Exoticalot People are voting emotionally.

Steineded How sad is this?

Gary The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

Haven Kaycee It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

Parker Lewis I saw this awhile ago and if you're expecting Robert Reed to be the fatherly Brady type, then go watch the Brady Bunch. He really relishes his malevolent prison warden role big time where all the prisoners are female. Interestingly, when I revisited this movie in Wikipedia recently, I didn't realize the lead star Deborah Raffin passed away in 2012 at the young age of 59.There's a sense of foreboding in this movie and there are several deaths. I think there should be a remake/reboot. I think Michael Douglas would be amazing in the role of the prison warden, and maybe in an act of innovative casting have say Sharon Stone, Glenn Close, Kathleen Turner, and Demi Moore, play the prisoners.

Scott LeBrun 'Nightmare in Badham County' is quite serious stuff that exposes abuses in a Southern prison system. By the very nature of the television medium, it's never as exploitative as some trash lovers would like (although there IS a more explicit international version out there). Still, it's pleasingly sleazy, played for drama with little to nothing in the way of humour. Deborah Raffin and Lynne Moody star as Cathy and Diane, who lovely young UCLA co-oeds driving through the country who make the acquaintance of a smarmy, bigoted sheriff named Danen (Chuck Connors). When Diane spurs his advances, he gets his revenge by having them thrown in jail on trumped up charges. From then on, it becomes a fairly typical Women In Prison story, with Cathy and Diane having to adjust to the harsh reality of being forced to become slave labour. An all star main cast is no less than convincing. Tina Louise and Lana Wood are among the trustees (veteran prisoners who've been given some degree of authority) and look quite delectable; also playing a trustee is the wonderful Fionnula Flanagan as Dulcie, the one woman in the bunch who treats Cathy with anything approaching sympathy or dignity. Della Reese is Sarah, the habitual jailbird who's grown cynical and who takes Diane under her wing. Ralph Bellamy is the judge who refuses to believe the girls' story. And Robert Reed may colour your future viewings of his Mike Brady performances with a vivid turn as a monumentally creepy superintendent. Exploitation aficionados will note the presence of Denise Dillaway from "The Cheerleaders" (1973). With an effective country style music score by Charles Bernstein, this features such staples of the genre as violence (a girl is whipped, although if you're watching the edited-for-TV version, there's a cut to commercials before it really gets started) and lesbian overtures (although as you can imagine, this is done pretty subtly. Overall, this is a reasonably compelling and consistently entertaining story that gets most of its juice from Moodys' endearing portrayal; Raffin is okay but Moody has more natural appeal and presence on screen. If you enjoy this genre or any of the actors involved, you may find this agreeable enough. The ending is a truly bittersweet one, but at least the film offers some hope that things can get better. Eight out of 10.

Coventry Usually I try and avoid watching TV-movies because I keep thinking they hold back on shocking content and grisly images, but lately I've encountered several titles that actually proved my way of thinking is entirely incorrect and even quite shallow. "Nightmare in Badham County" is one of them examples, because the themes featuring in this movie are definitely not what you would call "soft". Perhaps the depicted violence isn't as graphical and the sleaze isn't as explicit, but the suggestive material and insinuations here are far more shocking than the gratuitous footage in most other contemporary flicks. This undeservedly and sadly obscure made-for-TV 70's thriller successfully combines elements and ambiances from two of the most commonly used and popular horror sub genres of the mid 70's, namely the so-called "Women in Prison" films and "Hicksploitation" movies. The former is pretty self-explaining and handles about defenseless girls being locked away in corrupt and filthy jails where they are confronted with perverted guards and aggressive prisoner gangs. The latter is probably my personal favorite sub genre of horror and like no other one it truly reflects the essence of 70's horror film-making. "Hicksploitation" routinely revolves on civilized people getting stuck, for whatever reason, in isolated backwoods villages inhabited by primitive and exaggeratedly hostile people with horrible dental hygiene. Combinations of the two genres aren't manifold, but "Nightmare in Badham County" illustrates that it's perfectly possible and even almost logical to amalgamate the characteristics of both.But this is also more than just a shocking exploitation hybrid. "Nightmare in Badham County" is a genuinely moving drama with identifiable lead characters, a disturbing portrait about the abuse of authority and generally speaking also a professionally directed and astoundingly shot but modest film. Whilst on a road trip through the South, interracial college girlfriends Cathy and Diane are forced to make a stop in a small community in Badham County due to car trouble. The liberated and free-spirited girls they are, they quickly offend and publicly humiliate the chauvinistic pig Sheriff Danen. So badly even that he finds a cheap excuse to place them under arrest and then, at night, sneak into Diane's cell to rape her. A trial follows, but seeing that in this Southern part of the nation everyone is related to everyone, the girls are sentenced to 30 days in Badham County's women prison – called "The Farm" – and that's where the nightmare truly begins. The girls become separated because of their skin color and are prohibited to contact the outside world. They are subjected to hard labor and the harsh and often perverted commands of the guards, while the slightest sign of disobedience results in an increase of their punishment. Several courageous attempts to escape or reach out to the outside world fail because everybody in Badham County appears to be corrupt and/or petrified of the local "legal" system. "Nightmare in Badham County" is, without exaggerating, at least a dozen times more involving and approximately 99% of the other 'Women-in-Prison" movies out there, principally because the two leading ladies are so innocent and defenseless whereas the townsfolk and prison guards are so infuriatingly nefarious! This is one of the rare movies where you literally want to dive into the screen and reach out to help the protagonists because everything that happens to them is so damn unfair and saddening. When you accomplish this level of entanglements among your viewers, I think you can safely say you did a great job as a director. Speaking of which, I actually expected no less from John Llewellyn Moxey as he already demonstrated his craftsmanship numerous of times, for example with "Horror Hotel", "The Night Stalker" and "Where have all the People gone?". Moxey marvelously creates a moodily grim and unsettling rural atmosphere, through fitting music and extended shots of lonely country tableaux, but he also owes a lot to his terrific ensemble cast. Deborah Raffin and Lynne Moody are exceptional as the ladies in distress, but the people portraying the local yokels are near perfect as well – particularly the almost naturally sleazy looking Chuck Connors as the Sheriff. The ending will make you feel left behind as helpless and frustrated as Cathy and Diane themselves, but realism and hard truth are also two main trumps of this overall fantastic cult movie accomplishment. In case you're a truly devoted fan of good shock-cinema and you need a break from all the trashy but dumb 'Women-in-Prison' movies, I wholeheartedly recommend tracking this baby down!

bfjrnski Contains Spoilers!! Nightmare in Badham County was originally shown as a TV movie.But a later "theatrical" version has turned in video stores.This "theatrical" version has added only a few scenes of fronal nudity and lesbian brutality.But these scenes succeed in making "Nightmare in Badham County" little more than a sleazy,girlie-prison video flick! The TV version (which by now might air on the late-late show) remains a much more tame and more gripping drama.One that leaves the viewer shocked and saddened... The story involves two college girls-Kathy and Diane.Best friends on summer vacation touring through the "deep south".The only problem is that Kathy is white and Diane is black.They happen to encounter car trouble in a small,remote,rural town in which black folks still live in subservience and repression.After telling off the local,bigotted sheriff he arranges their incarceration in a local jailhouse.And after raping the black girl he succeeds in having them sentenced to "30 days" in the local prison farm. This squalid prison farm is run by a wealthy and sleazy warden and the "guards" are actually rifle-toting trustees.The blacks and whites are kept in separate barracks but are treated equally badly!The work is long,hot,and back-breaking.The food is virtually non-existent.Blacks and whites are forbidden to even speak to each other.The trustees are tough andcold.In the complete absence of the nudity and lesbianism of the video version we the TV viewers are able to feel the unbearable heat,hunger,and desperation of Kathy and Diane's plight!Sex is not a way out for them.They're only hope is escape!And escape only results in Kathy's eventual freedom.Diane is killed.And we learn that she is not the only one to die at the hands of Badham County!