A Prisão

In a Brazilian prison for women, where the inmates are subjected to physical and sexual abuse on a daily basis, four girls make a bid for freedom. Aided by the prison's ether-sniffing nurse, the group successfully escape and go on a killing spree.

From the word go, Oswaldo de Oliveira's sleazy WIP movie delivers wall-to-wall scenes of nudity and lesbianism: nearly every female in his film's joint-including the guards, prisoners and even the sexy warden, are lesbians. The ones that aren't are bisexual! This means that viewers can expect a whole shedload of nekkid babes in ill-fitting outfits indulging in all sorts of sexy shenanigans, including oral-sex, mutual masturbation, and strap-on action.

What starts off as a softcore film with simulated sex gradually becomes stronger and stronger in content, until the director gives up all pretences and goes the whole hog, with a couple of (rather crap) hardcore couplings. As well as upping the strength of the sex, de Oliveira also makes the film a whole lot more violent and sleazy in the final half an hour, with the escaped prisoners indulging in a little killing before going their separate ways. In one scene, an entire family is savagely attacked by the girls; the mother and father are shot, the father has his severed penis fed to a barking dog, and then the wanton women proceed to 'rape' the under-aged son!

Now I realise that this sounds like the mother of all exploitation films and an unmissable treat for those who dig more 'unusual' cinematic fare, but, to be honest, it's all rather boring. After a couple of lesbian scenes, the film becomes a blur of boobs, bums and beaver and one soon longs for something remotely resembling a decent plot.

The occasional prison torture scene and a second brutal emasculation help to break up the tedium of endless frottage, but are not enough to make me recommend this ultimately disappointing film.

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..

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 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.

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.