Nightmare in Badham County (1976)

Waste of time

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

I saw this awhile ago and if you're expecting Robert Reed to be the fatherly Brady type, then go watch the Brady Bunch. He really relishes his malevolent prison warden role big time where all the prisoners are female. Interestingly, when I revisited this movie in Wikipedia recently, I didn't realize the lead star Deborah Raffin passed away in 2012 at the young age of 59.There's a sense of foreboding in this movie and there are several deaths. I think there should be a remake/reboot. I think Michael Douglas would be amazing in the role of the prison warden, and maybe in an act of innovative casting have say Sharon Stone, Glenn Close, Kathleen Turner, and Demi Moore, play the prisoners.

I can't tell you how angry I am that this movie caused me to be. I was like what kind of law would not notice this prison and not shut it down. It is such a cruel place to be in, I don't know how these poor women put up with this?!Racism, abuse,self harm, murder,torture and rape were amongst these things involved in the movie that would bring awareness to people that this is still happening! It shows us we have to put in an end to this type of crime that people are up against. It does break your heart, our society doesn't know how to lift this and the only way to stop this is to fight for your human rights. This movie really gives a good example on how any type of people can be treated, not just black people but white people too.

This TV movie borders thematically on rank sensationalism, but in fact it remains disturbing and effective. Deborah Raffin and Lynne Moody are very good as privileged middle-class California college girls who make the mistake of taking a driving vacation through the South, and a much worse mistake in ticking off corrupt smalltown sheriff Chuck Conners. They end up basically on a chain gang, with no chance to alert friends or family to their plight. The cast is starry but they really disappear into their roles--as a cruel prison wardress Tina Louise is so completely de-glammed, I didn't recognize her, while as a pederast politician "Mr. Brady Bunch" Robert Reed is convincingly sleazy. It's a notably grim, well-crafted TVM for the era that doesn't cop out. It was interesting to catch on YouTube the theatrical version that was shown abroad--it definitely has language and full-frontal nudity that wasn't in the American TV version, notably a crudely pasted-in lesbian scene between characters we haven't seen before or since. (But otherwise the film avoids a sleazy sexploitation feel.) While this is hardly a "ripped from headlines" movie, the issue of (mostly black) people being abducted and convicted of imaginary crimes in order to generate virtual "slave labor" really existed for many long decades to fill in the South's free-labor gap after the Emancipation Proclamation rendered official slavery illegal.

Originally aired as an ABC Movie of the Week. This involves two young innocent female college students who are railroaded into a prison camp in a little Southern town. They aren't allowed phone calls and nobody knows they're there. What follows is rape, torture, beatings, humiliation and degradation leading to a very disturbing conclusion.The TV version was (for its time) grim. No nudity and the beatings were pretty tame but the overall feeling of sleaziness wore one down. The unrated version is even worse--there's plentiful nudity, the violence is extreme and, in one particularly disgusting sequence, we see a crying female prisoner forced to strip while a lesbian guard "uses" her. YUCK! There's nothing wrong with exploitation films but this one just goes over the brink. You get the feeling that the filmmakers enjoy having these poor women being tortured and degraded--all this is shoved in your face like you're supposed to enjoy it. The needlessly downbeat ending doesn't help.I'm giving it a 3 because the acting is good--but that actually makes the movie harder to watch. A sick, sleazy film. Not recommended.