Nightmare In Badham County

So, time for a weird story about John Llewellyn Moxley's 1976 made-for-TV movie "Nightmare in Badham County": The film became so popular in China after release that actress Deborah Raffin became an unofficial ambassador in helping China make deals with Hollywood. What's so confounding about the fact that Raffin's post was given after industry leaders in China watched this absolutely nasty B-movie about the subjection of slave labor under greedy landowners in a small Southern town. Seriously, this is what inspired them to make more deals with Hollywood? Anyway, the film itself is very patient in its exploitation of the justice system and is a downright gritty look at trauma caused by the institutions we're supposed to trust in society.

Two coeds from UCLA, Cathy Phillips (Raffin) and Diane Emery (Lynne Moody), are driving cross country on their summer break when they blow out a tire and end up rebuffing the sexual advances of a dirty sheriff named Danen (Chuck Connors). The sheriff locks the two young women up in prison on a false claim that they tried to solicit the sheriff for sex. They're then thrust into a nightmare scenario they have no idea how to navigate. Sent to a prison farm filled with inmates unjustly there because the local property owners want cheap labor for their farms, Cathy and Diane hatch a plot to escape.

In a new interview with director John Llewellyn Moxley on this new Blu-ray from Kino Lorber and their Studio Classics label, the filmmaker speaks to how many of the sexually explicit scenes were shot after the film found so much success on TV. The powers that be wanted to add more sex and violence for the theatrical release and, weirdly enough, the film is actually the better for it. The further the film dives into its gross predilections, the grosser it makes the viewer feel for watching this. Plus, Moxley films everything in really banal widescreen compositions that lend itself to the subject matter pretty damn well.

The new 2K masters of the TV and theatrical versions of "Nightmare in Badham County" look like the restoration team was working from some really beat-up print materials. There's a lot of imperfections that weren't cleaned up for the home release, but even that becomes an integral part in the visual aesthetic of the film. This is a downright disgusting and squirmy film, which benefits when it dives into sexual and racial subjugation under the prison industrial system. Other special features include:

� Audio commentary by film historian Amanda Reyes and author Justin Kerswell
� Trailers

"Nightmare in Badham County"
Kino Lorber Blu-ray
$29.95
https://www.kinolorber.com/product/nightmare-in-badham-county-special-edition-blu-ray