Human Experiments
A travelling singer is wrongly convicted after stumbling into the aftermath of a murder and is sent to a women's correctional facility, where an ambitious psychiatrist subjects inmates to psychological experimentation. The film mixes prison exploitation with conspiracy thriller elements and a notably strong lead performance from Linda Haynes.
Film details
| Original / alt title | Human Experiments; Beyond the Gate |
| Year | 1979 |
| Director | Gregory Goodell |
| Country | USA |
| Runtime | Approx. 78 min |
| Main cast | Linda Haynes, Geoffrey Lewis, Ellen Travolta, Aldo Ray, Jackie Coogan |
UK status
Included on the first public DPP Video Nasty list in 1983, but never successfully prosecuted under the Obscene Publications Act.
The film had already received an uncut X certificate for UK cinema exhibition in 1979; its nasty status came later through the video panic.
Why it caused controversy
UK censorship / Video Nasties history
A quick status check first, followed by the film’s censorship timeline. A DPP prosecution was an obscenity case against a particular video publication — it was not automatically the same thing as a permanent nationwide “ban”.
Detailed censorship timeline & facts
FACTS & TRIVIA
- The film is also known as Beyond the Gate.
- Linda Haynes plays Rachel Foster, a singer who becomes trapped in the prison system.
- Geoffrey Lewis appears as the psychiatrist behind the experiments.
- The cast also includes Aldo Ray, Jackie Coogan and Ellen Travolta.
- Unlike many nasty titles, the film had already been classified uncut for UK cinema before the VHS panic.
- Its status demonstrates how inconsistent the DPP process could be: it was listed but never successfully prosecuted.
- The prison-exploitation angle makes it quite different from the slashers and cannibal films that dominate the list.
Distributor / VHS label
Archive cover shown is the user-supplied scan. UK distributor / VHS-label attribution varies by edition and is not asserted here without a verified sleeve imprint.
Trailer
Open a search for the original theatrical / VHS-era trailer. This keeps the archive linking to publicly available trailer sources rather than hosting copyrighted film footage.
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