Review: LUST FOR FREEDOM

Title: LUST FOR FREEDOM

Year: 1987

Director: Eric Louzil

Writer: Eric Louzil, Craig Kusaba, Duke Howard

Starring: Melanie Coll, William J. Kulzer, Judi Trevor

LUST FOR FREEDOM at first may appear to be just an another women-in-prison exploitation. Just another piece of trash cinema to entertain the masses of genre geeks everywhere. But LUST FOR FREEDOM is much more than that. LUST FOR FREEDOM is a film with a message. 

That message is quite simple. If you're a cop, never ever under any circumstances hook up with your partner. The results will be disastrous. Just ask poor Gillian Kaites (Melanie Coll).

LUST FOR FREEDOM opens up with a drug bust gone bad. Gillian is undercover with her partner/fiancé just moments away from taking down a big time drug dealer. Helping on the bust are two other cops, one who happens to be a blue rookie. The rookie of course is a little gun happy and blows the cover which results in a gun fight. 

Immediately Gillian's fiancé is shot and killed. With the remaining cops in need of her help, Gillian is motionless. She is unable to help. This is the problem with starting a relationship with your partner.

Gillian decides she can no longer do anything. She quits the force and drives down the open road. The goal is to drive into nothingness. Instead of nothingness, Gillian ends up booked in a prison by a corrupt police force. Women-in-prison movie begins!

Once inside the prison everything you'd expect to happen in a WIP movie happens. There's plenty of nudity, fights, girl-on-girl action of multiple varieties, prison guards treating women awful, etc, etc. It's your basic trash cinema. Nothing here is going to re-shape the way you view film. 

That being said LUST FOR FREEDOM is a ton of fun. I don't need my exploitation films to be groundbreaking. I just want fun and this movie delivers. With plenty of trashy action all to a rock in' metal soundtrack courtesy of Grim Reaper, what's not to like?

A Troma release from the late 80s, LUST FOR FREEDOM was recently released on DVD by the great guys over at Vinegar Syndrome. The movie looks great and comes in a case with really cool artwork. There are a few special features on the disc including the one and only Lloyd Kaufman telling his fond memories on making the movie. Listen to Uncle Lloyd talk at his Troma desk is something I'll never tire of.

When a movie is called LUST FOR FREEDOM, I think you're going to know without watching it whether or not it's a movie for you. If you're reading this review, it's more than likely a movie for you. It's far from perfect with mostly bad acting and a mostly bad plot but this is why we love it, right?

Rating: 3.5/5

Own LUST FOR FREEDOM: http://vinegarsyndrome.com/launch/?product=lust-for-freedom-dvd