Révolte au pénitencier de filles

Emanuelle Escapes from Hell (1983)

** (out of 4)

Hack master Mattei directs this women in prison film that has Emanuelle (Laura Gemser) being sent to prison by a corrupt official. Once in prison she battles the warden as well as another inmate but soon things get out of control when four male prisoners take over the prison. Mattei and Gemser made another WIP film the same year as this one and the two movies share a whole lot in common. It appears most of the same cast and crew made both pictures and both remain mildly entertaining entries in the genre. The most shocking thing about this film is that Gemser doesn't take her clothes off, which must be a first in the ten or so films I've watched with her. The film is fairly sleazy but not near the level of a D'Amato or Franco film. The highlight include a rather erotic sequence when the men decide to have their way with the overly willing female prisoners. Gemser is her usual self, although, despite the title, this has very little to do with her Black Emanuelle films. The supporting cast features some good looking women but bad actresses but that's to be expected. Mattei's direction is certainly laughable and the screenplays has giant holes in it but all of this adds to the charm of the low-budget film. The dubbing is also extremely bad but adds a lot of laughs. AKA: Women's Prison Massacre, Emanuelle in Prison and its original title Emanuelle fuga dall'inferno.

"Emanuelle" (Laura Gemser) is a journalist who has been setup and sent to prison by "District Attorney Robinson" (Jacques Stany) because she was getting too close to exposing his corruption. Yet even in prison he considers her to be too dangerous and so he conspires with the prison warden named "Colleen" (Lorraine De Selle) to have her killed before she can be released. To do that Colleen turns to the most vicious prisoner there by the name of "Albina" (Ursula Flores). However, as luck would have it 4 extremely violent men are sent to that same prison awaiting execution and they manage to take over the prison. When they do all hell breaks loose and nobody is safe from them. Now rather than reveal any more of the story and risk ruining it for those who haven't seen it I will just say that this movie seemed to have potential but the low budget and over-acting really stood out and greatly weakened the overall effect. Likewise, although it contained quite a bit of nudity there wasn't much passion or eroticism to really make much of an impression either. That said other than the performance of Laura Gemser I didn't see anything that remarkable about this film and I rate it as below average.

"Emanuelle in Prison" is rather a variation than a sequel to „Violenza in un carcere femminile": even though Laura Gemser plays the same part as Emanuelle, Gabriele Tinti plays the leader of the criminals now, without any connection to „Violenza..." where he played the doctor. Anyhow, Emanuelle performs a theater play at prison in such a boring manner that inmates throw rotten tomatoes at her. Nevertheless, she still seems somewhat too popular to the guards. They are trying to humiliate Emanuelle, but their efforts fail, she's got nerves of steel and experience from the previous flick. The situation at the prison changes radically when armed male prisoners attack the guards and take control. The prison is besieged, and it's time to kill... Nothing special for the genre, in fact a bit lackluster, but the haunting soundtrack by Luigi Ceccarelli deserves mentioning; it reminded me stylistically (not quality-wise) a bit of Keith Emerson's compositions for Argento's „Inferno".

I thought that Emanuelle In Prison was a good exploitation horror. It is about a woman called Emmanuelle who is a reporter, she manages to expose a corrupt official,and she is sent to prison on charges. what she does not know is that in the prison, the inmates are humiliated and tortured by the prison staff. one of the prison staff Albina who runs the prison. makes an enemy out of Emanuelle. Emanuelle and Albina start to fight each other with knives. There is a lot of blood in the movie as well as Strong Violence, Female Nudity and Lesbianism. I think that there is a very sleazy feel to the film. Which made it a good film to be able to watch.

Every once in a while there are films that come along and enlighten us. For some it was ET for others it was Gone With the Wind and for me it was Women's Prison Massacre! I Felt moved just by picking up the box at the video store. This movie has everything sleaze, torture, sex, rape, throat ripping, violence, forced suicide, more sleaze, more sex, more torture, and more bullet hits then Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs put together. When the credits rolled tears fell from my eyes. Bravo! Bravo! I love this movie!!