful Movie to play on the monitors...something so bad that it would stop the customers in their tracks from shock and disbelief. He thought he'd won with this hysterically bad gem, starring the amply endowed Phyllis (VEGA$) Davis as a horny free spirit, who gets spirited away to a prison/sugar cane colony in the middle of God-knows-where, after the local 'policia' frame her on a phony drug charge.Covering all the bases, from mad-scientist flicks, women-in-prison movies, Seventies soft-core porn and badly made action flicks shot overseas on the cheap, it even throws in a little blackexploitation vibe with the faaaabulous presence of Ella Edwards. Cliff Osmond and Angus Duncan commit thespian thievery every chance they get, and Duncan seems to have popped in a set of steel dentures, as he gives every scene he's in a good going-over, like a fresh pack of Wrigley's.The surefire way to know if you will love or hate this movie, is to find it under its original title and not any of the other name-changed versions. Because SWEET SUGAR may be the only version that contains that howler of a theme song, which sounds like the L.A. band X going on a HUGE acid-and-tequila bender in some South-of-the-Border dive bar, crossed with The Mamas and The Papas on Zoloft. If the priceless opening number doesn't do it for ya, you either need to switch to an actual film that has some tangible artistic value, or do what we did, and continue the quest to find the All-Time Worst Film on the shelf.(In case you're wondering, BTW, I won the Contest after picking BLOOD ORGY OF THE SHE-DEVILS.)

Do not let the average rating of 4.5 on this movie fool you; it is bad, very bad. In fact, after renting and watching it as a precursor/mood setter for a lowlife pub crawl, there was little disagreement between my cohorts and I that we had managed to find the worst movie available for rent at Blockbuster (I'm sure many of you feel that you have made similar discoveries, which I would be interested in hearing, but believe me, if this isn't the worst on offer at Blockbuster, it was at least the worst on offer at the Fredericton, NB Blockbuster on Priestman St.). Which was precisely its appeal, naturally - telling others about this truly bad movie was both entertaining and somewhat self effacing (the title I saw it under was "She Devils in Chains," which title justifies the suspicious queries as to my motives in renting this abysmal classic). I recommend this movie to anyone who wants to place the perfect lowlife opening bookend to a planned night of debauchery, and hope that their closing bookend is equally unsavory.