Sadomania (1981)

"Sadomania" is one of the sleaziest films Franco ever did.**SPOILERS**Enjoying a day in the sun, young couple Olga, (Uta Koepke) and Michael, (Angel Caballero) take a wrong turn on a road and are immediately captured and sent to a nearby prison, lead by the evil warden Magda Urtado, (Ajita Wilson) and her staff. Michael is set free, while Olga is detained and charged with trespassing. Thrown in with the other inmates, all women, she is forced to work in the local fields while Magda occasionally comes in and takes one away, including selling Conito, (Andrea Cuzon) to Governor Mendoza, (Antonio Mayans) and his wife, Loba Mendoza (Gina Janssen) as a sex toy. After hearing that the other inmates at the prison where also sold into slavery or prostitution rings from the prison, Michael leads a small force to take over the prison and release the inmates trapped inside.The News: This is perhaps one of the sleaziest and greatest entries in the Women-in-Prison genre. This film simply rests on its sleazy laurels. The intent is perfectly clear with the flesh count being ridiculously high, hot-pants being the sole contribution from the wardrobe department and lesbianism coming into play whenever a scene runs out of ideas. All you need do is notice how any camera move goes out of its way to ogle a quick behind or pair of breasts before coming to the realization that this is film with only one thing on its mind. In this respect, then, it's a film which does exactly what you'd expect of it, and therefore could be described as a perfect example of this kind of film. It also gives the Women-in-Prison audience all the naked flesh, lesbianism and sadism it could ever want and then some. This is brought out with some off the best punishment ever shown in this type of situation. It ranges from being locked in a cage like a wild animal to being hunted down in the swamp to the death and being sold into slavery and prostitution rings. The swampland scenes are its best ones, as there's quite an amusing feel to see armed guards traipsing through the swamp gunning down nude inmates, finally being subjected to the Warden's grin of approval as a lone crocodile chomps down on the inmate's lifeless body. The slavery and prostitution subplots offer up even more sleaze and torture, and offer some really bizarre scenes. Since the Governor has become impotent, his wife, who will stop at nothing to help her husband through it, allows for some really sleazy help. This includes getting it on with the prisoners herself, allowing him to get it on with the prisoners and ultimately allowing their German Shepard to get it on with one of the prisoners, which is quite disturbing in thought but really quite funny in execution. There really isn't much to it that will keep from bursting out in laughter, but it's still a cruel thought. The film also has moments of genuine artistry, such as the impressionistic imagery as Mendoza silently enters the room to take over from his wife in servicing Olga. There is an incredibly strong sense of feminism in the film for the way in which the male characters are weak and ineffectual, their female superiors strong and capable. This is quite evident in the fact that all the male attempts to rescue the women fail and must resort to the women to get them out of trouble. Franco's direction continues to be plagued with relentless zooming and panning shots, but overall is more coherent than a lot of his work. The message of this film seems to be that of what hides under our civilized surface and what kind of animals we are deep inside. Plenty of segments without dialog and some symbolic scenes, like the knife-fight-to-the-death scene, which show and depict the wild beast psyche that hides inside every human being, but in many cases un-active, are brought loud and clear to the forefront. Another example is the sadists in the film are totally insatiable and hungry for sex, which is perhaps the strongest instinct in human nature and psyche. It shows us the faces of human nature we wouldn't necessarily want to face, but as we think about the state of the world and what kind of things take place, the thoughts are more than true and serious. There is also a couple of problems in the film. With tons of gorgeous naked blonde women on display throughout, all of the girls look alike, and there are so many of them it's hard to keep track of who's who and where they are. Worse still, the camera work in here is a distracting mess Franco shoots one love scene mostly out of focus, and another with an emphasis, or an obliviousness, to a giant zit on the woman's torso that is frighteningly unerotic. Perhaps most representative of the style is a long shot of a car driving off as seen from behind some trees. Instead of shooting through the branches, the shot is directly into the branches, thus obscuring the view of the car altogether. There is also a really distracting sequence where a toy pistol is standing in for the real thing in one key scene. Rather than attempt to hide this, it is shot in tight close-up, where it even can be seen expelling a few drops of water when "fired." All these elements, though, don't distract from a severely twisted and exceptional sleaze epic.The Final Verdict: A sleaze classic from Franco, this is required viewing for those interested in seeing a master work his trade or those who are into the scene. It's got it all for everyone and indulges in everything possible.Rated UN/NC-17: Nudity, several long, graphic sex scenes, bestiality, Rape, Graphic Violence and Language

Even though it's not a real word, the title pretty much sums this one up completely. Sadomania is yet another exploitation 'women in prison' film from the insatiable Jess Franco. I certainly don't have a problem with this sort of film in theory; I mean, who wouldn't want to see a bunch of naked lesbians having sex with each other inside a sleazy prison? But the fact is that these films are often really boring, and once you've seen one - you've seen them all. This one actually has a base plot, and it focuses on a couple of newly weds who get pulled over. She gets thrown into a lesbian jail, and he gets set free! (Sounds a bit unfair to me, who's going to cook his dinner?). After that, it's business as usual as the clothes budget was so miniscule that Franco couldn't afford to have his performers wear much; so everyone appears naked, while a few set pieces that involve a woman being 'hunted' and various other sleazy goings on populate the rest of the movie. I actually managed to get myself a copy of the 'uncut' version, which runs at a massive 102 minutes. As usual, a lot of this movie is filler that could have been cut but, I suppose, for what it is; Sadomania isn't a terrible film.

Sadomania is the infamous Women in Prison flick by the king of ultra low budget exploitation films, Jesus Franco, Spain. He has made many immortal films like Love Letter of the Portuguese Nun (nunsploitation, 1977) and Bloody Moon (ultra-gore, 1981), and even though some of his films are worse and not-so-ambitious, he definitely has a talent and is noteworthy film maker. His greatest masterpiece of the films I've managed to see is Awful Dr. Orlof (1962), the black and white horror classic with Howard Vernon. Sadomania is among his dirtiest films and not without a reason.The ridiculous plot has a newly wed young couple, who is kidnapped during their journey as they drive their wedding car somewhere in Spain. They are taken to the nearby women prison, led by sadistic lesbian warden (the late Ajita Wilson) and some sleazy governor and his wife, and despite the fact that the prison girls/women work hard there, their real reason to be there is to satisfy these leaders' bottomless sexual desires and perversions. Poor women are raped and abused, in the guaranteed Franco style, but it all ends happily for the protagonists and evil and horny sadists meet their fate, again Franco style.This film is okay if one happens to like these kind of "guilty pleasures" with huge amount of nudity and love making. The sleaze-o-meter is taken as high as possibly when considered the fact that the head warden Wilson was originally born man, but changed his sex to female, and the close ups of this attractive black lady show that her hands and some parts of the body are definitely male and thus her attractiveness tones down a bit (for hetero sexual man), but still, she is very sensual here, albeit her role character is more than repulsive. The other actors are more or less amateurs, but also talented ones. Beautiful females get naked a lot, and that's the thing Franco has always been able to do. Perhaps every frame of the film "once it gets going" involves at least one naked human being, usually female.The "message" of this film seems to be that of what hides under our "civilized" surface and what kind of animals we are deep inside. Franco uses plenty of segments without a dialogue and some symbolic scenes (like the knife-fight-to-the-death scene), which show and depict the wild beast psyche what hides inside every human being, but in many cases un-active. Another thing is, that the sadists in the film are totally insatiable and hungry for sex, which is perhaps the strongest instinct in human nature and psyche. Sadomania shows us the faces of human nature we wouldn't necessarily want to face, but as we think about the state of the world and what kind of things take place, Franco's thoughts are more than true and serious. The fact that this film is mostly exploitation oriented doesn't mean that the film couldn't have any artistic merits, and Franco definitely wants most of his films to be more than mere exploitation.Sadomania is noteworthy piece of Franco cinema, and shot with his usual zooms and beautiful images of nature, stained only by the presence of the film's ugly and evil protagonists. Sadomania has also some interesting elements in its soundtrack, which is supposedly composed by the director himself. I give Sadomania 7/10 rating, but that's only possible if one can watch these films and appreciate them despite their many filthy scenes and characters.

This is the story of a young woman, kidnapped on her honeymoon, and send to a womens prison, somewhere in the latin world. Her husband spends the rest of the movie trying to save her. That, however is only an excuse for a story, as the real focus of the film are the scenes of degradation committed to the female inmates. This being a Jess Franco movie, you know you're in for a treat, if you're a badfilm fan. It is reprehensible, but most of all, this movie is just silly fun although in a seriously un-PC way. The film is astonishingly misogynistic, and that is unforgivable, but it is fun to see how cheaply this movie was made. A prisoner is eaten by a plastic crocodile, guards are armed with toyguns, the governors car is a beaten up Simca 2000 and the costumes are a riot. Jess Franco himself, however, has the most memorable scene in the movie as he is sodomised by a black youth in his role as a slavetrader. The role as the prisonwarden is played by the late american transsexual actress Ajita Wilson.