Human Experiments (1979)

Name: Human Experiments
Genre: Crime, Horror
Released: 1979-10-19
Duration: 85 min
Rating: 4.4
Cast: Linda Haynes, Geoffrey Lewis, Ellen Travolta, Lurene Tuttle, Mercedes Shirley

Human Experiments (1979), directed by Gregory Goodell, starring Linda Haynes and Geoffrey Lewis.

10/19/1979 BR Crime and Horror 1h 25m

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Quiz about this movie

The victims: young female inmates

Synopsis

A demented prison doctor performs gruesome shock therapy experiments on inmates.

João FernandesCinematography
Gregory GoodellDirector, Producer, Story
Barbara PokrasEditing
Summer BrownProducer

About the film

Human Experiments (also known as Beyond the Gate) is a 1979 American horror film directed and co-produced by Gregory Goodell. It stars Linda Haynes, Geoffrey Lewis, Ellen Travolta, Aldo Ray,

Jackie Coogan and Lurene Tuttle. This film earned its notoriety for being targeted by the Director of Public Prosecutions during the video nasty 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 never prosecuted under the Obscene Publications Act and had originally been given an uncut (now defunct) X rating by the BBFC for theatrical release in 1979.

Read the full article (3k characters)

Human Experiments (also known as Beyond the Gate) is a 1979 American horror film directed and co-produced by Gregory Goodell. It stars Linda Haynes, Geoffrey Lewis, Ellen Travolta, Aldo Ray,

Plot

Rachel Foster is a country singer traveling alone through the USA. She resists the advances of lecherous bar owner Mat Tibbs and, in her hurry to leave town, she accidentally wrecks her car. Looking for assistance, she finds what appears to be an abandoned house—but after stumbling inside the place, she discovers the scene of a grisly multiple homicide perpetrated by a young boy.

As no one believes that the child is responsible for such a horrific act, she is railroaded into a women's correctional facility by the prurient bar owner's brother, Sheriff Tibbs. As well as being falsely charged with the murders, the innocent musician now finds herself at the mercy of prison psychiatrist Dr. Kline, who has diabolical intentions. Kline has some radical techniques for "curing" criminality, and, after a failed escape attempt, she undergoes his 'treatment' and completely loses her mind, whereupon her name is changed to Sarah Jean Walker. Afterward, the warden gets notice that the boy woke up and confessed to killing his whole family. Kline, to keep Rachel under his thumb and to hide his radical therapy methods, tries to have Rachel kill the warden, but Rachel apparently regains her senses and breaks the programming. She shoots up the office and seems to wound Kline. Some time later, Rachel is seen once again singing in a dive bar; however, she now goes by her new name, Sarah Jean Walker.

Cast

Linda Haynes as Rachel Foster

Geoffrey Lewis as Dr. Hans Kline

Ellen Travolta as Mover

Aldo Ray as Matt Tibbs

Jackie Coogan as Sheriff Tibbs

Lurene Tuttle as Granny

Mercedes Shirley as Warden Weber

Bobby Porter as Derril Willis

Darlene Craviotto as Rita

Home video

Scorpion Releasing released the film on Blu-ray in 2018, featuring an audio commentary track with director Greg Goodell.

References

Citations

General and cited references

Martin, John: The Seduction of the Gullible: Curious History of the British "Video Nasties" Phenomenon. Nottingham: Procrustes Press, 1993, page 206. ISBN 9780952251002.

External links

Human Experiments at IMDb

Human Experiments at Rotten Tomatoes

Text from Human Experiments on Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Experiments

Trivia

The production budget was US$ 300.000.
It premiered on October 19, 1979, a Friday.
It runs 1h25 — short for a feature film.
It won 1 award(s) and received 0 nomination(s) on record at Wikidata — Sitges Film Festival Best Actress award among them.
This film's quiz has 13 questions — enough to play more than once without repeats.