WOMEN'S PRISON MASSACRE
1983

What do you expect when you watch a Women In Prison movie? Could it be nudity and violence? Hell, yes, and this movie delivers right away on the boobs and unkempt 70s eurobush; the violence starts slow and keeps getting better.

With Laura Gemser, star of the Black Emmanuelle films. Directed by Bruno Mattei (under name Gilbert Roussel, one of his many pseudonyms), who helmed some of the later films of that series. He also responsible for infamous trash classics like Porno Holocaust and S.S. Extermination Love Camp. So you know I had high expectations for this film. And, well…

It delivers on the staples: rape, murder, brutality, humiliation, revenge.

Also known as Emmanuelle Escapes From Hell, this was the last time she would be in a movie with Emmanuelle in the title. Not that it has much to do with the Emmanuelle concept, but the name put butts in seats.

Opens with three pretentious monologues for three women, part of a prison play. Laura Gemser says, “I am Emmanuelle, and I am a woman, even in here.” She was a journalist who came too close to exposing a crooked DA, so she had dope planted on her, and ended up in prison. Her enemies are still trying to silence her inside the prison. She butts heads with the prison staff and the head bitch who runs things in prison, (“I’ll put a stop to your arrogance, you haughty hottentot”) facing off in an arm wrestling match! After the “suspenseful” arm wrestling scene, the guard inexplicably screams out, “Haven’t you had enough violence?” I guess not, bitch!

Obvious budget limitations are displayed by the minute. A lezzy couple is punished for making out by dunking their heads in a sink! The nightsticks are obviously foam, complete with bad sound effects when the guards repeatedly smack Emannuelle on the arms. But thankfully the film gets quite bloody later on.

Four violent murderers awaiting sentencing, including cop-killer “Crazy Boy” (Gabriele Tinti, Gemser’s real-life husband), are housed temporarily at the Women’s Prison. A self-confessed Aryan named Blade slashes a guard’s throat with his specialty, a razor in his teeth, and the four hold a cop and the warden hostage. And what do sex-starved men do when in a place full of sex-starved women? Why, get down and funky, of course, and we see some of that herein.

With fake uniformed cops attacking prison van, a bloody game of Russian roulette, the surprise attack force getting surprised, Blade forcing the two inmates to dance with a male sex doll (“Bobby”) one has kept for “practice”, and more more more. And you’ll never forget the girl who gets revenge on Blade for killing her girlfriend by sticking a razor in her twat and slicing Blade’s dick (off screen) when he mounts her. Talk about your unsafe sex!

Great lines result when English dubbing goes wrong, like “I’m ready to blow anyone that moves a bitch in this muthermuggin’ prison”, and the dramatic “You’ll have no peace until you smell the stink of your own flesh roasting in the electric chair.”

Minimal synth score that may drive you crazy with its repetitiveness, a knock-off Goblin type soundtrack. Print is very scratchy at times; I’m assuming that this was the best quality that could be found on this footage? Not much of a budget, but the unique twist on the storyline and rapid pace keep it interesting.

With some good performances from this slumming Italian cast. Bearded good guy cop Harrison is played by Carlo De Mejo, familiar from Fulci films like The Gates of Hell and The House by the Cemetary.

But Gemser fails to remove her clothes-it must be some sort of record. In fact, I don’t even thinks she changes out of her baggy prison dress once. Her acting is about the same as usual, and she looks nice, as usual.

“Crazy Boy” actor Gabriel Tinti was later in Beaks and Troll 3. Gemser’s real-life husband, Tinti was in nearly all of the Black Emanuelle films, as different characters. Mattei made the previous year’s Caged Women, with several of the same actors; two inmates and the warden repeated from the earlier film, and Tinti playing a different character.

Trailer tagline: “Maximum security…has just gone to hell.”

-Hysteric Eric