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'PRISON'S' SHOCK TREATMENT
FROM:Washington Post June 1988
- A possitive review of Viggo's first movie in which he had astaring role 'PRISON' -
The "Halloweens" and "Friday the 13ths" and their infinite sequels get all the attention, but it's the genre-busters that keep the horror film as alive and kicking (or is that killing?) as Jason Vorhees himself
Take "Prison," for instance. On the surface -- ads, previews, no-name cast -- it may look like every other cut-'em-up on the market, but it's really something more and something better. A thoroughly credible hybrid of the prison film and the supernatural, it has plenty of shocks, of course, but also an actual story.
"Prison," played out in the now-abandoned but still chillingly gothic Wyoming State Prison, starts off with a sizzle as inmate Charlie Forsythe is electrocuted for killing another inmate. Ethan Sharpe, the prison's notoriously brutal guard, watches coldly. It's 1956, and soon afterward the prison is closed down.
Thirty years pass, and suddenly the prison must be reopened because of overcrowding. Sharpe comes back, this time as a notoriously brutal warden -- he's given to such acts as burning the inmates' bunks and then gleefully pointing out, "Now you don't have cells, you have cages."
Sharpe's been having bad nightmares, but they're soon outstripped by reality as guards and inmates alike start meeting grisly demises (as good as the best demises in "Nightmare on Elm Streets" 1 and 3). Turns out that maybe Forsythe was innocent.
So far, so so: The revenge plot is makeshift and certainly not unknown in the horror genre. What makes it work here is the skill and energy of a young director, Renny Harlin, and a surprisingly decent ensemble. Harlin, a Finn whose first feature was "Born American," not only captures the claustrophobic containment and dark mood of prison but moves his players around like a chess master, including some four dozen real cons who give "Prison" that genuine lived-in look.
Among the pros, Lane Smith is buggy as the warden who's run out of time, and Viggo Mortensen is something of a find as Burke, an inmate apparently bred on James Dean and Montgomery Clift films. All the supporting roles are solid as well. As for the Spirit of Forsythe, he's not just another masked menace or a flesh-rotted presence, but more of a malevolent specter a` la "The Keep." When his hell breaks loose, it's quite chilling.
Prison, at area theaters, is rated R and contains some gory special effects.
`PRISON': BIG HOUSE OF HORRORS
FROM:The Record March 1988
- A negative review of Viggo's first movie in which he had a staring role 'PRISON' -
PRISON: Directed by Renny Harlin. Written by C. Courtney Joyner. Photography, Mac Ahlberg. Music, Richard Band. Editor, Ted Nicolaou. With Lane Smith (Sharpe), Viggo Mortensen (Burke), Chelsea Field (Katherine), Andre de Shiels (Sandor), Lincoln Kilpatrick (Cresus), Ivan Kane (Lasagna), Tom "Tiny" Lister Jr. (Big Sam), and others. Produced by Irwin Yablans. A Charles Band Production released by Empire Pictures. Opens locally today. Running time: 103 minutes. Rated R: gore, violence, profanity.
Let's skip the plot for a minute and get to the point: The scene in "Prison" features a coil of barbed wire coming to life. The wire then slowly coils around a sleeping prison guard, who wakes up to find the jagged noose tightening around his neck. He screams. Blood starts to spurt from his jugular vein, and the barbed wire digs into his arms. The screams get louder.
If this is your idea of entertainment, please feel free to add a star or two to my rating of "Prison," which opens with a graphic electric-chair execution and goes on to depict a prisoner being fried to death in an isolation cell. The gruesome special effects (by John Buechler of "Ghoulies" fame) are very well done, and the gore factor goes considerably beyond what I thought were the boundaries of an R-rating.
Sort of "The Big House" meets "Friday the 13th," this claims to be the first horror movie to be filmed inside an actual prison the abandoned Wyoming State Penitentiary. The gruesome killings are being engineered by the ghost of a prisoner who was unjustly executed in 1964, before the prison closed. When the prison is reopened because of overcrowding, the merciless warden (Lane Smith) just happens to be the former guard who framed the executed prisoner.
There isn't much more to report about "Prison," which stretches about 10 minutes worth of plot over a seemingly endless 103 minutes. Among the stereotypical collection of inmates is a new prisoner who resembles the executed prisoner (Viggo Mortensen), an old prisoner (Lincoln Kilpatrick) who helped frame the executed prisoner, and a Sylvester Stallone fan named Lasagna (Ivan Lane), who provides some comic relief, but not enough. The only woman in the cast is one Chelsea Field, as a reform-minded prison board member who figures out the warden's guilty secret when the year "1964" starts flashing on her computer.
The Finnish director, Renny Harlin ("Born American"), mostly ignores the story and actors and concentrates on atmospheric photography (by Mac Ahlberg) and dramatic lighting of the 80-year-old prison. But they serve primarily as interludes between the baroque violence that may well turn "Prison" into a minor hit.
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