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Well, it was bound to happen... everything old is new again, right? It looks like the success of the Fox Network's Prison Break show is spurring a resurgence of the prison genre film, with Rob Cohen (Fast and the Furious, XXX) being tapped to helm Scared Straight, a new film about a governor's teenage son who gets sent to prison as part of a crime-prevention program and gets caught up in a prison riot.
The real Scared Straight was a documentary in 1978 where troubled delinquints were sent to Rahway State Prison to sit in a room and have "Lifers" scream at them, berate them, threaten them, etc. Literally, trying to scare them into turning their lives around and going straight. I remember watching this with my older brothers when it was first show on TV that year. OMG you should have seen my parents freak out. They had a disclaimer on before the show about "strong language," but I don't think ANYONE was prepared for the onslaught of "motherfuckers" that were thrown out in conversation that night. I remember one sequence where some Lifer threatened to rip out some kids eyeball and eat it, and if memory serves, some other guy talked to some kid about how he wanted to introduce him to the joys of anal prison rape. Classic stuff.
The film went on to win an Oscar for Best Documentary, and an Emmy as well. The success of the film and the shocking nature of the program caused many states to introduce their own Scared Straight programs, and let me tell you, the threat of being anally prison raped, while I'm sure an incentive for some, was a deterrent to most of the kids on my bus.
For the fictional film, the program will be used as the plot device to get the teen (and other savvy but troubled teens) into the prison, so that when the riot breaks out, the teens can band together and defeat the prisoners and save the day.
Um... Yeah.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Cohen said the setting will not be an old, traditional prison but rather an ultra high-tech slammer. "It's going to be a sophisticated, state-of-the-art prison, which of course will be its weakness."
Of course.
Sort of a Prison Break meets Red Dawn meets Panic Room, wouldn't you say? I say screw the teenagers and let's just bring back the "women in prison" genre. Come on... you know you'd watch it.
