Women in Prison Triple FeatureAaah, the Women In Prison film. What better excuse to serve up some cinematic sleaze and sadism than to have a bunch of gorgeous gals incessantly showering and being tortured behind bars? Throw in some violent catfights and forced lesbianism and you have a bona fide exploitation epic. Well…usually. This triple feature from Shock-O-Rama collects three mid 70s - early 80s WIP flicks that, with the exception of one title are really scraping the bottom of the barrel in terms of the content most exploitation lovers look for in a WIP film. One film isn’t even set in a prison but a revolutionary camp… anyway, onto the films. ESCAPE FROM HELL Director: Edoardo Mulargia (1980) This one takes place in a jungle prison camp overseen by a ruthless warden and his bull whip-wielding guards where the inmates are fed nothing but rotten snake meat and are frequently subjected to public humiliation & torture over the slightest infraction. Transsexual actress and exploitation regular Ajita Wilson stars as Zaira, a prisoner who is constantly kicking against the pricks and is routinely punished for her trouble / our pleasure. Aside from Ms. Wilson the only other recognizable face here is Anthony Steffen who plays the sympathetic drunken doctor that eventually helps the girls escape. The first half of the films runtime is taken up with the standard WIP staples: group showers, lesbian trysts, torture, rape, catfights, etc. and I must note that some of the sex on display here is surprisingly graphic, i.e. near on hardcore. The second half is where things begin to go slightly downhill as after Doctor Farrell helps the girls escape it’s mostly just them running around in the jungle for the remainder which gets kinda dull after awhile. Still, there’s more than enough filth and violence in the first half to keep even the most depraved sleazehound happy. WOMEN IN CELL BLOCK 7 Director: Rino Di Silvestro (1973) Rino Di Silvestro (Deported Women of the SS Special Section) directs this crime thriller-cum-WIP film that features the two Giallo starlets Anita Strindberg and Jenny Tamburi as inmates in a women’s prison. Hilda (Strindberg) is incarcerated undercover to extract information from Daniela (Tamburi) on where her gangster boyfriend stashed a large quantity of Heroin belonging to her father. After just watching Escape from Hell, Women in Cellblock 7 is noticeably tamer by comparison. The Sapphic sex scenes are more “erotic” and “sensual” than the crude desperate fumblings of the previous film, but there is still the requisite group shower and at least one catfight. The prison scenes are frequently inter-cut with loooong car chases and Mafioso dealings on the outside as the gangsters try to figure out what happened to their Heroin. This constant cutting back and forth from prison to street kinda kills the whole WIP vibe and in my opinion dulls things down as in all honesty, we’re only really here to see tits ‘n’ ass and - if we’re lucky - maybe some butch lesbo guard rape. THE HOT BOX Director: Joe Viola (1972) Produced by Roger Corman’s New World Pictures and written by Jonathan (Caged Heat) Demme with the tagline: “A Tropical Torture Chamber Where Anything Can Happen!” you’d think this one has got to be a some classic WIP fare, but no. This is actually the worst of the bunch. When four American nurses doing volunteer work in San Rosario are kidnapped by a group of revolutionaries and forced to work for them, teaching them first aid skills and shit. Eventually a couple of the nurses grow to like the insurgents (one nurse goes as far as banging one to prove it) but the others are constantly looking for a opportunity to escape. So when that chance comes in the form of a disgruntled rebel, the girls make a break for it with him. It’s not long before they are found and “rescued” by the government who turn out to be corrupt rapists, so the girls return to the radicals camp where they help them fight against “the man” happily ever after. Technically this is not even a Women In Prison film - there’s no prison, no Ilsa-esque warden, no group showers, no lesbian rape, nothing! (well, ok, there is a bit of nudity but still…) It’s more like some kind of jungle adventure film or something and it’s boring as hell. ‘Nuff said.
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