Chained Heat
Chained Heat is a 1983 film from the USA and West Germany, directed by Paul Nicholas, running 95 minutes. reelscum files it under women in prison.
- Year
- 1983 · 1980s films
- Country
- USA · West Germany
- Runtime
- 95 min
- Director
- Paul Nicholas
- Updated
- 29 Oct 2026
- Obscurity
- cult (47/100)
- Also known as
- Chained Heat
Defined in the glossary: Women in prison
Linda Blair goes to prison. A sleazy 80s update of the formula, with a corrupt warden and a hot tub.
A grimy 80s revival of the women-in-prison formula, casting Linda Blair, years after The Exorcist, as a naive inmate thrown into a corrupt American prison run by a warden who films himself with prisoners in his office hot tub. Sybil Danning and a roster of exploitation regulars fill out the cellblock.
It hits every genre beat, the sadistic guards, the shower, the racial gang tensions, the riot, with 80s sleaze and a surprising amount of star power. Trashier and more mean-spirited than the Filipino cycle, it became one of the better-known WIP films of its decade.
Trailer
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On these lists
- Women in prison: the essentials
Roger Corman worked out you could film the whole genre in the Philippines for nothing, and everyone spent the next decade reshooting his shower scene.
Filed alongside
Barbed Wire Dolls
Jess Franco's contribution to the cycle. Cheap, delirious and utterly shameless, even for him.
Reform School Girls
The women-in-prison film as its own punchline, fronted by the lead singer of the Plasmatics.
The Big Doll House
Jack Hill and Pam Grier invent the modern formula in the Philippines.
Female Prisoner 701: Scorpion
Sold as a women-in-prison quickie. Shot like an art film. Meiko Kaji barely blinks.
The Big Bird Cage
Funnier and better than the first. Sid Haig is having an excellent time.
Love Camp 7
The film that invented nazisploitation six years before Ilsa made it a genre.
Female Prisoner Scorpion: Beast Stable
Ito's last. Kaji drags a severed arm through Tokyo in the opening minutes.
Women's Prison Massacre
Late Italian entry. Laura Gemser, and a body count instead of a plot.
Black Mama White Mama
The Defiant Ones with Pam Grier, shot in the Philippines by a Filipino who actually knew the terrain.
Female Prisoner Scorpion: Jailhouse 41
Ito's second, and the most formally daring film in the whole category.
Women in Cages
Pam Grier as the sadist for once. Bleaker than its stablemates.
99 Women
Franco doing the formula early, with Mercedes McCambridge as the warden.