I can't say for sure whether or not Jeff Leroy's Werewolf in a Women's Prison was intentionally made to cash in on the publicity of Grindhouse. The title does sound suspiciously similar to Rob Zombie's fake trailer Werewolf Women of the SS, and the film does imitate the same style that Grindhouse tries to emulate. In any case, while there are few areas where this low budget effort could hope to compete with Rodriquez and Tarantino's ode to trash cinema (which, despite disastrous box office, I loved), WIAWP actually manages to come closer in some ways to the grindhouse cinema formula. One of the film's greatest assets is it's trashy title that suggests a meeting of two of the great exploitation genres: horror flicks and women in prison movies. Second, it pretty much wallows in the time-honored combination of sex and violence, achieving a degree of 70's style political incorrectness that Tarantino and Rodriguez could never have attained while still getting an R rating.

Sarah Ragdale (Victoria De Mare) and her boyfriend Jack (played by co-screenwriter Vinnie Bilancio) are camping in Mexico when they are attacked by a werewolf. Jack is mauled to death, but Sarah is able to kill the creature with vodka laced with silver flakes, though not before she herself is bitten. Sarah awakens in Canpuna State Prison For the Criminally Insane and, not surprisingly, no one believes her story. The rat-infested prison is run by a ruthless thug named Juan (Domiziano Arcangeli) and his colleague Mistress Rita (Jackeline Olivier), who reminds me a lot of the title character from Ilsa, the Wicked Warden. Most of the inmates have been falsely accused of crimes, so Juan and Rita can exploit them, using them for prostitution and as models for their Prison Girls Gone Wild website.On Sarah's first night in the big house, Jack's ghost appears to her. In a scene lifted almost directly from An American Werewolf in London, the mutilated Jack tells Sarah that she now carries the curse of the werewolf and must kill herself before the next full moon. Soon after, a prison yard cat fight reveals that Sarah has gained superhuman strength and she sends several inmates to the infirmary before being taken down by tranquilizer darts. When Sarah finally wolfs out (amidst a montage of sexual couplings throughout the prison), slaughtering guards and inmates alike before being taken down, Juan and Rita conclude that they can turn a profit by putting the she-beast on display, a notion that just has "bad idea" written all over it.

There are a handful of continuity gaffs that actually add to the fun. There's an odd reference to the chupacabra late in the proceedings that seems to reference something cut from the film, and if Sarah and Jack were camping in the "Mexican jungle" as Jack calls it, why is Sarah incarcerated in the fictional country of Canpuna? An inmate named Angel (Meredith Giangrande) inexplicably disappears for a large portion of the film, only to suddenly reappear at the film's climax. There's also a gore scene that has a squeeze bottle full of fake blood in plain sight.

The film's modest financing is pretty obvious. The werewolf is one of those effects that looks pretty good in stills, but if the camera lingers too long or if the scene is too brightly lit, the seams really start to show. The prison population is strangely sparse, so we never see more than a dozen or so inmates (hey, extras cost money), and sets look like they were constructed for a porn vid. No, it's not on a par with Grindhouse, but it's in the same spirit and if you're in the mood for a tastelessly fun melange of softcore sex scenes and high pressure arterial spray, then Werewolf in a Women's Prison should fit the bill nicely. The trailer can be seen at the film's official site, but be advised it is NOT safe for viewing at work. The film will hit DVD in late September/early October via Phoenix Entertainment Group. The screener I was sent is a bare bones affair, so no word on what extras might be on the actual release.

Tags: Cinema, Cinematical, Movies