Horreurs nazies

SS Experiment Love Camp is a film that makes Love Camp 7 look downright lovable. And I don't mean that in a 'This isn't a film for wimps, while Love Camp 7 is' kind of way. I mean that relatively speaking, Love Camp 7 has a lot going for it and may engage or entertain you in its special fashion, but that SS Experiment Love Camp most certainly does not, and won't.

'Sex experiments in pursuit of a better tomorrow!' screams the tagline. Being carried out by various fools in a Nazi-run slave brothel during WWII, these experiments consist in the first place of observing how German soldiers couple with female prisoners in transparent waist- high water tanks, or on white-sheeted beds. Cue softcore sex scenes. The second kind of experiment involves no sex but lots of particularly idiotic violence. I'll admit that the cruelty of some of these scenes is affecting, but it's hard to get away from the pervading feeling of stupidity. For instance, can you really learn anything by sticking a tube in a woman's ear and then blasting her eardrum with several atmospheres of pressure? The folks playing the unflappable camp staff act as if they really think they can. Truly, it's not just for the purposes of sadism. 'What, she's dead? Get another one in, we'll try the experiment again.' They're also obsessed with perfecting the 'uterus transplant' procedure, a yucky effect you get to see at least three times. Unsurprisingly, these operations, which were clearly going nowhere, come to nothing. The film is for the most part a momentumless series of such softcore sex and shabbily portrayed torture scenes, further undercut by the silliest-looking dubbing I've seen in a film of this genre and the least convincing casting of a period film ever. The German troops look and act - and above all, sound - like American GIs.

Even for folks who want to watch them - like myself - these Nazi sexploitation films are acknowledged as being pretty hard to surpass in terms of bad taste, so when one is executed as dumbly as SS Experiment Love Camp, it sort of topples over into a zone where it could easily be viewed as a complete insult to humanity. You've got a film about Nazi experiments, but they're quite ridiculous. The film's hopeless in its period detail and everyone has a broad American accent. Jewishness isn't mentioned at all (not totally exceptional for this genre, but in this film, again, it somehow looks worse). There's almost no development, no suspense and no engagement value of any kind, except during the last twenty minutes, when they throw in the testicular transplant plot development which I haven't previously mentioned. The ball action and some unintended laughs are about the only things which stick out of this quite dull, dumb and thoroughly poor entry in the genre.

Yet another nazi-prison movie, that followed after Ilses success. This one has the usual stuff;lesbian warden, sadistic guards, forced co-workers and lotsa young women in shower/softcore sex scenes. The only highlight in this movie, is when the hero has his testicles removed, so the Kommandant can have them implanted (he lost them on the front, to a russian girl). Rather predictable and the torture scenes are kindda boring - for anyone who have seen this type of movie before.

This is one of the many sleazy World War 2 Nazi camp movies. The poor female POW's get raped and groped by all and sundry at the camp, but in an amusing comic twist the commandant decides he wants a new pair of testicles and so removes them from one of the hunky guards, who doesn't seem to realise until he goes to bonk one of the French prisoners. This provides one of the most amusing scenes when he confronts the commandant and says "What have you been doing with my balls?". This is another title responsible for the "Video Nasties" furore by the media. Although by today's standards it could be passed with BBFC cuts.

Sergio Garrone's grindhouse Nazi sex flick, shot back to back with the similarly dire SS WOMENS CAMP, is one of the most often cited "video nasties". In actuality it is totally ridiculous on every level, even relative to other genre entries. Owing more to SALON KITTY than ILSA, SHE WOLF OF THE SS yet made with zero flair and a poor grasp of English, this movie would have been forgotten forever had it not been singled out for prosecution at the hands of the DPP. The "experiments" are simply ridiculous and are no more than an intangible excuse for embarrassed soft-core writhing between very Latin looking "SS soldiers" and the well-fed inmates (who throughout the film are treated more as if they are in a holiday camp rather than Auschwitz!).

As with all similar films, the only offensive thing about this movie is its total trivialisation of the Holocaust. It is pretty interesting to watch, however... if only to see just how far exploitation can sink.

When I decided to see every film on the DPP 'Video Nasty' list, I knew I'd be letting myself in for some rubbish; but I really didn't expect anything this depressingly awful. This movie transcends the bounds of 'so bad it's good' and just becomes bad. There are some other bad films on the list, but most of those at least have some redeeming values; this one really does have nothing. The centrepiece of the film has to do with the 'first ever' testicle transplant, and that's the only narrative that runs throughout. The rest of the film is padded out by lots of pointless 'experiments' and other tedious happenings, and it's clear that director Sergio Garrone wanted to make this as sleazy as possible in order to sell tickets - but I like sleaze, and this isn't it. This film was, like The Driller Killer, banned in the UK because of the cover art; and that's hardly surprising, as aside from the aforementioned transplant and a few sex scenes; there really isn't anything here to warrant banning, or seeking the film out for. I've been thankful to the DPP and their shopping list in the past, as it's allowed me to discover some great hidden gems such as The House on Straw Hill and The Witch Who Came From the Sea; films that I otherwise might not have seen, but I'm annoyed that I bothered to see this. On the whole, there's nothing to see this movie for; and I certainly don't recommend it.