This extremely odd sequel within the Lesbian Video genre threw me for a loop - after watching the trailer and then the full epic-length (3 and a half hours!) storyline feature I thought my leg was being pulled nearly out of its socket. And it is battered legs, namely exploitation of some vague interest in the sex lives (and abilities) of crippled or paralyzed women, that serves as the hook for this exaggerated sequel to a XXX classic.
Now there is precedence for this sort of thing: a memorable scene in the Jon Voight/Jane Fonda drama COMING HOME tastefully explored the issue of sex in a wheelchair (it sounds pretty crass typing that but both thesps after all came home with Oscars). In Gay Cinema there is the classic 1972 film A DEEP COMPASSION about an effeminate blind youth raped by a criminal. Further afield is the case of lovely Long Jean Silver, exploited in a series of '70s films focusing on her infirmity, a leg stump which she used as specialty act as a live dildo to hump both men and women, before eventually appearing as a "normal" actress (stump not exposed or revealed by camera angle) in normal porn scenes.
The original film took a black-humor subject: sexual mistreating of the so-sensitive Shyla Jennings by Mean Girls from school and turned it into a sensitive, almost moving experience. The secret, by Girlfriends Films' head honcho Dan O'Connell, was to cast terrific actresses like Rayveness and Ariella Ferrera and not to overemphasize Shyla's paralyzed legs predicament. But for the inevitable sequel they wallow in giving her and yet another crippled girl (well-played by Heather Starlet) a terrible time.
The talented Shyla Jennings, who can be seen in any number of routine lesbian features like AGAINST HER WILL 2 and SEDUCED BY MOMMY, was crippled after an accident 6 years back, with leg braces, on crutches and even occasionally in a wheelchair. In part 1 of the series she was bullied and ultimately raped by mean girls Faye Reagan and Georgia Jones, latter making a non-sex cameo appearance in part 2.
In Part 2 she's joined by another crippled girl Heather Starlet, whose ability to have feeling in her lower body (and experience sexual release) becomes a prime issue in the video's tasteless (and uncredited) script -dialog is generally improvised. A key scene has physical therapist Julia Ann (weird casting) having her way sexually with Heather under the guise of helping her to regain feeling.
Feature, which plays like a movie albeit an extremely loonnnggg movie, comes to a halt for nearly half an hour when Shyla visits Heather in the hospital to give her an elaborate pep talk about getting well after spinal chord and leg injuries, what they have in common. This being a Girlfriends Films release, they eventually discover they have incipient lesbianism in common too, and under the pretense of practicing kissing for when they're ready to date boys (!) Shyla seduces Heather and discovers a whole lot of feeling going on in her "down there". This was nice making Shyla the aggressor for a change.
Though she gets crappy billing in the end credits Shyla is the prime workhorse in the sack in Part 2, getting to hump not just Heather but also in a fantasy sequence Lily Carter (who has a crush on Shyla), permitting Shyla to be able-bodied sans leg braces or other accoutrements including clothing since this is a fantasy) and finally bedding down with young lesbian Sensi Perri, who's on the rebound from a romance with Shyla's new neighbor and new caretaker Syren De Mer (we've seen those two go at it previously).
One hint as to what is really going on here is that twice during the 3 and a half hours we see our hapless heroines suddenly fall crushingly to the ground, re-injuring themselves. This qualifies as story or plot content but I, foolishly identifying to some extent with the protagonists, sensed a cruelty factor. I shouldn't expect to find sympathy or even a plea for understanding in a pornographic work, but the cult of inverting values to idolize "smut", "perversity", "wonderfully dirty", that so many historians and enthusiasts of porn join is one brand of Kool Aid I refuse to drink. Bottom line: Part 1 was sympathetic, while Part 2 veers toward horrendous Eli & Quentin torture porn.
Now there is precedence for this sort of thing: a memorable scene in the Jon Voight/Jane Fonda drama COMING HOME tastefully explored the issue of sex in a wheelchair (it sounds pretty crass typing that but both thesps after all came home with Oscars). In Gay Cinema there is the classic 1972 film A DEEP COMPASSION about an effeminate blind youth raped by a criminal. Further afield is the case of lovely Long Jean Silver, exploited in a series of '70s films focusing on her infirmity, a leg stump which she used as specialty act as a live dildo to hump both men and women, before eventually appearing as a "normal" actress (stump not exposed or revealed by camera angle) in normal porn scenes.
The original film took a black-humor subject: sexual mistreating of the so-sensitive Shyla Jennings by Mean Girls from school and turned it into a sensitive, almost moving experience. The secret, by Girlfriends Films' head honcho Dan O'Connell, was to cast terrific actresses like Rayveness and Ariella Ferrera and not to overemphasize Shyla's paralyzed legs predicament. But for the inevitable sequel they wallow in giving her and yet another crippled girl (well-played by Heather Starlet) a terrible time.
The talented Shyla Jennings, who can be seen in any number of routine lesbian features like AGAINST HER WILL 2 and SEDUCED BY MOMMY, was crippled after an accident 6 years back, with leg braces, on crutches and even occasionally in a wheelchair. In part 1 of the series she was bullied and ultimately raped by mean girls Faye Reagan and Georgia Jones, latter making a non-sex cameo appearance in part 2.
In Part 2 she's joined by another crippled girl Heather Starlet, whose ability to have feeling in her lower body (and experience sexual release) becomes a prime issue in the video's tasteless (and uncredited) script -dialog is generally improvised. A key scene has physical therapist Julia Ann (weird casting) having her way sexually with Heather under the guise of helping her to regain feeling.
Feature, which plays like a movie albeit an extremely loonnnggg movie, comes to a halt for nearly half an hour when Shyla visits Heather in the hospital to give her an elaborate pep talk about getting well after spinal chord and leg injuries, what they have in common. This being a Girlfriends Films release, they eventually discover they have incipient lesbianism in common too, and under the pretense of practicing kissing for when they're ready to date boys (!) Shyla seduces Heather and discovers a whole lot of feeling going on in her "down there". This was nice making Shyla the aggressor for a change.
Though she gets crappy billing in the end credits Shyla is the prime workhorse in the sack in Part 2, getting to hump not just Heather but also in a fantasy sequence Lily Carter (who has a crush on Shyla), permitting Shyla to be able-bodied sans leg braces or other accoutrements including clothing since this is a fantasy) and finally bedding down with young lesbian Sensi Perri, who's on the rebound from a romance with Shyla's new neighbor and new caretaker Syren De Mer (we've seen those two go at it previously).
One hint as to what is really going on here is that twice during the 3 and a half hours we see our hapless heroines suddenly fall crushingly to the ground, re-injuring themselves. This qualifies as story or plot content but I, foolishly identifying to some extent with the protagonists, sensed a cruelty factor. I shouldn't expect to find sympathy or even a plea for understanding in a pornographic work, but the cult of inverting values to idolize "smut", "perversity", "wonderfully dirty", that so many historians and enthusiasts of porn join is one brand of Kool Aid I refuse to drink. Bottom line: Part 1 was sympathetic, while Part 2 veers toward horrendous Eli & Quentin torture porn.