Prison (1987) Empire/Horror RT: 102 minutes Rated R (violence, pervasive language) Director: Renny Harlin Screenplay: Irwin Yablans and C. Courtney Joyner Music: Richard Band and Christopher L. Stone Cinematography: Mac Ahlberg Release date: March 4, 1988 (US) Cast: Lane Smith, Viggo Mortensen, Chelsea Field, Lincoln Kilpatrick, Andre De Shields, Tom Everett, Ivan Kane, Tom “Tiny” Lister Jr., Stephen E. Little, Mickey Yablans, Larry Flash Jenkins, Arlen Dean Snyder, Hal Landon Jr., Matt Kanen, Rod Lockman. Box Office: $354,704 (US)
Rating: ***
Before directing the likes of Bruce Willis, Sylvester Stallone and Geena Davis in big-budget, high-octane action spectacles, Renny Harlin did a smaller picture called Prison. This shocker of a horror show deals with the spirit of a wrongfully executed inmate haunting a derelict prison. Prior to it, Harlin made his debut feature Born American, an ugly actioner that takes jingoism to a new low. Prison, although flawed, is a huge step up.
The movie opens with a flashback to 1964 where we see an unidentified inmate meet his end in the electric chair at Creedmore Prison in Wyoming. One of the guards present, Eaton Sharpe (Smith, Air America), still has nightmares about it. As luck would have it, he’s just been appointed warden of Creedmore which is about to reopen after 20 years. The place is in really bad shape so Sharpe plans to have his 300 new arrivals do all the work to fix it up. One of them, a taciturn car thief named Burke (Mortensen, the LOTR trilogy), gives Sharpe an uneasy feeling, but he doesn’t know why.
Sharpe orders Burke and another inmate to break through the wall that conceals the old execution chamber. When they do, it frees an evil spirit that starts working its way around the prison to get to Sharpe. It begins its reign of terror by broiling an inmate in solitary confinement. As it does, Sharpe starts losing his grip. Already a hard ass to begin with, his abuse of authority and prisoners worsens to the point of madness. It gets bad enough that resident prison reform advocate Katherine (Field, The Last Boy Scout) starts looking into the history of Creedmore for answers.
Released by Empire Pictures (Re-Animator, TerrorVision), Prison had a limited release in early ’88. It didn’t open in any theaters close to me so I had to wait for it to come out on video. I’d say it was worth the wait. It’s a solid entry in the horror genre with plenty of great gory effects by John Carl Buechler (director of Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood). The high points in this area include one victim being bound and mutilated by barbed wire and another falling through the ceiling in a messy splash of blood after being impaled by a pipe through the forehead. There’s also the previous mentioned scene of the inmate being baked alive while stuck in solitary. It’s bloody alright BUT it also tells a sufficiently suspenseful ghost tale thick with atmospheric dread. It’s even creepy at times. But like I said, it’s flawed.
The problem with Prison is the screenplay which fails to develop ideas and subplots it initially purports as important. What’s up with the necklace Sharpe steals from the condemned prisoner right before they pull the switch? Why exactly is his spirit trapped in the prison? Why does it kill prisoners when they too are targets of Sharpe’s brutality? Most important, what’s the deal with Burke? Is he supposed to be the reincarnation of the executed prisoner? The writers leave a lot unanswered by not following through on these things causing Prison to end on a note of uncertainty.
What Harlin does get right about Prison is incorporating elements of a prison drama into his tale of terror. He starts by introducing us to a colorful collection of inmates that includes wise old lifer Cresus (Kilpatrick, Deadly Force), big black dude Tiny (Lister, No Holds Barred), Rambo-obsessed Italian guy Lasagna (Kane, Platoon), sleazy Rabbit (Everett, Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III), voodoo practitioner Sandor (De Shields, Extreme Measures) and top dog Rhino (real life inmate Little). He also gives us a riot, a lockdown and a couple of escape attempts. Setting it in a haunted house-like situation is a flash of originality.
The acting in Prison is better than usual for a low-budget picture from Empire. Mortensen does his best James Dean impression as Burke, the hero of the movie. Considering how little the script gives him to work with, he does pretty good work. Smith exudes vileness as the villainous warden about to answer for a terrible sin in his past. Really, the whole cast does a good job. It’s not Oscar material, but who says it has to be?
For all its story faults, Prison is a good movie. It puts a lot of bigger budget horror movies to shame in providing chills, thrills and decent effects at a fraction of the cost. It’s a good movie to watch late at night with all the lights turned off. Even if it doesn’t tie up all the loose ends, it still entertains.
