Daisy (Starina Johnson) comes home to find her ailing mother attempting suicide. She tries to stop her, with tragic consequences. A neighbor witnesses their altercation and thinks Daisy was trying to kill her mother. She calls the cops, and Daisy is tried and sentenced for murder. Once in the big house, she tries to adjust to her new life. Eventually, she forms a family unit with her fellow inmates as they stand united against the lecherous guard (Stacy Cunningham) who sets out to make her life a living hell.
On the surface, Stuck! looks like a throwback to the women in prison films of the ‘50s. It boasts a cool supporting cast that features Karen Black, Mink Stole, and The Go-Go’s Jane Wiedlin. All of them are pretty much wasted in one way or another, however. Wiedlin in particular is given absolutely nothing to do as she plays the childlike “Princess” whose only dialogue is repeating the last few words her girlfriend says. Black’s character is kinda superfluous too. It seems like the part might’ve been a lot smaller, but once they realized they had a name star in the role, they decided they needed to give her something to do.
Despite appearances, Stuck! Is low on exploitation elements, which is disappointing. It might’ve been a fun send-up of WIP movies, but other than one gratuitous disrobing scene, the nudity is pitifully low. We do get a shower, gangbang, and mutual masturbation scene, although all of them occur fully clothed and/or happen offscreen.
The drama is really amateurish too. With its minimalistic sets, it often feels more like a filmed Off-Broadway play than an honest to goodness genre flick. Even the black and white photography is kind of crummy. (It looks like it was filmed in color and then changed in post-production.) I mean it just sort of fails on every level.
Even when the movie starts to show promise, it almost immediately drops the ball. There’s an interesting plot wrinkle about halfway through when Daisy survives her first execution and seemingly takes on a new identity. This threatens to put a little spark into the proceedings, but it’s pretty much forgotten as soon as it’s introduced. In short, Stuck! deserves a stiff sentence.
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