WIP Films Live On in Recent Film ‘Locked Up’
Jess Franco says: “WIP, today, tomorrow and forever!”
All credit goes to Netflix and their streaming services. They stock such a wide range of films for viewers of every taste. While they may run light on classics from Hollywood’s “Golden Era,”quite a bit remains. One such offering, the 2017 WIP (Women in Prison) handbook. If Locked Up does anything well, it follows the WIP handbook to the letter and makes no apologies.
Crap: Art Spelled Backwards
The Women in Prison films are relics of a bygone era. WIP films trace back to the beginnings of cinema. Consequently, in the 1970s, an element of sleaze was added to the already lurid premises. These elements came into being when production codes were abolished. Directors received more leeway to experiment. As such, the results were a slew of the un-PC, sexist as any film get could get. Hardly something you’d not expect to see ever again. However, those of you who subscribe to Netflix can find a recent entry to the genre the 2017 film Locked Up.
The film stars newcomer Kelly McCart as an unfortunate girl. Stranded in a foreign land, she gets in a fight. Blamed for the fight (or because they needed a white actress to play the lead), the judge sentences her to a detention facility. Mallory’s uncle (in another convention of the genre) believes in her innocence, but still says she must go until they figure it out.
Requirements for a WIP (Women, Lack of a Wardrobe Budget, Thailand)
Once separated from her Uncle, the evil warden and head inmate conspire to bring Mallory to heel. The director of the film slogs out the usual ham-handed, cliche-ridden perils that all WIP heroines endure. The most notable, as with all other WIP films, horribly-delivered dialogue by non-native English speakers. Those actors that you have to rewind the movie several times to figure out what they are saying.
Then the fun begins.
The new girl becomes a play-toy for the entire prison. As a result, her clothes come off more times than a stripper working a double shift. Furthermore, desperate to get in on some of that nudity, prison guards, male, of course, willingly take orders to see her naked. They perform a tepid rape scene and back to guard duty they go.
The movie continues drawing from the WIP handbook with lesbianism, a gleeful camera’s exploration of female skin and doesn’t cut away as quickly as it should. Whether intentional or not, twice the camera lingers on two shots of the actresses in the nude and bending over. The film is very retro in its blatant and unashamed use of every sexist film convention. Though very much in line with its 1970 brethren, it feels very much out of time in the world of today.
Not that that’s a bad thing.
Kelly McCart – Straight Out of Cirio Santiago’s Dreams
As well, the casting of new actress Kelli McCart takes the viewer back to the heyday of the genre. Instead of some statuesque pretty face, the filmmakers used a plainer, fleshier girl for the lead. Don’t get me wrong, McCart is gorgeous but she is more in line with the 1970s than today.
Locked Up is a terrible film. Poorly acted and conceived, it should be left as it is and isn’t worth trying to figure out or make sense of like this reviewer from Dread Central tried to do:
“Locked Up has disturbing elements of course. Any film that revolves around a foreigner sent to prison, especially at a young age, will spark your “that’s so wrong” meter. Although you want to cheer for Mallory, you also want to know… what the hell is up with this Shawshank-turned-Girlfight movie.”
Director Jared Cohn has his reasons for making Locked Up the way he did. I admire his attempt. Whatever his reasons, Locked Up like its predecessors failed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRXaH2EprZg