PRISON-A-GO-GO

Things start promising for this contemporary Women In Prison yarn, with colourful abstract titles and a Misfits-esque punk score setting the mood nicely.

The preliminaries over with, the film wastes no time in setting up it's two concurrent plotlines:

Plot A: Dyanne She-Bitch Slutface (Mary Woronov, DEATH RACE 2000; THE DEVIL'S REJECTS etc) governs over several brutal women's prisons, and is presently searching for a suitable warden for her Phillipines 'branch'.

Enter Wilbur (Mike Wiebe, I WISH MY BEER WAS AS COLD AS YOUR HEART), a geek with an obvious penchant for drugs. Seemingly immune to Slutface's unapologetic attitude towards torture, Wilbur is handed the job of warden and asked to fly out to the Phillipines prison post-haste.

Plot B: Budding vet Janie (the gorgeous Laurie Walton, 12 HOT WOMEN) is taking a dump at home when three men in white coats burst through her kitchen door and abduct her sister, Calista (Lauren Graham, ZOMBIE CAMPOUT). Janie later visits the kitchen and, after being initially slow on the uptake, realises that Calista has been kidnapped by evil doctor Hurtrider (Travis Willignham, DRAGONBALL Z - no, really). Hmm, perhaps the business card dropped by one of Hurtrider's henchmen, or the blood splattered across the kitchen worktops, gave our dimwitted heroine a clue?!

Janie enlists the help of tramp George to get herself arrested for murder and shipped off to the Phillipines, where she has discovered Hurtrider is employed by the prison to experiment on prisoners in the hope of curing the common cold.

Both plots soon merge into one once the action relocates to the prison itself.

Janie is introduced to her freaky fellow prisoners by old bird Jackpot (Rhonda Shear, HELL COMES TO FROGTOWN 2). And freaks they certainly are. One is famed for smuggling items into the prison by hiding them up her arse (cans of beans, crowbars etc), another is addicted to ice ... while Jackpot herself intimidates the guards with constant displays of insatiable sexual desire.

Wilbur, meanwhile, is treated to a personal tour of Hurtrider's laboratories. The experiments include cure for influenza by whipping, and a couple of women being forced to watch Robin Williams constantly. Torture, indeed.

It's around this point that we are privvy to the first of many shower scenes - a staple of the WIP movies. Once the first one has been enjoyed, the remainder of the film utilises a "Shower Clock" in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen - letting us know exactly how long we have to wait till the next glimpse of soapy nipples!

The film becomes more episodic from this point on, with the plot apparently being Janie intent on finding her sister and putting an end to Hurtrider's brutal regime. I say apparently, as for the next hour or so very little plot progression occurs - instead we get what virtually equate to sketches parodying the WIP genre as a whole.

Add to this numerous toilet gags, Lloyd Kaufman enjoying himself tremendously as a prison guard, a dinner hall rock concert interrupted by a gang of murderous ninjas - you should by now be getting a clearer picture about this one!

When people ring on the telephone, they have speeded-up voices on the other end of the line ... characters talk to the screen ... it's all a bit Benny Hill at times.

Having said that, PRISON-A-GO-GO is fun if taken in the right sense. It's fast-moving, has what at times can be a very quick-witted script, and comes across as an appreciative send-up of WIP movies, rather than a cynical piss-take.

The performances are universally energetic, while the punky soundtrack is pleasing on the ear too.

But, alas, Woronov is criminally underused, the gore is infrequent, production values are minimal and for a WIP the nudity is rather restrained. It had to be said!

PRISON-A-GO-GO is presented uncut in a handsome 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer. Images are sharp and vibrant - a nice presentation.

The film comes equipped with it's original stereo mix, and an optional 5.1 surround mix. Both are loud, consistent mixes - as you would expect from such a recent production. The punk rock benefits especially well from the latter mix!

The main feature can be accessed via 20 chapters.

And so, on to the extras.

First up is a fairly consistent and agreeable commentary track from director Barak Epstein, co-star Lauren Graham, editor Mike Fleetwood and a few others. It's an interesting listen, with Epstein dominating proceedings in an amiable manner.

DELETED SCENES are actually about 4 minutes worth of outtakes-cum-bloopers.

BEHIND THE SCENES is a seven minute featurette (allegedly trimmed down from 19 hours worth of footage, due to legal reasons!) that focusses largely on the shooting of two scenes - most notably the 'food fight' setpiece. As a footnote to the behind the scenes stuff, there's two minutes of original auditions footage, which may be of interest to completists.

A five minute interview with Epstein follows, where the director reiterates what's already been said on the commentary track: apologises for the lack of full-frontal nudity in the film; expresses a knowledge and love of WIP films; speaks highly of his cast, etc.

As with all Shock-O-Rama Cinema releases, there's a plethora of trailers to wade through too. 8, to be precise, including PRISON-A-GO-GO, VAMPS 2 and SUBURBAN NIGHTMARE.

I've left the best two extras till last. First up is a featurette on the SHOCK-A-GO-GO festival, with appearances from Woronov, Epstein, Roger Corman, David Friedman and many enthusiastic audience members. At 4 minutes, it's brief but enjoyable.

And finally, we have 51 minutes of onstage interviews with the SHOCK-A-GO-GO guests. Yes, that's right - 18 minutes of Corman essentially giving a class in zero-budget exploitation filmmaking, 22 minutes of Friedman struggling admirably through ill health to delight fans with well-remembered anecdotes, and Woronov giving us a highly pleasurable tour of her illustrious career in 11 minutes. Brilliant.

So, while the irreverent Troma-style humour of the main feature may not be to everyone's taste, it is a decently made film with good intentions at heart. And the extras are great. You decide!

Review by Stu Willis