The Hot Box - 1972

Women in Prison films I explored maybe 1-2 times on here before.  It's not my favorite of the cult genres, but it's one I go to if I want to see rampant nudity, perhaps some rape, and mindless action violence.  And last night, I wanted all of that.

Produced and co-written by Jonathan Demme, this is from the Corman wheelhouse and also the Filipino director Cirio H. Santiago.  If you don't know, that means schlock, exploitation, and cheapo budgets with non-actors and minimal outlook the whole way round.

The Hot Box was filmed in the Philippians, and it has four hot American nurses who are captured by a group of guerrillas early into the movie.  They are swiped from the beach, taken by this ridiculous overacting stereotype guy and I begin to think "oh no" about how good this will be, but soon they're traded off to another group of guerrillas, a group who is actually sensible and decently written.  I guess future Academy Award winner Demme did his job decently here.

There's lots of absurd nudity in the first 30 or so minutes as the girls bathe, as the girls have their shirts torn off for various reasons.  The nudity slows from time to time after that, and then ramps up again towards the end.  They didn't ever get any full nudity in here, no crotch shots in this one, but the tits are good and there's plenty of them, so your appetite will be fulfilled.

It's above average for this type of thing. The women are well written, and two or so of them are actual developed people for once.  The guerrillas are made to be sympathetic, and it's done well.  The movie is overly long again, and I checked how much was left many times towards the end.  It drags it's ass and you'll be distracted for sure, but overall, whatev.  It ain't too bad.  I give it 3.