Werewolf in a Womens Prison (2006) Reviews

• Tromaesque riot!

  L. Lion2006-10-22

  I got invited to a screening of this film in a small empty space converted into a theater near downtown LA on tepid October evening. This film was made on something slightly more than a shoestring budget (call it bootlace), meaning that we are in Troma/Ed Wood territory. Filmmakers can either understand their territory and enjoy it, or else they can try to do too much and make something that goes well below what could have been. These filmmakers understood what they were making - a monster nudie horror movie set in a woman's prison. They got an incredible amount of effects and action out of their tiny budget. Having the amazingly endowed Yurizan Beltran and the gorgeous Eva Derrek around to provide their own form of special effects also isn't a drawback. The script has fun with the genre and the limitations the filmmakers faced. It is loaded with lines like "It was the silver flakes in the vodka that killed the werewolf - well getting set on fire and falling off a cliff didn't help". The plot is straightforward - a pretty American girl(Victoria DeMare), out camping with her boyfriend, gets thrown into prison for his murder after a werewolf tears her boyfriend to pieces. She dispenses with the werewolf using the expensive vodka her boyfriend had bought - "it's got the silver flakes in it!" - but not before being bitten herself. Her boyfriend, a la American Werewolf in London - returns as a zombie to explain her plight, and that she must die before the next full moon. The prison she is in is more brothel than penitentiary. At one point the warden (Domiziano Arcangeli, very good in the David Keith role) says to his dominatrix head of discipline (Jackeline Olivier, delicious in the Sybil Danning role) "we're running low on prisoners - go out and round up some more". Olivier's character trades feel-ups for cigarettes (imagine what you can get for a full carton), and fortunately the filmmakers found a batch of well endowed pretty inmates who have no problem getting naked. Viewers will get treated to scenes of inmates "comforting" each other, girls staked in the sun licking the sweat off each other's bodies, and so on. The only thing missing is the shower scene. WWIAWP, when the wolf is not on the loose, is an unabashed T&A flick, and good for that. Anything else would have been a disappointment. When the wolf is on the loose it becomes a gore fest that only Joe Bob Briggs could appreciate. Bisections (by prison bar), dis-arming of guards, heads ripped off, disembowelments, coitus evisceratus, and monsters bursting into flame are all part of the fun as the moon comes up and the pretty American girl ain't gonna take it anymore. It would seem like they spent the entire budget on corpses and fake blood. The movie actually goes on a little long, and there are too many scenes of girls escaping prison and running through the scrub until finally the sadistic warden turns into Carl Denham and puts the monster on display in his sadistic little cabaret (with the same results Denham got in King Kong), but this is a movie that delivers on exactly what it is supposed to be. If you like this sort of thing, this will be up your alley.

• Successfully sends up WIP and werewolf movies while also being an entertaining exploitation flick.

  capkronos2008-09-25

  After sitting through a half dozen truly terrible recent shot-on-video exploitation/horror DVDs, I was about to give up all hope that anything decent - or even remotely watchable - was being produced these days for B movie fans. Keeping in mind the mostly positive reviews I saw on here, I decided to take a chance on this title. Hell, it couldn't be any worse than some of the trash I've subjected myself to these past few days. Thankfully, WEREWOLF IN A WOMEN'S PRISON turned out to be a huge improvement over other efforts within the same budget range. It was actually pretty fun, heaped on the exploitation elements and was put together with some care and about as much style as could be afforded on an obviously anemic budget. Of course it's silly, sleazy and not to be taken seriously for one second, but that's kind of the whole point. The director and writer are obviously fans of these kind of films and know this territory very well, which is evident with the finished product. While camping somewhere in a Mexican forest, Sarah Ragdale (Victoria De Mare) and her boyfriend Jack (co-writer Vinnie Bilancio) are attacked by a huge werewolf. His throat is ripped out and she's bitten on the shoulder before setting the werewolf ablaze and sending it tumbling down a hillside. When Sarah wakes up, she finds herself strapped to a table somewhere inside a Mexi state prison for the criminally insane. After inspecting her "American coochie," sadistic lesbian guard Rita (Jackeline Olivier, decked out like a dominatrix) brings her to see equally sadistic warden Juan (Domiziano Arcangeli), who refuses her a phone call to the American embassy. She's slapped around, fondled, electrocuted with a telephone and forced to pose in lurid pictures for their "Prison Girls Gone Wild" website. Sarah is then placed in her cell and meets her drunken cell mate Rachel (Eva Derrek). The babes behind bars have to do sexual favors for packs of cigarettes and booze and are sometimes drugged and pimped out to customers. Meanwhile, Sarah's werewolf bite mark is healing surprisingly fast... In a nod to John Landis' classic AN AMERIC AN WEREWOLF IN LON DON (1981), Sarah's boyfriend Jack returns as an ever-rotting ghost to warn her about the upcoming full moon and her newly acquired wolf tendencies. As is customary for WIP flicks, this movie is filled with female nudity and lesbian scenes. Some of it is even humorously done as to parody similar scenes in straight-forward films. One example is when Sarah and Rachel are punished and have to go to "The Toaster," an area of desert where they're chained up topless to a rock and refused water. To survive, the girls have to lick the sweat off each other's bodies. However, this movie doesn't rely on sexploitation alone to provide its entertainment, it also delivers loads of gore along the way. When werewolf Sarah goes on a rampage, she runs around tearing off heads, faces, arms and legs. Blood splatters all over the place. There are a few instances of badly done CGI, but for the most part the violent scenes deliver the goods. There's even a hilarious bit where one girl is split in two when the she-wolf tries to pull her through the prison bars. The werewolf design itself isn't too bad; a little cartoonish, but it fits in well with the overall tone of the film. The writers have obviously seen their fair share of WIP flicks because this is packed with all of the clichés associated with the genre, as well as direct references to certain films. There are even elements of a blues score, which brings to mind the prototype WIP film CAGED HEAT (1974). The film also tries to pull off a comic book style aesthetic. There's some colorful lighting and the prison walls are painted in gaudy colors such as lime green, purple and orange. As far as the acting goes, it's a mixed bag, but that's fitting for a film like this. De Mare (who apparently has worked frequently in low-budget horror films) is spirited and does a good job in the lead role, while Arcangeli, Olivier and Neto DePaula Pimenta (as guard Garcia) provide all the camp you could hope for as the bad guys. Also keep your eyes peeled for indy horror regulars Eric Spudic (as a prison guard) and Phoebe Dollar (as an inmate). To sum things up; it's highly entertaining, somewhat clever and often very, very funny. If you're into horror, camp, cult and/or exploitation, I think this would make a fine addition to your DVD collection.

• Delightfully fun modern exploitation!

  The_Void2008-05-04

  The title of this movie is great. Not only does it pretty much describe the whole plot in a nutshell, it also clearly alludes to the type of film that this is; and as modern exploitation throwbacks go, Werewolf in a Women's Prison is a damn fine example! The film mixes two genres; obviously werewolves and women in prison and adds in a sleazy atmosphere and a delightfully twisted sense of humour. The result is a film that is not for everyone; but will certainly entertain all the right people! The film takes place in a fictional country named Canpuna, which would appear to be somewhere near Mexico. We start off with a sequence that sees a young couple camping out in the woods somewhere. It soon becomes apparent that there's danger in the woods and danger soon manifests itself in the form of a huge grisly werewolf that kills the boyfriend and attacks the girl before being fought off. The girl then wakes up in a prison being ran by a bunch of unforgiving wardens who make it pretty clear that she won't be getting any help from the American Embassy. What they don't know is that they've hauled in a werewolf... Naturally, considering the type of film, it's very cheap and the acting is rubbish; but I'm sure that nobody going into this film would expect any different. One of the best things about it is the way that it handles the plot; a werewolf in a woman's prison doesn't exactly have a lot of room for innovation, but the film actually does manage to keep things varied and interesting which is to it's credit; although it does directly rip-off An American Werewolf in London. The film doesn't disappoint in terms of nudity and gore and there are plenty of both. It's only soft-core nudity but all the girls are nice to look at and have more than ample chests; which are exposed as often as possible. The gore is fake looking and cheesy but great fun to watch and the film doesn't let its budget constrain it as a lot of the gore scenes are quite inventive. The werewolf itself is hilarious but it's clear that the filmmaker's weren't looking to create a monster that would scare and the huge lumbering hairy monster does actually fit in quite well. Overall, this is not brilliant or a masterpiece; but it's encouraging that films like this are still being made and I'm sure that Werewolf in a Woman's Prison will delight and amuse most exploitation fans!

• Huge Boobs, Huge Gore, Huge Werewolf, Huge Fun

  ElijahCSkuggs2008-04-27

  What happens when you mix a Werewolf and a Women's Prison? Well, ya get a movie that's chock full of fun gore, nice nudity, and some cheesy acting. What more can you want from a modern exploitation flick? Werewolf in a Womens Prison was a nice lil surprise. Werewolves are my favorite out of the classic creatures, and WIP films are some of my favorite type of exploitation settings. Naturally, I should have liked it, right? Damn right! The movie offers everything you would want and then some. You get nudity, actually some really good nudity, like Double G tits nudity. And you get a surprising amount of the red stuff. From decapitations to hot chicks being ripped in two! The flick's plot is basically it's title, Werewolf in a Womens Prison, that's all you need to know. It's simple, effective, and more than anything, fun. The movie isn't a masterpiece of exploitation film-making, it's writing and acting were very cheesy, sometimes a bit too much. And one thing that really bothered me was one chick, possibly the hottest of them all, didn't show her boobs. The weird thing, I knew almost immediately she wasn't. I just got this hunch that she won't be showing the goods. Damn shame too, it would have been really nice. Nevertheless, the movie is a silly boob and gore filled flick that should easily appeal to fans of cheesy horror/exploitation. For a nice double-feature watch this and Gutterballs.

• Great title; enjoyable film.

  BA_Harrison2008-05-02

  Two of my favourite movie sub-genres—'werewolves' and 'women-in-prison'—are rolled into one in this low budget and deliberately trashy effort that aims to answer the question 'What would happen if a lycanthrope was incarcerated in an all-female correctional facility?'. Victoria De Mare plays Sarah Ragdale, a young woman whose romantic camping holiday with her boyfriend turns into a nightmare when a werewolf rudely interrupts their fun. Narrowly surviving a savage attack, Sarah awakens to find herself an inmate in a filthy prison run by a corrupt warden and his masochistic assistant, having been wrongly convicted of killing her lover (whose body was found torn to pieces). Obviously one of the few people who hasn't seen 'An American Werewolf in London', Sarah is shocked when her dead boyfriend pays her a visit to explain that, since she is the survivor of a werewolf bite, the next full moon will see her transforming into a 7 foot tall, slavering beast with a hunger for flesh—succulent, female prisoner flesh!! Packed with wall-to-wall nudity and a whole heap of shoddy but gruesome effects, Werewolf in a Women's Prison is camp schlock horror that is knowingly awful—and for most of its running time, it proves to be pretty good fun: the women are all good looking and more than willing to strip off for the camera and indulge in a spot of soft-core lesbianism; the wolf itself is hilariously bad (the monster comes complete with glowing red light-bulb eyes); and the bloodletting is gloriously OTT (if not too convincing)—heads are torn off, limbs are ripped out, and one victim is even bisected when pulled through her cell bars by the beast. Sometimes the humour is a little laboured, the cribs from 'An American Werewolf in London' are a little too blatant, and, towards the end, the novelty of the film's intentional cheesiness does begin to wear a bit thin, but if you're in the mood for a mindless slice of sexy and gory silliness, you could do worse. A lot worse. Trust me, I know! 6.5 out of 10, rounded up to 7 for IMDb.