SS Experiment Love Camp

Sergio Garrone's "SS Experiment Camp" is a total failure on every possible level.This film was banned in Britain as a video nasty,but it surely isn't as outrageous as many people claim.In fact it's pretty tame even by today's standards.There is some torture and humiliation and lots of nudity and soft-core sex.Some scenes are pretty mean-spirited for example one woman who refuses to go through the experiments is put into the tank.The temperature is first put up to almost boiling point and then the dial is turned the other way making it icy cold.Still the film is extremely dull,so fans of Italian exploitation may be disappointed.Avoid this one like the plague-watch "Beast in Heat" or "Gestapo's Last Orgy" instead!

Sergio Garrone's grindhouse Nazi sex flick, shot back to back with the similarly dire SS WOMENS CAMP, is one of the most often cited "video nasties". In actuality it is totally ridiculous on every level, even relative to other genre entries. Owing more to SALON KITTY than ILSA, SHE WOLF OF THE SS yet made with zero flair and a poor grasp of English, this movie would have been forgotten forever had it not been singled out for prosecution at the hands of the DPP. The "experiments" are simply ridiculous and are no more than an intangible excuse for embarrassed soft-core writhing between very Latin looking "SS soldiers" and the well-fed inmates (who throughout the film are treated more as if they are in a holiday camp rather than Auschwitz!).

As with all similar films, the only offensive thing about this movie is its total trivialisation of the Holocaust. It is pretty interesting to watch, however... if only to see just how far exploitation can sink.

"SS Experiment Camp", as it's known in Britain, first found fame with its promotional poster - in the early days of video in the UK, when only cheap titles were being released, video store owners brightened up their shops with its lurid artwork of a tortured semi-naked girl hanging upside down in a prison yard, with the spooky face of an evil Nazi officer hovering behind. The result was outrage, and the beginning of the Video Nasties panic, resulting in the banning of this and almost 80 other films.

I don't think "SS Experiment Camp" is currently available uncut anywhere in the world, which is hardly surprising - even Anchor Bay would turn their noses up at this one. Obviously it's in UNBELIEVABLY poor taste, and yes it does take ludicrous liberties with its portrayal of Nazi death camps, but what really stands out about this movie is how appallingly bad it is. All these things come together most startlingly in the memorable scene where a lady prisoner, who has been repeatedly raped to orgasm by a sadistic female doctor, piles marmalade onto her bread and sighs "I haven't had marmalade for ages...if these guys keep treating us like this, they've got my vote!" Jaw-dropping.

The torture scenes aren't very realistic, but they're INCREDIBLY mean-spirited (the even-worse sequel to this movie, the charmingly titled "SS Camp 5: Women's Hell" has more torture, which the filmmakers absolutely revel in). "SS Experiment Camp" is a very, very badly made film - those of us with a taste for extremely sick kitsch watch it for its ludicrous, campy sleaziness - for which we should be thankful. If it was a well-made film, it would be pretty impossible to watch without puking your guts up.

This is one of the many sleazy World War 2 Nazi camp movies. The poor female POW's get raped and groped by all and sundry at the camp, but in an amusing comic twist the commandant decides he wants a new pair of testicles and so removes them from one of the hunky guards, who doesn't seem to realise until he goes to bonk one of the French prisoners. This provides one of the most amusing scenes when he confronts the commandant and says "What have you been doing with my balls?". This is another title responsible for the "Video Nasties" furore by the media. Although by today's standards it could be passed with BBFC cuts.

When I decided to see every film on the DPP 'Video Nasty' list, I knew I'd be letting myself in for some rubbish; but I really didn't expect anything this depressingly awful. This movie transcends the bounds of 'so bad it's good' and just becomes bad. There are some other bad films on the list, but most of those at least have some redeeming values; this one really does have nothing. The centrepiece of the film has to do with the 'first ever' testicle transplant, and that's the only narrative that runs throughout. The rest of the film is padded out by lots of pointless 'experiments' and other tedious happenings, and it's clear that director Sergio Garrone wanted to make this as sleazy as possible in order to sell tickets - but I like sleaze, and this isn't it. This film was, like The Driller Killer, banned in the UK because of the cover art; and that's hardly surprising, as aside from the aforementioned transplant and a few sex scenes; there really isn't anything here to warrant banning, or seeking the film out for. I've been thankful to the DPP and their shopping list in the past, as it's allowed me to discover some great hidden gems such as The House on Straw Hill and The Witch Who Came From the Sea; films that I otherwise might not have seen, but I'm annoyed that I bothered to see this. On the whole, there's nothing to see this movie for; and I certainly don't recommend it.