Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		3.5
Audio		2.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.0

Barbed Wire Dolls Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman February 13, 2018

Whether one finds Jesus Franco a film friend or foe, an artist or an exploiter, famous or infamous, it cannot be denied that the Spanish-born filmmaker will be remembered as one of the most prolific of his, or any, time. Known for putting together various Horror and Exploitation films at what must be near-record pace during his peak in the 1970s, known for his unabashed presentation of nudity and sexuality, known for pushing cinematic boundaries of taste, known for films bordering on pornography, known for his handheld and zoom-lens techniques, Franco's name has become synonymous with sleazy cinema and all that comes with that branding. Barbed Wire Dolls, a 1976 film known as Frauengefängnis in its native tongue, stands as one of the most widely recognized of his films, a quintessential example of his work in the greater sexual exploitation arena and the "Women in Prison" sub-genre. Packed with classic Franco filmmaking techniques, nudity, rape, torture, bad acting, and next-to-no story, the film pushes buttons and pushes boundaries from its first scene to its last.

Women (and a guy) in prison.

A large, barren, spartan, prison where weeds have overtaken the courtyard, the grounds obviously neglected as other “needs” are prioritized, serves as the setting for Barbed Wire Dolls. A new prisoner, Maria (Lina Romay), is incarcerated following her involvement in her father’s death. She soon comes to understand that the prison is a house of pain and a house of pleasure. Women are routinely tortured, electrocuted and deprived of food. They are also raped and prone to bouts of intense sexual desire. The monocled Wardress (Monica Swinn), who wears her blouse partially unbuttoned and her pants cut off above the buttocks, routinely uses sex to glean information from her prisoners. The story involves her search for the author of a letter that was intercepted on its way out of the prison. Maria and a pair of her fellow inmates hatch a plan to escape.

Barbed Wire Dolls engages in all of the depravity and dire filmmaking one would expect from its genre and its filmmaker. Full-frontal female nudity is commonplace, as prisoners appear in various stages of undress and sexual arousal, sometimes gratifying themselves (even with a cigarette butt at one point) or one another. Sex is a tool in the movie, whether to play the prisoners under duress, to secure information, or on the flip side, for the prisoners to manipulate their captors. Franco unapologetically makes sex and genitalia central to the film; the camera often lingers on various body parts and a number of crude, difficult scenes are interspersed throughout, including rape at the end of a long stick, nude shock therapy, and the film's most notorious sequence, a bizarre real-time, slow-motion, dreamlike, father-daughter rape scene. If it's anything Barbed Wire Dolls defines its filmmaker perhaps better than any other film in his canon and embodies its genre as well as any example ever committed to film.

Franco's direction is...interesting. His popular technique that makes use of handheld and zoom photography, with soft-focus subjects and skewered perspective and juxtaposition and reflective shots are ever-present throughout the film. Franco certainly has an eye for sleaze, for identifying the appropriate perspective to elicit the proper audience reaction to both pleasure and plain. Performances are unsurprisingly less-than-stellar. The film's English presentation is a dub over the original voice work, but even so the subpar acting is obvious in the physical performances, though Franco's cast certainly sells the sex well enough, demonstrating a grasp of that fine line between pleasure and pain that the film occasionally crosses. None of the technical details really matter, though; the actors appear in the movie only to appear undressed, to be used as sex toys, to be tortured. The movie never alludes to being anything beyond what it is, a flimsily structured exploitation film that pushes its boundaries and strives to be as gratuitous as possible, tasteful yet tasteless at the same time. The film ends on an interesting down note, about the only scene of narrative value and dramatic heft in the film, leaving the audience -- at least those who have stuck around after those who abandoned the film for its tastelessness or because they got what they wanted out of it prior -- to consider something beyond the sexual red meat.

Barbed Wire Dolls Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Barbed Wire Dolls has been "digitally remastered [from a] negative from Swiss producer Erwin C. Dietrich's vaults." It's certainly not perfect, but considering the film's budget and stylistic constraints, Full Moon's 1080p, slightly window boxed 1.81:1 transfer can be said to be a fairly strong presentation. The image is dotted by random speckles and debris, stray vertical lines and the like. Clean-up was not so thorough as to make the movie spotless, but the light textural wear accentuates the movie's low-budget exploitation stylings very nicely, anyway. Textural details are by-and-large a strong point. The movie is fairly soft, inherently, with some diffuse imagery and a smeary dream/flashback sequence, but core elements like faces and the concrete walls and grounds around the prison present with a pleasing level of textural integrity. Colors are nicely presented as well. The film is fairly bleak, but greens -- natural vegetation seen outside the prison late in the film and army fatigues scattered throughout -- are the main standouts and pleasantly vibrant and well saturated. Skin tones are creamy and accurate. The image is a little noisy, grain a bit sharp, and wobble and wavy fluctuations are present in minimal quantities, but overall fans should be satisfied, particularly considering that the image is a substantial leap forward from the quality of the 480i trailer included on the Blu-ray.

Barbed Wire Dolls Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Barbed Wire Dolls features a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. It's a bit on the harsh side, particularly considering musical delivery. Notes are crunchy and the low end, rawly potent as it may be in places, is more unkempt than it is tight and precise. Side stretch opens the track a bit, but surround implementation is light at best and essentially nonexistent. Some minor woodland ambience lingers about during the film's final minutes. Screams during torture sequences, moans of pleasure, and other core sound details present with, like the music, imperfect clarity but efficiency and dependability of delivery. Dubbed dialogue is clear and center-focused.

Barbed Wire Dolls Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Barbed Wire Dolls contains an audio interview and some trailers.

• Original Trailer (480i, 2:02).
• Audio Interview (1080p, 24:06): Director Peter Strickland (The Duke of Burgundy) covers his own film as well as his passion for Franco's work. Recorded in January 2014.
• Vintage Trailers (480i, 6:44 total runtime): Included are trailers for The Oasis of the Living Dead, Demoniac, A Virgin Among the Living Dead, The Screaming Dead, Erotikill, and The Invisible Dead.

Barbed Wire Dolls Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Full Moon promises that Barbed Wire Dolls is only the first Jesus Franco film coming to Blu-ray under its label. The studio has given the film a worthwhile release, boasting flawed but certainly capable and even enjoyable high definition imagery. Audio lags a bit behind but is effective given the film's dubbed dialogue and dated and low-budget source. Supplements are few but worthwhile. Fans of the movie, the movie maker, and the movie's genre will want to pick this up.