Linkshoch Wonderful Movie

Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Bergorks If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

Derrick Gibbons An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

BA_Harrison Violence in a Women's Prison (AKA Emanuelle in Hell) sees Italian trashmeister Bruno Mattei (as Vincent Dawn, just one of many silly aliases the guy operated under) tackling the WIP genre with the same lack of subtlety, skill and style that he applied to most of his work; in other words, the film is an inept but gloriously cheesy slice of exploitative garbage that offers lots of misogynistic action, cartoonish violence, and unintentional hilarity, interspersed by moments of extreme drudgery and sheer tedium.Laura Gemser, she of the dusky skin and perky breasts, once again stars as intrepid reporter Emanuelle, who this time around poses as a hooker and drug pusher to go undercover in a women's correctional facility and, with the help of Doctor Moran (Gabriele Tinti) and some friendly inmates, expose the depravity and corruption that goes on within. This flimsy plot is all the excuse Mattei needs to give fans of such dubious fare (myself included) over an hour and a half of poorly acted, badly directed sleaze, including the obligatory lesbian action from big breasted bimbos, assorted scraps, a rat attack, a touch of rape, a smidgen of buggery, a little drug abuse, some torture, and best of all, a scat-fight (that's a cat fight that takes place in human feces). It's not art, but it is fun (some of the time).I give Violence in a Women's Prison 5.5 out of 10, happily rounded up to 6 for Lorraine De Selle's unmissable performance as the prison's nasty head warden, who parades around in black stockings and sussies, forces Doctor Moran to have sex with her (the poor man), and watches on with glee as a virginal female prisoner is raped by two leering inmates borrowed from the neighbouring men's prison.

Coventry Ugh...this is only my second Black Emanuelle experience (after the even more infamous "Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals") and I'm already bored senseless with the character. "Violence in a Women's Prison" is a textbook example of the temporarily popular Euro-exploitation culture. These WIP-movies are notorious for their many vicious-sounding alternate titles and their supposedly controversial substance but, if you actually take the effort of seeing one, you'll agree that they're in fact very dull and far too inept to be taken serious. The ambitious reporter Emanuelle sets up a fake criminal record and goes undercover in a feared women's prison with the purpose of exposing the inhuman barbarities that take place inside the penitentiary's walls. She soon finds out that it was a lousy career move as she ends up in hell itself! All the inevitable sleaze-tricks to stuff up a typical exploitation flick with are exaggeratedly present: sadistic lesbian guards, humiliation, girl-on-girl action, rapes & beatings and a seemly endless amount of cat-fights. Everything the avid cult-fanatics adore, in other words, but I suppose that even they can't get passed the awful dialogues or the completely irrational plot-twists. The film isn't gory or shocking at all (apart from that one sequence in which our heroine is almost entirely devoured by red-eyed rats) and the uninspired overload of nudity becomes boring pretty quick. Slightly positive aspects are the neat musical score and the surprisingly well-handled directing by Bruno Mattei (or Vincent Dawn, as he likes to call himself here). The success of "Violence in a Women's Prison" – as well as of the entire Black Emanuelle series – entirely depends on the gorgeous Laura Gemser. She sure is one of the most beautiful women who ever lived...but she hasn't got the slightest bit of acting skills. If you browse around IMDb regularly, you'll notice that there are many WIP-movies on the market. Jess Franco made a lot of them, of course, like "99 Women" and "Barbed Wire Dolls", but even the more respected filmmakers like Jack Hill (Big Dolls House) and even Jonathan Demme (Caged Heat) have them on their repertoires. You can either do like everybody else and avoid them because they are "naughty" or watch one and see for yourself that's it's a whole lot of fuss about nothing.

HOTFOOTJACKSON After the sordid delights of 'SS Camp 5 - Womans' Hell' and the bleakly disturbing 'Womans' Camp 119', Bruno Mattei says farewell Nazis and, plumps instead, for a bunch of jailbirds for his next 'women incarcerated' chunk of sleaze.It is unfortunate I didn't have a copy of 'Blade Violent' to compare this with, this film used the same cast,same sets and virtually same plot. A plus point is that I can review this purely on single merit. On a whole this is a fairly average entry in the Women In Prison genre, featuring three scream queens Gemser, Stoppi and De Selle taking the main roles. Unfortunately these stalwarts of sin cannot save this movie from being a little mundane. The movie tells the tale of our intrepid reporter Emanuelle (Gemser)undercover in a female penitentiary as an inmate. Her task is to report on the corruptive and inhumane practices within the prison/penal system. Eventually we are thrust into the unsavoury W.I.P world where beatings are regularly brandished out by deadpan officers with bad hair, sapphic shennanigans are occurring regularly by the suitably looking 'rough' females and there is of course the obligatory humiliation, mental and physical.I am unsure whether it is because this is Matteis' first stab at the W.I.P genre (though SS films can't be all that dissimilar surely ?) but I feel the whole movie is rather a tame effort. There a few nasty surprises that borderline on the humourous such as the 'poo punch-up' and a very novel way of bell ringing. The rape sequence, although voyeuristically unsettling to begin with, you gradually find yourself amused as two inmates play pass the parcel with a scantily clad virgin most of this sequence and you wonder in disbelief whether this will end or not.The direction is well achieved as Mattei uses commendable editing, although the sets are basic, there is still an oppressive decay to the whole affair. Most of Matteis genre films 'Zombie Creeping Flesh','Rats;Night Of Terror','Womens Camp 119' seem to have this vein of industrial atrophy, clinical but chemical and it is this polluted environment that always is the backdrop to some of Matteis' movies making them seem 'nasty'. Despite sniggering at the dialogue, cringing at the effects and laughing at the dire continuity you always sense a stagnancy that sets the tone from the first frame and lingers throughout until the very last credit. I appreciate Mattei as a director for his grim 'simplicity' and his matter of fact 'I-made-the-films-because-thats-where-the-money-was' attitude. I often think Mattei could've moved onto bigger things but on occasions has been incorrectly underrated. Buy this to add to the Emanuelle collection, The Mattei collection or WIP Collection that may grace the living room shelf. VIEWED; UNCUT UNRATED R1 DISC - 99 MINUTES

gridoon This sleazy "women-in-prison" flick has everything you might expect: sex (both "straight" and lesbian), beatings, catfights, weird tortures, revolts, escape attempts, etc. You've seen it all before; usually less graphic perhaps, but, nevertheless, you HAVE seen it. Nothing new here. So the big question is: WHAT IS THE POINT? (*1/2)