Prison of Dead - Mädchen schutzlos hinter Gittern

This is a South American women-in-prison (WIP) flick without the narrative drive or camp value of American WIP films (BIG DOLL HOUSE, CHAINED HEAT) of the fever-dream delirium of European WIP films (BARBED WIRE DOLLS, HELLHOLE WOMEN). All the exploitable elements are in place but the excitement is missing as this film is top-heavy (pun intended) with girl/girl sex scenes. The actress who plays the warden looks just like Lisa Kudrow.

Bare Behind Bars (1980)

** (out of 4)

Extremely graphic WIP (women in prison) flick from Brazil has an evil, lesbian warden torturing, sexually assaulting, whipping, biting, attacking and doing just about anything imaginable to her female prisoners. Eventually the prisoners get tired of it and try to escape. This infamous WIP flick certainly has everything you could possibly imagine from non-stop lesbian sex to prison fights to several graphic violent scenes. This is one of the most outrageous WIP films I've seen but the direction is flat throughout and after the first hour things really start to get tiresome so the final thirty minutes really drag.

This has been called the "Mother of all WIP" flicks. In a sense I can see why. It has all the essential ingredients of the genre- in abundance if not excess.

Wall to wall nudity (indeed being nude is the default dress code), shower scenes, some (tame) torture, lesbianism (indeed no men really), and a so-called moral ending.

Trouble is that it is so atrociously compiled by De Oliveira, the director, that all sense of the erotic is lost. Jess Franco so much does it better. The scenes flit from one to the next with little or no continuity of plot, sexual encounters are chucked in for no good reason, plot lines start and then run into the sand.....Well- whatever.. And the women are not that cute either.

So sadly this flick flatters to deceive. You will probably watch it given its reputation- and emerge mildly disappointed like the rest of us. Brazil creates better football than WIP thrills..

Well I've got to say that I do enjoy a good slice of sleaze; but I also like there to be some sort of narrative to keep my interest, and this film lacks that; which leaves it feeling rather shallow and pointless. As the title suggests, Bare Behind Bars is another one of those 'women in prison' films, and the fact that it hails from Brazil means that you can certainly count on gratuitous sex and nudity, which this film features in droves. There's all sorts of stuff going on, from lesbian sex to the use of dildo's and other implements, and everyone in the prison gets involved; from the prisoners to the guards and everyone in-between. The only slight hint of plot revolves around a prison break, which happens towards the end. There's a fair amount of violence to go with the sex and general sleaze, which includes certain male body parts being removed and, on one occasion, being fed to the family dog! However, while this film has everything you could want in terms of sleaze; the lack of any plot at all really does harm it. Obviously this is not a genre that is well known for great stories, but this film is shallow even by genre standards; and while I'm not an expert on sleazy women in prison flicks - Jess Franco has certainly done better.

If you are a fan of endless lesbian orgies this film may be exactly the right stuff for you: see naked chicks having sex in their prison cells, under the shower, with the female attendants... here and there even some short hardcore sequences are brought on. There are some quite tame torture scenes and a subplot about the trade with female slaves, which is not further developed..!

"Bare behind bars" is probably the best WIP (stands for "Women-In-Prison")-flick ever made, because it doesn´t take itself too serious and it´s often full of unconscious humor! The best scenes has this weird Marilyn Monroe-like nurse, who uses an ananas as her dildo and exploits the female prisoners as their sex-bunnies.

If you want to know why this film is banned in countries like the U.K. or Germany check out the last third, which is the grossest part of this movie! Three outlaws are able to escape and on their run they murder a family, just for drinks and food. The climax of this crime is when one of the girls castrates the dead husband and feeds the cut off dick to his pesky barking dog..! Another castration-scene is featured some minutes later... However, there´s no happy ending for the girls: two of them return to prison, the third one becomes a prostitute and gets shot by her pimp..!

"Bare behind bars" belongs to those movies you may need a shower after watching it. Nevertheless it can be pretty entertaining if you have a sense for such films. If you like WIP-flicks try to find Jess Franco´s "Sadomania", too!!