Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.0

Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov October 9, 2025

Don Edmonds' "Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS" (1975) arrives on 4K Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber. The supplemental features on the release include archival audio commentary by Dyanne Thorne, Don Edmonds, producer David F. Friedman, and humorist Martin Lewis; new audio commentary by Kat Ellinger and Evgueni Mlodik; archival program with Don Edmonds; vintage promotional materials; and original trailer. In Englisn, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free.

Among connoisseurs of Naziploitation Cinema, many of whom have always preferred to remain anonymous, there is a general consensus that Don Edmonds' Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS is a masterpiece. However, those who have taken the time to dive deep into this notoriously controversial and long-dead subgenre of Exploitation Cinema know that Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS is, at best, only a decent entry in it. The most honest among them will also acknowledge another undisputable fact. The popularity of Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS has everything to do with its star, former showgirl and nude model Dyanne Thorne, who repeatedly takes her clothes off, not the quality of the content Edmonds shot. In other words, Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS is a skin flick first and then everything else that it has been accused of. (This, of course, is precisely why Thorne made a few more Ilsa films that had nothing to do with Nazis).

But if Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS is not the masterpiece it has been touted to be, what are its vastly superior relatives?

There are three very big films dealing with material commonly associated with Naziploitation Cinema that are unquestionably better than Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS. However, they are all classic chameleons, and two of them tackle this material with a degree of seriousness that is incompatible with Naziploitation Cinema. The third is simply a giant period show-off piece.

The most serious, and definitely the most disliked, of these films is Liliana Cavani’s The Night Porter. In it, a decade after the end of WWII, a female Holocaust survivor recognizes a male Nazi officer, now working in a luxurious hotel in Vienna, who tortured her in a massive camp. Shortly after, the two begin a most unusual romantic relationship in which love is replaced by pain. The Night Porter visits some of the darkest corners of the human mind, and because it does it very effectively and believably, it is not an exploitation film.

The easiest to misinterpret and least deserving of an association with Naziploitation Cinema of the three films is Luchino Visconti’s The Damned. It reimagines a notoriously ugly, well-documented segment of the National Socialists’ takeover of Germany, while following closely several members of a very wealthy and powerful family that cannot remain neutral to the madness that surrounds them. The Damned is a lavish, very long film and, like The Night Porter, hits very hard because it is not filled with fake moralistic preaching.

The most opulent of these films is Tinto Brass’s Salon Kitty. While it produces the most graphic content, Salon Kitty is simply an unorthodox period spectacle, where the imagination of several very talented people is allowed to roam free. One of these people is Oscar-winning production designer Ken Adam, who worked closely with Stanley Kubrick on such universally acclaimed films as Barry Lyndon and Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.

Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS is impossible to place in the company of these films. It was done with a tiny budget and quickly, with a small group of semiprofessional actors who did a lot of improvising as best as they could. Thorne is the warden of a military camp where a goofy doctor performs painful experiments on female prisoners, many of whom look like future models, and several male prisoners plot a rebellion. For Thorne, running the military camp is hard work, so she regularly takes breaks and welcomes various male prisoners into her bed.

Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Kino Lorber's release of Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS is a 4K Blu-ray/Blu-ray combo pack. The 4K Blu-ray is Region-Free. However, the Blu-ray is Region-A "locked".

Please note that some of the screencaptures included with this article are taken from the 4K Blu-ray and downscaled to 1080p. Therefore, they do not accurately reflect the quality of the 4K content on the 4K Blu-ray disc.

Screencaptures #1-26 are taken from Blu-ray.
Screencaptures #29-39 are taken from the 4K Blu-ray.

The combo pack introduces an exclusive new 4K restoration Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS on 4K Blu-ray and Blu-ray. In native 4K, the 4K restoration can be viewed with Dolby Vision and HDR grades. I chose to view it with HDR. However, I viewed some parts of it on 4K Blu-ray and some on Blu-ray.

It is surreal to see how good Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS looks now. I remember well the time when it was possible to see it only on bootlegs, a few of which were very difficult to track down, and to have it look so gorgeous on 4K Blu-ray and Blu-ray is beyond incredible. I liked everything that I saw on my system, in native 4K and 1080p. All visuals boast terrific delineation, clarity, and depth, with density levels that are on par with what you would expect from a big restoration of a big studio film. Color reproduction and balance are phenomenal as well. I have to speculate that some type of reference material must have been used because the entire film has a rock-solid period appearance. I tend to prefer how the primaries and supporting nuances look without HDR, but I did not see any darker areas with concerning issues with HDR enabled. On the Blu-ray, everything looked outstanding on my system. There are no traces of any problematic digital corrections. Small grain fluctuations can be observed, especially in native 4K, but they are inherited. Image stability is excellent. In summary, I think that folks who have been patiently waiting for a quality release of Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS to emerge, 4K Blu-ray or Blu-ray, will be thrilled with this combo pack and the 4K restoration that is included on it.

Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.

The lossless track quickly makes it obvious that Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS was done with a tiny budget. The dialogue is clear and easy to follow, but dynamic contrasts are virtually non-existent. Even the action material at the end of the film sounds pretty bland. However, this is how the original soundtrack was finalized, so the lossless track is not to be blamed. It simply recreates the native qualities of the original soundtrack. I did not encounter any encoding anomalies to report.

Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

4K BLU-RAY DISC

• Commentary One - this archival audio commentary was recorded by Dyanne Thorne, director Don Edmonds, producer David F. Friedman, and humorist Martin Lewis. This commentary has appeared on various DVD releases of Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS and is full of bits of interesting information about how different sequences were shot, how much of them stayed in the final version of the film, the goofy special effects, etc. Many parts of this commentary are quite hilarious, too.

• Commentary Two - this new audio commentary was recorded by critics Kat Ellinger and Evgueni Mlodik.

BLU-RAY DISC

• Commentary One - this archival audio commentary was recorded by Dyanne Thorne, director Don Edmonds, producer David F. Friedman, and humorist Martin Lewis. This commentary has appeared on various DVD releases of Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS and is full of bits of interesting information about how different sequences were shot, how much of them stayed in the final version of the film, the goofy special effects, etc. Many parts of this commentary are quite hilarious, too.

• Commentary Two - this new audio commentary was recorded by critics Kat Ellinger and Evgueni Mlodik.

• She Wolf of the SS - in this archival program, Don Edmonds discusses his directing career, some of the great actors and technicians he encountered and worked with, and some of the rich people he met that corrupted him and made him shoot Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS. (His story about the guy with the hundred-dollar bills is hilarious). The program was filmed on April 26, 2007, in Pasadena, CA. In English, not subtitled. (30 min).

• Trailer - presented here is a remastered original trailer for Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS. In English, not subtitled. (4 min).

• Stills Gallery - presented here is a collection of original promotional stills, lobby cards, posters, and DVD/VHS covers for Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS. With music. (7 min).

• Cover - reversible cover with vintage poster art for Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS.

Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Dyanne Thorne is the only reason Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS is remembered today. Thorne looks good in a uniform and great when she chooses to step out of it, which is a detail Don Edmonds keeps hammering over and over again. All other developments in Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS, many of which have been described as shocking over the years, are pretty boring. Of course, this is hardly surprising because virtually all naziploitation films rehash the same unoriginal material, and without a magnet like Thorne, they are instantly forgettable. Kino Lorber's upcoming combo pack brings an incredible new 4K restoration that makes Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS look like a major studio project. RECOMMENDED to the fans.