(Pri)sons

This is a low budget action flick from Finland. One probably best enjoyed with your mates, after a few beers down the pub on a Saturday night. This is one of the most over-the-top gory action movies I have ever seen. And I mean, really gory. The director has taken great pleasure in treating the viewer to some sublime inventive kills, to the point you'll be grinning from ear to ear at how ridiculously gory it all is. However, the movie has a lot of problems elsewhere. The acting is far from Oscar worthy. The director's choice of lighting is annoyingly poor at times, with overly bright lights, weird filters, sometimes making the movie look like a poor music video. Also the soundtrack is very hit and miss, with music playing at weird moments, setting the wrong mood, in fact, I'm pretty sure music is playing throughout the whole movie without any breaks. But . . . (and the only reason this is getting 6 out of 10) . . . The movie is saved by the ridiculously over-the-top gory kills, and there are plenty scattered throughout the movie. Just have a few beers before you watch!!"

I had to create an account on imbd because I wanted to come and talk about the awesomeness of this movie.

I don't want to spoil anything, so I'll tell you why I fell in love with this movie.

I went to Finland for work and after a long day of meeting in Helsinki, I went to eat and then went to the cinema.

(Pri)sons was the only interesting film on offer at the moment, so I thought that a Finnish film might open up a bit about the behavior of Finns.

How wrong I was.

The bloodcircus started after the initial character introductions. The gore was brutal and beautiful at the same time.

The filming was wonderful and the Finnish actors were really good, Ilka Koivula and Ari Savonen were really memorable.

Director Esa Jusilla leads the film with certainty, considering that he has not directed other works that would be in the cinema. He also edited the film and did almost everything himself. I read a few interviews after the film, where Jusilla talks about her work on the film. Btw Peter Jackson did the same with Bad Taste.

I also watched Jusilla's earlier film on YouTube "They Rest In the North" which was also really atmospheric and his handprint can also be seen in it.

The wonderful picture was accompanied by wonderful music, which was in the style of 80's disco music and an orchestral western? I'm not sure if such a genre of music exists. But the composer did a great job. I remembered the final scene of the film and the music in it the best.

After returning home, I was still thinking about the movie and the characters.

Hopefully this will be streaming , or I can get a 4k release of this. I used google translate to write this review, I'm sorry.

This movie feels like an amateur project but with good production values (sets, costumes, weaponry, cameras, sound design).

The actors look ok, but most of them can't act and/or the screenplay doesn't need them to act but just to look grim.

The introduction of the characters is quite fast or non existent. They are there and they just do something or react to something.

The characters are one dimensional and throughout the movie there is no real character development. For me as a viewer the characters weren't interesting and that's unfortunately a huge problem for the movie to keep my interest. The movie takes in the beginning some of my patience, but I'm good spirited and hope it's getting better: After nearly half time I was already maximum bored.

So, if the acting, the characters and the plot don't get my interest, what about the action, blood and gore: The action is solid, sometimes gets into music clip aesthetics, but sometimes it's not that well choreographed or paced. And the female assassin gets two action scenes that develop some steamy atmosphere than though action.

Were the movie has its merrits is in the blood and gore section. Nice practical effects and shootouts, exagerated gory and in this combination bad script/ bad acting but really good practical effects this movie reminds Olaf Ittenbach and his movies.

All in all, this movie is related to movies like 'Project Wolf Hunting' (2022), no real interest in the characters or a good plot but in gory action and violence.

Thin plot, bad acting, superficial characters, nice synth score, gory action, good sets, solid camera, some pacing issues and extremely boring.

I think, with some buddies, more beer and just for the gore this movie might be entertaining.

Else, just skip this one.

No pun intended - the title already is doing a bit of a pun thing ... right? Now I was not too aware of the movie. And I doubt many will watch it or become aware of it. If you become aware of it: you should also be aware that this is hyper violent! I mean this is really brutal! As it explicit showings of violence (gun fire and wounds and whatever you want to call what is happening in the shootouts) ... just a heads up - which is not a pun by the way.

That all said, the cinematography of the movie is fantastic ... now movies nowadays mostly look good - there is not a big surprise generally speaking. I still feel this is a step above the just looking good! Hats off to the DP and everyone involved. Also the special and blood effects people. The story may not be the strongest ... but you can't be on top of your game in every aspect and department. Even with a low running time ... this sometimes feels a bit dragged by the way ... still a lot of fun.