User reviews

I can't help thinking that this is Franco's 'hamage' to the Marquis de Sade's "One Thousand Days of Sodom". People (in this case women) abducted to serve as slaves to a privileged elite? Check. Kinky sex? Check. Torture including whipping? Check. Victims chosen at random to be killed? Check.

Thank goodness Franco didn't go the whole hog and introduce cinema audiences to the delights of coprology (and indeed coprophagy), another perversion that crops up repeatedly in de Sade's tediously long and disgusting saga.

I rather hoped that this film would fall into the 'so bad it's good' category. But even the acres of naked flesh and numerous sexual encounters didn't make up for the dismal dialogue, dreadful acting, elusive plot and - just to put the tin hat on it - dubbing AND English sub-titles (a belt and braces approach missing from the women's costumes). The Alsation gave a very professional performance though.

Of course I could be wrong about the de Sade angle. After all, I failed to realise that the actor playing the head warden at the 'prison' was a trans-sexual. I must pay more attention to the size of people's hands in future.

According to another reviewer, the film was banned in the UK. Well it clearly isn't any more, though I fancy that the nipple-needling scene was cut to satisfy the censors. On the DVD I watched, it was only clearly visible on the Spanish trailer (which, in case you're wondering, I watched to compare it with the English one).

The DVD also features an interview with Jess Franco, though you'll need better Spanish than mine to understand it. Unless I'm much mistaken it's neither dubbed nor sub-titled. And it points out that the person sodomising the character played by Franco is Ajita Wilson disguised using a moustache. Kind of ironic, given that (s)he had had the requisite appendage surgically removed.

In Spain, a newlywed couple parks their car in a deserted land to make love and they trespass a private property. They are taken to a women's prison and the husband Michael (Ángel Caballero) is released by the warden Magda (Ajita Wilson) while his wife Olga (Uta Koepke) is arrested and forced to hard labor. Soon she befriends Kanita (Andrea Guzon) and Tara (Ursula Buchfellner) and she learns that the women in the prison are submitted to sexual abuse to satisfy the sadistic and lesbian warden and the impotent Governor Mendonza (Robert Foster) and his bisexual wife Luwa (Gina Janssen). Meanwhile her husband returns to the prison with a friend expecting to rescue Olga while Kanita and Tara are sold to a brothel.

"Sadomania - Hölle der Lust" is a soft-porn with a ridiculous and absurd story of sexual violence. Michael's friend is murdered and forgotten by the plot. Olga never dresses a shirt after rescued by her husband. But who cares? This sleazy and outrageous exploitation shows one of the greatest number of naked women, including the 20 year-old German Ursula Buchfellner, who was the Playmate of the Month and centerfold of October 1979. The warden is performed by the transsexual Ajita Wilson. My vote is three.

Title (Brazil): "Sadomania"

OK, no one will confuse this with Citizen Kane but you've got to love a movie where the women are always topless. There are a few catfights and some kinky sex as well. On the other hand I hope they didn't overpay the guy who wrote the dialogue. Here's a prime example. After one of the captive girls dies:

"This is terrible. It reminds me of the day Zenobia died" "A relative?" "No, my favorite cow." I guess they saved some money on the script and blew it on great special effects like that plastic crocodile. I will say that it took me three sittings to make it through this fine work of art, never a good sign. I guess that's what happens after a while when everything looks the same. I hope the folks waiting to rent it next didn't get too impatient. Don't worry folks, it's on it's way.

Sadomania (1981)

*** (out of 4)

Jess Franco put his hands in many genres but there's no question that he was the king of the WIP genre. His women-in-prison films are some of the most outrageous out there and this here might very well be the most offensive, which means it's a must-see for fans of the genre. The story is pretty simple as newlyweds Olga (Uta Koepke) and Michael are making out on some private property, which belongs to a local prison. The evil warden (Ajita Wilson) orders Olga to be held behind bars where she realizes all the lesbianism, torture and other evils going on. SADOMANIA is, simply put, a sick, deprived and downright outrageous film and all of this makes it one of the best of its type. If you're looking for a soft and easy R-rated prison drama then this here certainly isn't that. This film is perverted on just about every letter and I honestly don't think five-seconds goes by without some woman being nude. The film has pretty much wall-to-wall nudity as all of the women in prison are forced to be naked and even the prison warden and her guards are always in the nude. Those wanting flesh are going to get plenty of it here. There's also some rather fun violence including a "game" where women must run through a swamp to try avoid getting shot. The only problem are some fake looking alligators who are very hungry. The film even goes as far as to have a prostitution ring, white slavery and most notorious of all is a dog who likes to have sex with the girls. Yes, SADOMANIA is pretty much the sleazy exploitation trash that makes the genre work so well when it gets everything right. Sure, the performances aren't the greatest, although Wilson has her certain charm in full force. The film actually looks a lot more professional than the previous ones done by Franco and this includes good cinematography, great lighting and very good editing. Another major plus is that it seems the budget allowed for a lot more naked ladies because these films usually have a limited number of girls but this one here has dozens available. Again, if you're going to be easily offended or are afraid of the genre then it's best to stay away. Those wanting to see one of the best WIP films out there should jump right in.

I am a fan of Jess Franco's bizarre style, and a lover even of his trashier films, and my personal opinion is that he has, besides several very entertaining movies, also created a few masterpieces, such as the brilliant "Paroxismus" aka "Venus In Furs" of 1969, for example. It is, however, an undeniable fact that the 180+ movies this highly prolific filmmaker has directed in his career, also include a bunch of big time stinkers. "Sadomania" of 1981 certainly is one of these stinkers, just an utterly bad and plot less movie with the ability to bore the hell out of you in spite of constant sleaze and nudity.

Sure, the constant nudity will keep you entertained for 20 minutes, but since it keeps going on and on like that one is pretty likely to get bored after a short time. The only thing that really kept me watching this was the intensity of the sleaze which is, generously spoken, slightly amusing.

After couple of newlyweds get lost in the desert on some island, they are stopped by a bunch of topless women carrying guns, wardens of a local prison camp. While the husband is banished from the island, the wife is taken to the prison camp, a place of torture and sexual humiliation, reigned by the sadistic nymphomaniac Magda and an extremely perverted governor. The prisoners are, of course, entirely hot chicks, most of them blondes, the wardens are entirely topless women carrying rifles.

The plot, if one can call it that, is extremely stupid of course, but who is going to watch this for a good plot anyway. The (only) interesting thing about "Sadomania" is the high level of exploitation, even for a 'Women In Prison' film. There are probably two short scenes in the movie where we see a woman actually wearing a top, the sleaze contains all kinds of sexual perversions from rape to bestiality, and some of the torture scenes are really nasty.

It is amazing that a film with this extreme level of sleaze, however, can still be so boring. The sleaze will keep you watching in the beginning, but after the first 45 minutes I actually had a hard time not to fall asleep. It also makes me wonder why, out of all pornstars, Jess Franco chose Ajita Wilson, who was, according to most sources, a transsexual who had been born a man (well, maybe for exactly that reason). If you really want to watch this, make sure you have enough beer at home to sit through it and watch it for the sleaze and exploitation only (and maybe for the slight unintentional fun factor). Don't expect to be highly entertained, however, it is almost unbelievable how a movie with such a high sleaze level can be so boring. I am a Jess Franco fan and I always will be, but "Sadomania" is just bad. 2/10

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.

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.

First things first, I quite enjoyed "Sadomania". Despite its low budget, the film is visually impressive with some atmospheric cinematography by Juan Soler.

In terms of plot, it comes as no surprise to learn that the script was adapted from an unused "Ilsa" screenplay. There are many similarities between the "Ilsa" films and "Sadomania". Here, transsexual Ajita Wilson plays Magda Urtado, the wicked warden of "a prison from hell". Well, a prison that contains nubile young women who all look like escapees from Hefner's Playboy Mansion. This is a cue for all sorts of softcore goings-on.

The film's tiny budget is obvious - some of the guards' weapons look like they've been sourced from the bargain bin of "Toys R Us" and the crocodile special effects are somewhat rubbery. On top of this, the prison governor's car is somewhat shabby for a man in his position. However, the film overcomes these trivial obstacles and proves entertaining, even if some of the humour is unintentional.

"Sadomania" even has an appearance by Franco himself as a homosexual brothel owner. As Franco was not keen on contact with a fellow man, Ajita Wilson was asked to play his lover, without wig and disguised by a moustache.

7 out of 10. Not half as seedy as you'd imagine it to be. It could do better in the exploitation department but the cinematography really is rather good.

Generally speaking, I'm a an admirer of Jess Franco's film-making but, for some of this movies, I really have difficulties understanding the motivation behind them or even their reason of existence. Like this sick puppy, for example. "Sadomania" has absolutely no cinematic value, it's poorly made without any sort of plot and featuring some of the most ill-natured sleaze footage ever captured on film. This is another filthy women-in-prison film where rape, lesbian-action and violent torture games are daily routine. The guards are crazier than the prisoners and the institution is protected by an impotent governor who only gets sexually aroused when he spots a girl having sex with a dog (!). The girls are all very beautiful and naked throughout the entire film, yet you can't really enjoy this sight with all the perversion going on. The dubious highlights include a barbaric hunting game (you can guess what he prey is), a duel-to-death between a guard and a prisoner and the image of a poor girl having a needle injected all the way through her nipple. Auch! Avoid this sick mess and you'll save yourself the trouble of taking TWO baths in order to wash the filth off.

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.

Simple story of a newlywed couple that trespassed on private land. The wife is thrown in the all women prison while the husband is released. Of course, all the women in the prison are kept topless and wearing very short shorts.

This is a classic women in prison film by Director Jess Franco. It will not be for everyone. There's a lot of nudity and I do mean a lot. But there is an interesting story with several side stories behind it.

Ajita Wilson plays one of the lead bad asses and is excellent. The rest of the cast range from mediocre to excellent.

I admit I like a number of Jess Franco films. They are kind of no frills movies. You do not need to overthink to watch. They can make a great diversion for an hour or two. This one is better than some because it keeps moving right along. Give it a try.

Young newly-weds foolishly trespass the sprawling mountainous grounds of an all-women labour camp evilly run by gleefully sadistic warden Ajita Wilson. The loving couple's spontaneous search for adventure leads them darkly into a vile labyrinth of unimaginable cruelty, sexual perversion, brutal cat-fights, sordid flesh peddling, and steamily uninhibited prison cell nookie! There's an expressly thrilling interlude whereby a nubile blonde inmate is ruthlessly hunted down in a swamp, which excitingly recalls the joyfully exploitative sensibilities of, Al Adamson & Ted V. Mikels. I think it was Kazan who playfully opined that all you need to make a film is a lusty hot-panted chick and a plastic crocodile! I still have a great fondness for Franco's lurid Alicante period, and forgiving the tawdry text, these exuberantly wanton W. I. P larks often provide an illicit panoply of virtuosic eccentricity! To whit, 'Sadomania' boasts a bravura sequence with an uncommonly frisky Alsatian that still gives me paws for thought!

Filmed on an exploitation level this sleazy flick is a typical Jess Franco-film and everyone should know what that means: a nearly not existing plot, lots of nudity and some misogynist violence. This film is banned in the United Kingdom, but it´s really questionable in how far "Sadomania" is still an exciter compared to today´s standard: there is a girl having hinted sex with a dog, trade with female human slaves, lesbian sex and some S/M-role playing, but it´s full of unconscious humor and bad acting. The most memorable part comes from Ajita Wilson, a transexual, who became a porn star in the 1970s and plays the role of the sadistic prison leader. Nevertheless "Sadomania" is worth to be seen - assumed that you like this kind of film: it´s entertaining from beginning till the end and definitely the right stuff for your next trash movie video party! Jess Franco´s masterpiece "Vampyros Lesbos" however is still unequaled!!!