Red Heat (1985) - Movie Review

Hi, I'm Torstein from Cinema Terror, let's go back to the glorious 80's and talk about
Red Heat... no, not that one....
that's the one!
Red Heat is a 1985 women in prison movie that had its attraction to the exploitation fans
in that it put the two beloved actresses Linda Blair and Sylvia Kristel together and against
each other.
Blair plays a young American woman named Christine who comes over to West Germany to visit her
fiancee Mike, who's stationed there due to his work for the US military.
After a bad argument regarding their future, Christine takes a midnight walk where she
gets caught up in the kidnapping of a German woman.
Christine is also taken and is soon being prosecuted for being an American spy.
She is sent into a cruel prison where she quickly becomes enemy with a ferocious gang
leader named Sofia, played by Kristel.
Christine has to try to adapt and survive while her only hope to regain freedom is the
love and persistence of Mike, who tries whatever he can to find her and free her from this
hell hole.
Linda Blair had an interesting career turn after being involved in scaring people worldwide
with The Exorcist in the 70's.
She had to turn to b-movies and exploitation flicks in the 80's and was involved in several
that stood out from the norm.
Two years prior to this film, she did another women in prison movie with the surprise hit
Chained Heat.
Between that one and Red Heat, she also did the excellent vigilante movie Savage Streets.
Both films I'd absolutely recommend to anyone that has any interest in Red Heat.
Blair does have a certain innocence to her while still having a strong feel to her, which
makes her work quite well in films like these, even if she might not be the best actress
in the world.
The lovely dutch actress Sylvia Kristel rose to fame in the opposite way of Blair.
At the same time that Blair got famous due to her role in The Exorcist, Kristel found
fame with the successful and innovative softcore film Emmanuelle.
Her natural beauty was never enough to transfer her into mainstream success and due to poor
business guidance and drug habits, she would never get the Emmanuelle label off her name
and had to return to portraying the sexual free character several times over the years.
Her story is too much to get into in a movie review, but I absolutely would like to take
the chance to recommend her biography, or memoirs if you will, called Undressing Emmanuelle
from about ten years ago.
The teamup of Blair and Kristel might attract fans to the movie, but it's not the reason
why Red Heat is entertaining.
What makes Red Heat work and puts it above the average women in prison movie is that
they actually takes the time to give it some effort instead of just being happy by going
through the motions of delivering another film where women are tortured, stripped and
put up against each other in a prison setting.
That's not to say that the film is smart or has a lot to say, it's just that there is
something more to Red Heat than its two main actresses and the exploitation factor.
The movie was filmed in Hungary and Austria during July of 1984 and the settings are quite
nice and fitting for the story.
It does feel like the prisoners are in a real European jail, that is if you look past the
poor and silly handmade face tattoos on the bad girl gang.
The pacing is good and it avoids the more boring parts that often occurs in films like
these.
I'd say that first time director Robert Collector did a good job on this.
IMDB also has the Austrian producer Ernest Ritter von Theumer is listed as an uncredited
director on this film, so I'm gonna guess he did some of the scenes shot in Austria
or something, even though I couldn't find much information on it online.
Going back to Robert Collector, he sure had an interesting but short career.
He followed up this film with Nightflyers a year later, a film that has still thirty
years later not seen a release on either DVD or BluRay due to some rights bullshit.
Collector was then credited as a screenwriter on John Carpenter's 1992 comedy Memoirs of
an Invisible Man and then he resurrected back on the scene in 2006 by writing and directing
the sports drama Believe in Me.
Surprisingly enough the soundtrack is done by the German group Tangerine Dream.
While they did do music for low budget movies, it was still a nice surprise to see their
work here and as always, they do deliver.
It's not the best music they have made before, but it is better than what you could expect
from a women in prison movie.
Red Heat is not as silly or campy as Chained Heat, but it is a more serious women in prison
film that does manage to work as it took its time with setting up the plot and the main
characters.
If you are interested in Red Heat then there is a triple feature DVD set out of it together
with Chained Heat and Jungle Warriors by Panik House Entertainment.
Beware though that this version of Red Heat has a rape scene of Linda Blair's character
cut out of it.
If you want an uncut version of it then there is the alternative of an older dutch VHS version
by VideoScreen.
If these are the kind of movies that you enjoy then Red Heat is absolutely worth watching.
I found it enjoyable enough to give it a 3.5 out of 5.
Have you seen Red Heat?
If so, what did you think of it?
What are your favorite women in prison films of all time?
Or just favorite Linda Blair performances outside of the obvious choice of The Exorcist.
Let me know about it in the comment section below, subscribe if you liked this review
and want to see more and of course and as always, thank you for watching.

Red Heat (1985) - Movie Review

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