Ahhhhhh…..another day off from the drudgery of work, and another big ol’ pile of DVD’s in my mailbox. What could be better? Mistress Neko wants to curl up and rot her lil’ brain with some baaaad, baaaad movies….and what could be more perfect than the low budget “direct to DVD” wonder that is “Werewolf in a Woman’s Prison”?

Originally scheduled to be released last September 4th as part of Under the Bed Films “Midnight Horror Stories” line, it just inexplicably never came out, despite much hype by Fangoria Magazine and others. Most figured it was headed for the “Big Video Shelf” in the sky……but…. At last it has turned up as a very low budget disc that looks like the filmmakers ran it off in their cellar for general distribution. But who cares? It’s a cheesy “Women in Prison/ Monster Movie”….not “Gone With the Wind”. (That much Neko-chan can promise you for certain. Hehehe…)

Well, anyways, here’s a quick synopsis from the film’s Homepage: “Ignoring the warnings of local residents, Sarah and her boyfriend, Jack, camp out in the mountains of Campuna. Jack gets ripped apart by a werewolf, and Sarah is badly mauled. Blamed for her boyfriend’s gruesome death, Sarah is thrust into a Third World women’s prison for the criminally insane. Here she and other helpless females get abused and sold for sex by the evil warden and his whip-wielding lesbian cohort. But Sarah discovers she has super-animal strength. As the full moon emerges, she turns into a huge, ferocious monster, and rips many of her abusers to bloody shreds. The warden decides to make money off her affliction by putting on a show during the next full moon. Even the warden gets shocked as the monster breaks loose, and rips everyone to pieces. Will the warden get to use his silver bullets? Or will he end up another victim of Sarah’s out-of-control lycanthropic powers? A must for werewolf and women’s prison film aficionados.”

Sounds good so far, right….well then, let’s read on…..

“Werewolf in a Women’s Prison” was written by brothers Leroy and Vinnie Bilancio. The movie stars Victoria De Mare as the title heroine, Sarah Ragdale, Eva Derrek as her friend Rachel, doing double duty, writer Vinnie Bilancio also stars as evil Warden Jack, with Jackeline Olivier as the Head Matron Rita. Also along for the ride are Domiziano Arcangeli as Juan, Al Burke as Badger, Neto DePaula Pimenta as Garcia, Jed Rowen as Julio, Tai Chan Ngo as Marcus and the werewolf, Bernadette Perez as Serina, Kristen Zaik as Crystal, and Meredith Giangrande as Angel.

The film is definitely some very low budget, with tacky sets…. bad makeup effects….. laughable CG effects…. continuity problems…. and of course some seriously bad acting.

Oh…….and naturally for a film of this genre, there are plenty of gratuitously naked boobs….. lots and lots of boobs….. Ummm……. and Lesbians….. lots and lots of them too….. (Mistress Neko knows this is just the sort of film you guys watch but NEVER admit to watching…. hehehehe… )

Surprisingly…..this is actually a much better lil’ movie than most might expect. It certainly surprised me. It has all the over-the-top gusto and fun that were the hallmarks of such similar drive-in grindhouse features of the seventies and eighties. I saw movies just like this….(edited of course for content) on late night TV as a kid….much to my Mom’s horror….

In a lot of ways, this movie does what the much higher budgeted “Grindhouse” tried to do but just missed out on. It both loves it’s genre and goes for the cheap thrill like a real trooper. While ultimately not a great film, it certainly will be the movie that turns up on late night TV in 20 years or so to rot the minds of a whole new generation of youngsters who’ll like it just a much as I liked those baaaad old movies from my childhood.

I give this one a surprising 4 “Meows” out of 5 for being the goofy unashamed gorefest it originally promised to be. If rubber suited monsters….bad actors….. tons of fake blood…. and lots of naked women on display are your idea of a nifty movie, Neko-chan thinks you’ll like it too!

Naturally there’s a Trailer… and here it is!