Prison

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.