Escape From Women's Prison Blu-ray Review

Two Words, Women in prison.  Actually that’s technically three words.  But they are glorious words if you’re a fan of trash cinema.  Come on every guy digs a good women in prison film.  The problem is, a lot of those films that were released under that guise are not in fact prison style films.  One of those to fall in between the cracks was titled Escape From Women’s Prison.  A nasty little Italian film made by Giovanni Brusadori back in 1978.  I saw it back o VHS when I was a young kid and really enjoyed it.  Now thanks once again to our friends at Severin I get to see it on Blu-ray uncut.
 
Escape from Women’s Prison is exactly was the title states.  Four stereotypical women escape from prison.  They are essentially labeled terrorists, sex crazed bi sexual terrorists.  They kill a few cops and as they need a ride they hijack a bus full of women’s tennis players. Then they decide to set out to find the female judge who sent them up the river who conveniently lives in a big secluded mansion.  They head there and keep all the female tennis players as hostages while they get revenge on the judge.
 
That revenge is not simply murdering her that would be to boring.  These are female prisoners so they have to do a lot of rape, beatings, humiliation tactics, more rape, more beatings.  See not only are these four women dangerous there also either a nymphomaniac or a sex staved lesbian.  Yes you read that right.  This is not citizen Kane, this is a mean nasty vile exploitation film.  It’s a hardcore shocker not meant for everyone. But if you like these films you will be all over this one.  The only thing that is a bit misleading is the title.  It takes place in a big mansion as opposed to a prison.  However the women treat it like a prison, and I guess they did escape from a prison so in all actuality the title is not misleading.
 
The film to me has more of a Last House on the Left vibe as opposed to other films of this genera.  As I stated the women arrive at the judges place pretty early on and keep everyone under total fear and control even though they are outnumbered.  It’s not until the closing act when the captives start to fight back as the authorities come to lay siege.  That’s not taking anything away from this film, I just feel had it been promoted as more of a hostage style piece it may have reached a larger crowd.
 
I mentioned before I saw it on VHS as a kid and I have to say it looked horrible.  But that’s all changed because Severin strikes again.  This print looks amazing, and considering the negative in question was probably not in the most preserved state what they did is astounding.  This looks fantastic.  Everything is bright and colorful, and let’s face it no one wats to see this type of film on a grainy picture.  The Blu-ray sounds great as well.  The audio is crisp, and probably sounds better than it did during its initial theatrical run. And I should say not only is this presented uncut but they even were able to include the original trailer, and an interview with Director Giovanni Brusadori.
 
Another thing I have to mention is the cover art.  Lots of companies create their own artwork now for these films and Severin does not get the credit it deserves.  The artwork they use is amazing.  This one to me is especially great as it has such an old school comic like style that you would find in the pages of the old Heavy Metal magazine.  Think Neil Adams meets David Hess.  It’s a beautiful design that is bright and loud, yet trashy and menacing at the same time.  I hope one day they start doing poster size reprints of these as they have several I would love to frame.
 
So let’s recap.  Women break out of prison and torture other women.  Lots of violence and nudity, and I think some sort of political message was intended when it was made.  Maybe, if so I think I understood it.  Regardless I understood that if you like films like this you need to add it to your collection. Head on over and grab this one right away.
 
Overall 3out of 5 Stars!