Women's Prison Massacre

I thought that Emanuelle In Prison was a good exploitation horror. It is about a woman called Emmanuelle who is a reporter, she manages to expose a corrupt official,and she is sent to prison on charges. what she does not know is that in the prison, the inmates are humiliated and tortured by the prison staff. one of the prison staff Albina who runs the prison. makes an enemy out of Emanuelle. Emanuelle and Albina start to fight each other with knives. There is a lot of blood in the movie as well as Strong Violence, Female Nudity and Lesbianism. I think that there is a very sleazy feel to the film. Which made it a good film to be able to watch.

This is in fact part of the "Black Emanuelle" series. Not that the series had any continuity from one film to the next anyway. In this, the last of the series, Emanuelle (Gemser) is wrongfully imprisoned because she was on the brink of exposing criminal activity in the local police department. There is a flashback sequence which explains this. How anyone could watch this film and NOT notice this, saying it is NOT an Emanuelle movie is beyond me. In the opening scene the prison holds a stage play of monologues where each girl tells her name and story. Gemser's character clearly states "My name is Emanuelle, and I am a woman." I sincerely hope that the people who are leaving comments about films on the database have at least SEEN the films they are talking about. Unless of course they're just seeing some edited US video release.

Emanuelle Escapes from Hell (1983)

** (out of 4)

Hack master Mattei directs this women in prison film that has Emanuelle (Laura Gemser) being sent to prison by a corrupt official. Once in prison she battles the warden as well as another inmate but soon things get out of control when four male prisoners take over the prison. Mattei and Gemser made another WIP film the same year as this one and the two movies share a whole lot in common. It appears most of the same cast and crew made both pictures and both remain mildly entertaining entries in the genre. The most shocking thing about this film is that Gemser doesn't take her clothes off, which must be a first in the ten or so films I've watched with her. The film is fairly sleazy but not near the level of a D'Amato or Franco film. The highlight include a rather erotic sequence when the men decide to have their way with the overly willing female prisoners. Gemser is her usual self, although, despite the title, this has very little to do with her Black Emanuelle films. The supporting cast features some good looking women but bad actresses but that's to be expected. Mattei's direction is certainly laughable and the screenplays has giant holes in it but all of this adds to the charm of the low-budget film. The dubbing is also extremely bad but adds a lot of laughs. AKA: Women's Prison Massacre, Emanuelle in Prison and its original title Emanuelle fuga dall'inferno.

"Women's Prison Massacre" is the last of the "Black Emmanuelle" series of films and this time director Joe D'Amato abandons his trademark sleaze for an attempt at an exploitation flick with a plot.

Emmanuelle (Laura Gemser)has gotten a bit too close to exposing a corrupt government official during the course of her investigative journalism, and he has her sent to a vicious women's prison on trumped up charges. 4 dangerous male convicts (including Gemser's real life husband Gabriele Tinti) are transferred there to be held until their trials and manage to create jailbreak mayhem a nasty hostage showdown with police.

I really wanted to like this film, but I just couldn't do it. The plot is a fractured mess, the acting awful and this film is so evasively shot (not enough film or budget for much visual explanation or gore, I guess) that I didn't even know what was supposed to be happening in most of the sleazy scenes (the razor blade castration, horny female convicts ripping one of the guys apart) until I read the DVD liner notes. Also gorgeous Gemser keeps her clothes on the entire time, and the actresses who do disrobe are less than stunning.

3 stars, one for Laura Gemser having a genuine beauty and screen presence that deserves something better than this drivel, one was a whole lot of accidental comedy ("I'll bite your nipples off!" and the blow up doll are the first examples that come to mind), one for Lorraine De Salle sticking it out in a film where she looks extremely uncomfortable in every scene (as if she's ashamed of being in this throwaway, whimpering end to an otherwise fun series).

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!!