Woodyanders Review of Schoolgirls in Chains

Schoolgirls in Chains (1973)

A choice filthy chunk of vintage 70's drive-in sleaze

[8/10 · 8 January 2009]

Sullen, reserved Frank (excellently played with brooding intensity by Gary Kent, who also doubled as the movie's production manager) and his retarded, infantile brother John (a genuinely creepy portrayal by John Stoglin) are a couple of severely misogynistic wackos who get their sick kicks abducting lovely young ladies and holding them hostage in the dingy basement of their remote countryside home. Of course, the decidedly unwholesome sibling pair treat said gals like complete animals and play all sorts of depraved games with them (John in particular likes to play twisted adult versions of doctor and leapfrog with the girls). Writer/director Donald M. Jones does a bang-up job of creating and sustaining a dark, grim, and seamy tone that never lets up for a minute and stays bitterly true to itself right until the perfectly depressing bummer ending. While not that graphic, this film still manages to cast a powerfully bleak and unsettling spell because of its unsparingly harsh and gloomy oppressive atmosphere: A pervasive sense of foul dread and unease hangs heavy throughout like some kind of wretched invisible fog. The uniformly sound acting from the capable cast helps out a whole lot: Veteran B-movie thespian Kent delivers a bravura characterization as a soft-spoken psycho who's prone to frightening sudden mood swings, "Macon County Line" 's Cheryl Waters (Cheryl appears in this flick under the pseudonym Leah Tate), Merrie Lynn Ross (Perry King's pregnant wife in "Class of 1984"), and Suzanne Lund are solid and credible as the brothers' hapless and scared victims, Stafford Morgan does well as likable college professor hero Robert Matthews, and Stoglin makes your skin crawl with his full-bore lunacy as the single most unnervingly unbalanced man-child fruitcake this side of Sid Haig in "Spider Baby." Jones' script covers all the necessary slimy bases: We've got rape (the scene with Frank forcing himself sexually on one of the ladies is pretty ugly and upsetting stuff), nudity, incest, perversion, voyeurism, soft-core sex, and cold-blooded murder. Ron Garcia's rough, yet lively cinematography gives the picture a properly grainy and unpolished look. Josef Powell's offbeat score neatly alternates between groovy jazz and droning atonal weirdness. Highly recommended viewing for 70's exploitation cinema buffs.