Emanuelle Escapes from Hell | |
---|---|
Directed by | Bruno Mattei (as Gilbert Roussel) |
Produced by | Jean Lefait (execut. prod.) |
Written by |
Claudio Fragasso Olivier Lefait |
Starring | Laura Gemser |
Music by | Luigi Ceccarelli |
Cinematography | Henry Frogers (as Henry Froger) |
Edited by | Gilbert Kikoïne |
Release date
|
1983 |
Running time
|
89 min. |
Country | Italy |
Language | English |
Budget | $60,000 |
Emanuelle Escapes from Hell (Italian: Emanuelle fuga dall'inferno), also known as Blade Violent, Women's Prison Massacre, and Emanuelle in Prison is a 1983 Italian women in prison film directed by Bruno Mattei and starring Laura Gemser, Gabriele Tinti, Carlo De Mejo, Lorraine De Selle, and Franca Stoppi. The film was written and co-directed by Claudio Fragasso (a longtime Mattei collaborator), and was shot in 1982 with a mostly French crew. The film has achieved a certain level of cult status recently due to its exploitive nature, extreme violence, and cheesy dialog.
Emanuelle is sent to a violent women's prison. While she is in prison, she comes into confrontation with the "top dog" inmate Albina, ending in a series of fights. Albina gets the worse of it, including a broken arm, a knife in her leg, and her wig pulled off. Following a series of cat fights and arguments the women's lives are interrupted by the arrival of four male death row inmates led by "Crazy Boy" Henderson, who break into the prison. The male convicts proceed to rape, mutilate, and torture the female inmates (involving a sick game of Russian roulette), and executions. One convict is killed when a SWAT team attempts to invade the prison. Another is killed by a female inmate who hides a razor blade inside her vagina before enticing him to have his way with her. Henderson and the remaining male con attempt to break out using the warden, Emanuelle, and a wounded sheriff as human shields. After a gory finale, Emanuelle and the sheriff are the only characters left alive, and the sheriff promises to reopen her case.
Although the film contains scenes of violence, these are portrayed in an over the top cartoonish manner, something Mattei did regularly with his other films throughout the 1980s.