Having found director Pete Walker's first "House" film House of Mortal Sin to be a marvellous,daring Giallo,I began to get interested in seeing Walker take on a sub-genre that I had never seen before:Women In Prison (WIP)
The plot:
Attending the premiere of a naked photo that she secretly took with a photography,French model Anne-Marie Di Verney catches the attention of fellow party guest Mark E. Desade,who invites Marie to go to his "pad" so that they can continue the party alone.Driving to their destination,Di Verney's hope quickly grind to a halt,when she finds out that Mark's "pad" is actually a disused prison,which has been transformed into a "secret court" by a group of "moral guardians",who have decided to deal with indecent people in modern society,by sentencing them to death.
View on the film:
Despite director Pete Walker giving the disused prison a stylish low light appearance that gives the movie a good,grubby atmosphere,the first hour of David McGillivray's screenplay disappointingly drains the film of any nail biting tension,by making the ordeal that Di Verney has to face be ones that feel plodding and also lacking any sense of suspense.
Along with the screenplay,the film is also not helped by the performance of Page 3 model and Sitcom star (who had also been an extra in Walker's earlier Tiffany Jones) Penny Irving as Anne Marie- Di Verney,who makes the many scenes featuring Verney ones that are extra painful to watch,due to her giving the character a chalkboard-like fake French accent.
Thankfully for the last 40 minutes of the film,McGillivray and Walker break out of the prison confines to deliver a tense,wonderfully bleak,grim and gritty Thriller,as Walker (perhaps one of 70's cinema most under rated British directors?) builds upon the themes that he had started in House of Mortal Sin,by splattering all of the dreams that the "establishment" of secret courts and moral guardians have across the screen,by giving the film a strong dose of Black Comedy to show how justice is "blind",and cheekily naming one of the nastiest wardens after himself, (played by Walker's amazing collaborator Sheila Keith) as Walker shows lengths that the wardens are willing to go to,in order to create their "moral" society.
The plot:
Attending the premiere of a naked photo that she secretly took with a photography,French model Anne-Marie Di Verney catches the attention of fellow party guest Mark E. Desade,who invites Marie to go to his "pad" so that they can continue the party alone.Driving to their destination,Di Verney's hope quickly grind to a halt,when she finds out that Mark's "pad" is actually a disused prison,which has been transformed into a "secret court" by a group of "moral guardians",who have decided to deal with indecent people in modern society,by sentencing them to death.
View on the film:
Despite director Pete Walker giving the disused prison a stylish low light appearance that gives the movie a good,grubby atmosphere,the first hour of David McGillivray's screenplay disappointingly drains the film of any nail biting tension,by making the ordeal that Di Verney has to face be ones that feel plodding and also lacking any sense of suspense.
Along with the screenplay,the film is also not helped by the performance of Page 3 model and Sitcom star (who had also been an extra in Walker's earlier Tiffany Jones) Penny Irving as Anne Marie- Di Verney,who makes the many scenes featuring Verney ones that are extra painful to watch,due to her giving the character a chalkboard-like fake French accent.
Thankfully for the last 40 minutes of the film,McGillivray and Walker break out of the prison confines to deliver a tense,wonderfully bleak,grim and gritty Thriller,as Walker (perhaps one of 70's cinema most under rated British directors?) builds upon the themes that he had started in House of Mortal Sin,by splattering all of the dreams that the "establishment" of secret courts and moral guardians have across the screen,by giving the film a strong dose of Black Comedy to show how justice is "blind",and cheekily naming one of the nastiest wardens after himself, (played by Walker's amazing collaborator Sheila Keith) as Walker shows lengths that the wardens are willing to go to,in order to create their "moral" society.