Prison (1987)

SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

People are voting emotionally.

The movie is made so realistic it has a lot of that WoW feeling at the right moments and never tooo over the top. the suspense is done so well and the emotion is felt. Very well put together with the music and all.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

While there are a number of plot flaws, this remains one of my all-time favorite horror films of the 80's. The film has a constant foreboding atmosphere and is very unpredictable. A great cast ensures credibility and the effects are really good for its time, especially the scenes where they break through the old execution chamber, the chair crashing upward through a ceiling, and the body falling through the roof during breakfast. The prison becomes increasingly chaotic as the film progresses and the haunting ensues, and it really is fantastic entertainment! I'm so thrilled the film had a beautifully restored Blu Ray release!

Sadistic Warden Ethan Sharpe (superbly played with fierce intensity by Lane Smith) runs the rundown Creedmore Prison with an iron fist. Moreover, Sharpe harbors a dark secret: The joint is haunted by the angry and lethal spirit of an innocent man Sharpe wrongly, yet willingly sent to the electric chair for execution. Director Renny Harlin does an expert job of creating and sustaining a supremely creepy atmosphere as well as a strong feeling of pure dread and pervasive gloom, makes excellent and inspired use of the novel penitentiary setting, and stages the elaborate splatter set pieces with admirable skill and brio. C. Courtney Joyner's crafty script puts an ingeniously nightmarish spin on various familiar prison movie clichés which include a brutally thwarted attempted escape, a grisly ruckus in the cafeteria, and a rousing climactic riot and subsequent break out. Viggo Mortensen does well in an early lead role as cagey car thief Burke. The fine acting by the rest of the tip-top cast keeps the picture on track: Chelsea Field as the feisty prison reformer Katherine Walker, Lincoln Kilpatrick as weary and venerable old felon Cresus, Tom Everett as twitchy weasel Rabbitt, Ivan Kane as macho meathead Lassagna, Andre De Shields as voodoo practitioner Sandor, Tiny Lister as the hulking Tiny, Stephen E. Little as monstrous predatory top con Rhino, Mickey Yablans as the timid Brian, and Arlen Dean Snyder as hard-nosed prison guard captain Horton. The spare rattling score by Richard Band and Christopher Stone further enhances the overall eerie tone. Mac Ahlberg's exceptionally moody and stylish cinematography rates as another significant asset. An on the money little scarefest.

In the 1990s, Finnish director Renny Harlin became known as one of the purveyors of Hollywood action cinema: "Cliffhanger", "Cutthroat Island", "The Long Kiss Goodnight" and "Deep Blue Sea" were his output. To be certain, he is almost always a candidate for Golden Raspberry Awards.This makes his early effort "Prison" all the more interesting. Far from the explosion-filled brain candy that he released in the final decade of the twentieth century, this is a clever horror flick. Nothing really special, but I certainly liked it. The movie also features early appearances of Viggo Mortensen, Tommy "Tiny" Lister and Kane Hodder (one of the many actors who played Jason Voorhees). It was certainly a major honor for character actor Lane Smith, who plays the warden.Apparently, Renny Harlin's next movie will be about the Russia-Georgia War of 2008 with Andy Garcia playing Mikhail Saakashvili (I'd always thought that Saakashvili should get played by Bob Hoskins). I'll keep an open mind about this one, but I'm also doubtful, given most of Harlin's output. In the meantime, I advise you to check out "Prison". Really neat.

Prisons are not exactly renowned for their kind hospitality and 'happy vibes', what with stories of fights, chaos, murder and of course extreme male bonding! But the prison in this film is a different beast altogether. Horror films set in cells are, as you probably know, nothing particularly new as they emphasis and exaggerate the fear of claustrophobia and the inability of escape – two of the greatest themes in horror cinema. With such examples as THE CHAIR (Waldermar Korzeniowsky, 1988), THE GREEN MILE (Frank Darabont, 1999), ALIEN 3 (David Fincher, 1992)and of course the entire Women In Prison exploitation genre itself, another entry into this niche has to be something inventive and a lot of fun to boot in order to be recognised. Or at least that's what you'd have thought. PRISON is certainly an incredibly fun and enjoyable ride and it's somewhat of a shame that it isn't as well known as it should be.The film, in short, centres on an old prison (well, duh!) which has been reopened. However, it's not just fellow inmates and guards the prisoners have to fear, but also a mean ass demon ghost spirit with only one thing on its mind; death! And boy, are we treated to some awesome death scenes! I won't spoil anything here for you but there are plenty of innovative and enjoyable murders all done by invisible hands.Besides the special effects and the murders, this film also has another thing going for it; it's cast. Headlining, we have LORD OF THE RINGS (Peter Jackson, 2001-2003) star Viggo Mortensen (and for all those so inclined, yes, he does get naked) whose performance is not only highly believable, but is done with such skill that his Eastwood-esquire character is both bad-to-the-bone and likable (a very delicate mix). Add him to a cast of 'hey-wait-a-minute-I-know-that-guy' actors and you've got yourself one great set of stars. The characters themselves however lack three-dimensionality and more often than not come across as very stereotypical. We've got a black oculist, a hard-as-nails prison warden, a human-rights activist woman and plenty of other stock characters. But in all honesty, this 'fault' actually aids the film. Instead of boring character development in an over-long equilibrium, we are chucked, more or less, straight into the action and once it gets going (very early on) there's not a single scene that's a filler – it's balls to the wall plot. Unlike a certain SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION (Frank Darabont, 1994 )! Sharing conventions with the slasher genre, this is somewhat of a convention itself, and, in good ol' slasher genre tradition, PRISON punishes those who have been bad.All in all this is an excellent little horror film and one which is sadly overlooked and unmentioned among the horror world. With an excellent cast and great special effects and rather original death scenes this film is highly recommended to horror fans. Don't be fooled into thinking it'll be a cheesy little film either, just because it was made in USA 1980s, it's far from cheesy (although the very end does ruin this) and, simultaneously, far from gritty and realistic (whilst it attempts to tackle issues such as prison rape, these are rather subtly done).I give it 3.5 out of 5 luvs. A very entertaining horror film with some very nice touches indeed.