Rating summary

Movie		1.5
Video		3.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		1.5

Women's Prison Massacre Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 9, 2015

There’s a moment in the early going in Women’s Prison Massacre, not all that shining but, yes, rather brief, where it appears that schlockmeister Bruno Mattei may actually be attempting to make, well, Art, or at least something a rung above the exploitation fare that Mattei typically trafficked in over the course of his long if not especially august career. As the credits play out interstitially, Mattei introduces a trio of inmates at a women’s prison who are evidently engaging in a bit of “theater therapy” by trumpeting their supposed personae to the assembled multitudes at what is a convenient small stage that this particular prison evidently comes equipped with. The performers have weird bifurcated face make-up, perhaps indicative of the schisms within their souls which have led to their predicaments and incarceration, and they give little monologues that play somewhere between the blandishments of the “Cell Block Tango” of Chicago fame and (to cite another improbable musical referent) the first person offerings that comprise a lot of A Chorus Line. It’s silly, it’s florid, but it has a bit of unexpected emotional impact, especially when another inmate shows up to critique the performance, capping her “thumbs down” with a tomato thrown heartily at the face of one of the actresses. It’s at this point that any pretensions toward “seriousness” are left by the wayside, and Women’s Prison Massacre simply tips over into a hyperbolic morass.

Just Jaeckin’s 1974 soft core opus Emmanuelle probably helped to inspire the orthographically different Emanuelle character who became a recurring element in various Italian films throughout the 1970s. One of these was Black Emanuelle which featured Laura Gemser as a crusading journalist whose nom de plume was indeed Emanuelle (one “m” to avoid those pesky intellectual property lawsuits). Mattei provided the screenplay for another 1975 Emanuelle outing, Emanuelle’s Revenge (also known as Emanuelle e Françoise ), though Gemser did not essay the role in that particular film. Gemser did however continue to at least occasionally appear as a character named Emanuelle, and she does so in Women’s Prison Massacre, where she is once again a crusading journalist, albeit this time one who happens to be in stir due to her muckraking.

Fans of Orange Is the New Black: Season One may come away from a viewing of Women’s Prison Massacre with an even greater apprecation for how smartly the television series manages to wend its way through the various interrelationships of the women forced into close confinement. There’s absolutely no nuance at play in the film, as Emanuelle has to deal not just with the sometimes smarmy interloping of her “sister” convicts, but with the harridan warden (Lorraine De Selle).

There’s “something for everyone” in a manner of speaking with regard to Women’s Prison Massacre’s salacious content, with the first part of the film offering a few lesbian interludes (including quite a bit of full frontal nudity, for those who care about such things), while the second part of the film presents some graphic heterosexual contact once a group of male convicts ends up at the women’s prison (don’t look for any real logic in plot developments, as the film’s screenplay offers little if any). Mattei stages thing in a kind of arch theatrical style a lot of the time (some of his framings are actually kind of inventive, if awfully self conscious), and there is copious blood and gore and things devolve within the prison once the men show up.

Some awful movies have gained a certain cachet because they offer such lunatic delights that their very badness is kind of a badge of honor in a way. Women’s Prison Massacre is quite simply a trash fest that has bumbling performances (exacerbated by some typically shoddy post looping), oddly florid directorial touches and a story that doesn’t make much sense or try to do much more than offer copious female nudity with attendant sex and violence. This weird little subgenre became quite the rage in Italy during this era, but it has not aged particularly well, and Women’s Prison Massacre will probably only appeal to those who are devotees of this kind of smarmy niche of filmdom. As a result, this will play less like grindhouse and more like simply a grind for many folks.

Women's Prison Massacre Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Women's Prison Massacre is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Scream Factory, an imprint of Shout! Factory, with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Given an understanding of the lo-fi ambience of the film, this is a decent if never overwhelmingly great looking presentation. Elements have scattered age related issues, including some noticeable fade that tends to deplete the film's sometimes garish palette from ever popping as fully as it might have. Contrast is a little on the anemic side as well, giving a kind of hazy look to several of the dimly lit interior scenes. Things are typically fairly soft looking throughout the film, with detail not popping especially well even in close-ups. Grain is perhaps a bit less evident than might be expected, though there are no egregious signs of over aggressive filtering having been applied.

Women's Prison Massacre Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Women's Prison Massacre features a decent DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track, one which supports the actually kind of enjoyable score by Luigi Ceccarelli while pointing out the shoddiness of much of the post-looping. It's obvious that many if not all of the actors spoke their native languages on the set and were later dubbed into English, but even those who were speaking English appear to have been dubbed at well, leading to some undeniable sync issues with regard to lip movements and actual dialogue. That distraction aside, fidelity is very good within the lo-fi confines of the film, and there's no actual age related damage to report.

Women's Prison Massacre Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This is the rare Scream Factory release without a glut of newly produced supplements, and in fact there are no supplements of any kind included on this Blu-ray disc.

Women's Prison Massacre Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Women's Prison Massacre is pretty smarmy material, not even graced by the winking self awareness that sometimes informs some craptastic outings. Gemser is certainly an arresting presence (no pun intended, given the setting of the film), but she's given very little to do here other than react to unseemly goings on. Technical merits are so-so for those considering a purchase.