Caged Heat (1974) is an interesting start to Jonathan Demme's long career.

Watching this I don't think you could ever predict this director would go on to do The Silence of the Lambs but there are also a ton of features separating the two so I shouldn't be so surprised. Even as someone who enjoys films like this, I had trouble getting into this one. I prefer The Big Bird Cage or Prison Heat but what do I know? I like Werewolf in a Women's Prison so you definitely shouldn't listen to me. What a strange subgenre this is. I think I might be brain dead because this was pretty dull to me. The synopsis made it sound exciting but so many of these women in prison films seem identical with almost the exact same plot. No worries if you enjoy this film. I just struggled with it but I was still very glad to see Demme's first feature. First films of famous directors are always so fascinating even if they're lackluster since you can see how very far they came. You have to put in the work and work really hard then work more and more and more.