Blade Violent (1985)

Well, I won't say I'm a big fan of Italy's Emanuelle rip-off films, but they often make for decent exploitation entertainment, despite usually being crap. I prefer the title 'Emanuelle Escapes from Hell', but this film is also known as 'Emanuelle in Prison' - and as that title suggests, this is basically a 'women in prison' film, with Emanuelle in it. However, the usually rubbish Bruno Mattei has decided to put a slightly different spin on the genre, and rather than having a no-plot film about lesbian guards and women with no clothes on, we have a plot line involving a bunch of criminals that hole in the prison(?), and proceed to rape and molest the inmates. It's still pretty dire, however - the cinematography is good, but the action is your usual sleazy Emanuelle fare, mixed with some classic exploitation-style sleaze for good measure. As you would expect, the film features a performance from Emanuelle herself, Laura Gemser, but in a reversal of form - she keeps her clothes on! There's still plenty of nudity, however (don't worry!), although it would seem that Mattei was more keen to keep the focus on the criminals that have broken in rather than the women in the cells. Still, every exploitation fan has probably pretty much seen this before, and I wouldn't really recommend it to non-Emanuelle fans.

Leave it to chronically shameless Italian exploitation movie sludgemeister supreme Bruno Mattei to make one of the most delectably revolting and depressing 80's chicks-in-chains features, a gloriously ghastly el schlocko marvel that gleefully caters to the lowest possible denominator in the sleaziest manner imaginable. The always sexy and smoldering Laura Gemser stars as feisty investigative reporter Emanuelle (of course), who while serving hard time in the grimy joint runs afoul of the sadistic warden, the equally brutish guards, and pallid, pasty-faced big nasty bleach blonde top con Albina. Four ferocious deathrow-bound male convicts led by the cheerfully vicious and maniacal cop killer psycho "Crazy Boy" Henderson (a first-rate cackling dirtbag performance by Gemser's real-life husband Gabriele Tinti) are shipped to the hoosegow for temporary detainment en route to a one-way trip to the electric chair. The dangerous quartet take over the prison and proceed to get it on with the man-hungry, sex-starved female inmates! The leave-no-skanky-cliché-unaccounted-for pandering script delivers a ripely overabundant catalog of marvelously explicit and excessive gutter-crawling depravity: cat fights, shower scenes, lesbianism, savage stick beatings, grisly throat slicing, bloody shoot-outs, rape, strangulation, an especially wince-inducing castration (ouch!), even a "Deer Hunter"-derived Russian roulette sequence! The deathlessly lousy and, naturally, atrociously dubbed dialogue boasts such gut-busting tin-eared gems as "Filthy slut Irene; I'm open to anyone's offers" and the truly immortal taunt "I'll bite your nipples off!" Obviously shot on a paltry five'n'ten cent budget, with shoddy, muddy cinematography, spare, almost barren sets (the prison looks like an old abandoned warehouse -- and probably was exactly that), and an annoyingly monotonous sub-Goblin synthesizer score, this thoroughly foul and fetid festering scuzzpit of a flick's pervasive cheapness and seediness actually enhances instead of detracts from the relentlessly sordid and gloomy tone. A splendidly squalid slimebucket treat.

In the short period of only one year, the infamous Italian director Bruno Mattei directed TWO films in the "Black Emanuelle"-series starring Laura Gemser that are both set inside the walls of women's prison. Yet, the 1982 film "Caged Women" differs a lot from this "Women's Prison Massacre", and the latter one doesn't even fully belongs in the entirely on sex revolving Emanuelle-cycle, anyway. "Women's Prison Massacre" is a truly brutal and shocking exploitation effort that seemly only carries the popular "Emanuelle"-label because it's a lot easier to promote the film that way! In case you're hoping to see another truckload of pointless sleaze, you'll be sorely disappointed, but in pretty much every other case, you're more likely to be very surprised by this exciting exploitation adventure! Instead of serving the same old and repetitive dish of whipping lesbian guards and helplessly abused prisoners, Mattei brings a versatile story that mainly revolves on 4 dangerously insane male criminals that take hostage over a female prison where they rape, torture and violate the inmates as well as their corrupt guards. Their main interest is the beautiful reporter Emanuelle, who's an innocent girl among a sick bunch of power-mad inmates. "Women's Prison Massacre" is an outrageous movie that covers pretty much every topic that exploitation fans want to see! Mattei's budget possibilities obviously were rather limited and therefore the film doesn't contain much gore, but it surely suggests a lot of sadism and stages several genuine shock-moments (like the tense Russian roulette-sequence, for example). Lead star Laura Gemser keeps her clothes on throughout the entire film (which must be a personal record for her), but for those who can't do without a minimal amount of nudity, there are multiple other gorgeous-looking actresses that go all the way, like Maria Romano Antonella Giacomini. The prison location works well and the script features many ingenious little ideas, like the razor blade payback (ouch!) and the aforementioned Russian roulette game. The ending comes a bit abrupt, though, and the recent DVD-release contains a lot of fuzzy and seemly ancient editing. This is definitely Bruno Mattei's best film and possibly even the finest "Women-in-Prison" flick ever. Highly recommended to cult fanatics and other sick puppies.

Every once in a while there are films that come along and enlighten us. For some it was ET for others it was Gone With the Wind and for me it was Women's Prison Massacre! I Felt moved just by picking up the box at the video store. This movie has everything sleaze, torture, sex, rape, throat ripping, violence, forced suicide, more sleaze, more sex, more torture, and more bullet hits then Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs put together. When the credits rolled tears fell from my eyes. Bravo! Bravo! I love this movie!!