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A prison camp for women in the jungle as bad as they come: Not only are the women worked to the bone and the warden (Luciano Pigozzi) is an outright sadist, they're also sexually exploited and regularly whiplashed. And whoever tries to make an escape attempt is routinely first raped and then killed. What's shocking is that one of the former convicts (Yael Forti) is now one of the most cruel guards. Only one of the camp's personnel still has some kind of moral code, prison doctor Farrell (Anthony Steffen), but all the violence has turned him into a hopeless alcoholic. The women seem to be more or less resigned to their fate, until one of them (Maite Nicote), after prostituting herself to one of the guards (Serafino Profumo) for some tobacco and alcohol, is then brutally tortured for the possession of same, with the very guard watching with glee, and ultimately buried in a ditch to be bitten to death by a snake. It's then that Vivienne (Cristina Lay) convinces her cellmates (Ajita Wilson, Cintia Lodetti, Zaira Ziccheddu) and a few others that escape is possible with the help of the doctor, who has long developed a soft spot for her. So the doctor gives them all a serum faking bulbonic plague, and at the insistance of the warden then takes them out into the jungle. A valid plan, as there's an escape boat on the river nearby, only the good doctor still has an account to settle with the warden and ultimately strangles him to death, and when the guards find out a few hours later, they go after the doctor and his women, with the intent of killing them all ...

A typical women-in-prison sleaze piece of its era, lots of focus of this movie is put on sex, violence, and sexual violence, in an exploitative way that would be inacceptable in today's climate - and with some justification at least, as the film tries to go to the jugular almost all the time, doesn't even allow a story to develop until halfway through and crams as much nudity and brutality as possible in even then. But of course, watching movies only from the present day's point of view often falls short of understanding them, and while there's little to actually "defend" this movie apart from some atmospheric camerawork, it's at the same time an interesting time capsule that gives some fascinating insights what was at least acceptable entertainment back when.

By the way, this film was shot back to back with Orinoco: Prigioniere del Sesso/Hotel Paradise with more or less the same cast and crew, and the two films were so similar that in 1985 they were both cut together in the movie Savage Island that was held together by new material starring Linda Blair and Leon Askin.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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