Film

Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in New York, plus articles, trailers and more

 

Prison (1987)

Director: Renny Harlin

Average user rating
No reviews

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

Way out in the Wyoming wastes, a rotting concrete hell-hole, once Creedmore Penitentiary, condemned these 20 years, is re-commissioned to ease overcrowding. In charge is illiberal Warden Sharpe (Smith), one-time Creedmore guard with a guilty secret: back then an innocent man was given a 60,000 volt goodbye in the execution chamber, and Sharpe kept stumm. Unluckily for Sharpe, the victim's spirit decided to hang around to exact gruesome revenge. With an assured visual style, Harlin stokes up the temperature to near-riot conditions before exploding the screen with electrifying special effects mayhem - floors glow red hot, barbed wire is vivified, the very pipes take on murderous life. The staple array of cons and screws are interestingly characterised, and the woman-reformer-to-the-rescue plot is neatly integrated with the supernatural effects. A tough, entertaining, intelligent hybrid of hard-ass prison drama and horror-shocker exploiter from Charles Band's Empire Pictures.

Author: WH 0000-00-00 00:00:00

Time Out Film Guide


  • Print this page
  • Send to a friend

What do you think?
Post your review now

clear rating
Min 1 star. Zero stars will be treated as unrated.

*mandatory fields





Features

Making a name for himself

Making a name for himself

Sin Nombre's Cary Joji Fukunaga learned his lessons well.

To the letter

Forty years later, Costa-Gavras's Z still brims with fury.

Mind over matter

David Cronenberg reflects on a most bizarre body: his own corpus of work.

Fool's gold

Can an Oscar win lead to a cursed career? Here are five stories of postaward professional meltdowns.

We are the championed

Terrorists and teens abound in this year's "Film Comment Selects."

A history of violence

Matteo Garrone's kaleidoscopic Gomorrah wallops you with Italy's crime crisis.

True romantic

James Gray exchanges urban amorality for amour in Two Lovers.

Playing in the dark

MoMA salutes pianist Stuart Oderman's 50 years as the one-man sound of silents.

Junk bonds

Cast and crew recall the making of the classic NYC drug drama The Panic in Needle Park.