Video Nasties: Human Experiments

In this series I’m taking a look back at the films that, in the early 1980′s, were caught up in the Video Nasties moral panic in the UK. When video first arrived in the UK it was not covered by our censorship laws, and that, combined with the reluctance of the studios to embrace the technology, meant that many of the early releases were lurid, uncensored, horror films.

The tabloid press mounted a campaign against the films, and with a new right wing government in power and the growing influence of pro-censorship campaigner Mary Whitehouse, the Director of Public Prosecutions was instructed to draw up a list of films liable to prosecution under the Obscene Publications Act. I’ll be looking at every one of the 74 films that made this list, giving you a snapshot of the controversy around each film before watching and reviewing it.

The Ban

Nobody seems able to explain why this mildly exploitative, but incredibly inoffensive, women in prison movie ended up on the DPP list, particularly given some of the things that missed it (Umberto Lenzi’s Eaten Alive and Jesus Franco’s Cannibals among others). There’s quite a bit of full frontal nudity, but no sexual violence, and what little violence we do see is very mild. The ‘Human Experiments’ of the title provide no contentious moments (they are largely prsychological, and barely glimpsed anyway). Still, this film seems to have made the list (perhaps even by accident, it may even have been listed as a suspected alternate title for SS Experiment Camp, or simply because it’s title was redolent of that infamous nasty), it didn’t stay on long, going on the list in July 1983 and being dropped from it in March 1984. I can’t see Human Experiments having any trouble at all with BBFC (who passed it uncut at the cinema in 1975), indeed I think they have passed tougher stuff at 15 in recent years, but, as it has never been resubmitted, Human Experiments remains, nominally, banned. This is also, it seems, one of the more elusive nasties at the moment, as there appears to be no DVD release anywhere.

The Film

The video nasties list seems to be packed full of movies that could, and should, have been great, but which fall flat for a number of reasons. Human Experiments is a great example of this particular trend in the list. It’s got a decent cast, led by exploitation veterans Linda Haynes (of Rolling Thunder) and Geoffrey Lewis, and it’s got a few really interesting ideas hiding under its standard women in prison movie facade, sadly, those ideas largely go underdeveloped in an unevenly paced film that treads water for too long just when it should be exploring its most interesting ideas.

The film opens interestingly. Struggling singer Rachel is stiffed by a hotel owner, and when she drives away she swerves to avoid a woman in the road, putting her car out of action. She walks to a local farmhouse, where she finds herself greeted by bodies and a rifle lying on the floor. She picks up the rifle and finds a young boy, who has apparently just murdered his family, sitting calmly in the house. When he levels a gun at her she shoots him, but as she leaves the Police arrive and arrest her. This is a chilling opening, and sets the stage for the an intriguing psychological thriller, because who’s to say the woman in the road was real, or that Rachel didn’t kill those people? Sadly the script goes to what seems like a much more conventional place, and simply sends Rachel to one of those prisons that you only see in a women in prison movie, you know, the ones that make sure there’s a long full frontal nude scene as soon as the inmates get in and that look like a run down holiday camp.

However, again, the film starts to throw a curve ball. We get to see another wing of the prison, where Dr. Kline (Lewis) has a childlike woman called Rita. It’s clear that something has been done to Rita and, in a scene where they have dinner together, that Kline is attempting to teach her something, but both process and purpose are left as a mystery while the rest of Human Experiments works through a – rather sexless – variation on the usual women in prison beats. This is the pattern with the film, it keeps approaching these interesting ideas, for instance whether the things that Rachel sees and hears in the prison real or not, and then turning away from them just as they are hooking you in. It almost feels as though another half hour of material hit the cutting room floor, and that its inclusion might have made this a really compelling and different movie.

Most frustrating is the way that the film races towards its ending. Just ten minutes from the final credits we see Rachel subjected to the same treatment we saw ‘Rita’ going through earlier, but because of the limited time this is rushed through and intriguing questions of her mental state and even whether or not she’s alive are left unaddressed. If there had been a little more cohesion in the early part of the film this might have been haunting, but instead it just feels like another frustrating missed opportunity. It’s all the more disappointing because Linda Haynes’ haunted, distant, performance in the final act is a great counterpoint to her more visceral work in the rest of the film and Geoffrey Lewis is creepily effective, his motives uneasily uncertain. Even the supporting cast are a cut above the exploitation norm.

Ultimately though, Human Experiments is less than the sum of its rather promising parts. That said, it does deserve more than to be one of the few totally unavailable Video Nasties.

6 / 10

Video Nasties Series ( 21 Articles ) : Sam Inglis explores some of horror’s most infamous titles, by watching and reviewing all of the 79 films banned in the UK’s ‘video nasties’ panic of 1984. Cannibalism, Zombies, Nazis and other wholesome entertainments for your enjoyment.