Themes: Haunted By the Past, Death Row, Miscarriage of Justice
Main Cast: Lane Smith, Viggo Mortensen, Chelsea Field, Andre de Shields, Lincoln Kilpatrick
Release Year: 1988
Country: US
Run Time: 102 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Prison guard Ethan Sharpe (Lane Smith) watched as Burke (Viggo Mortensen) dies in the electric chair in 1964. Over two decades later, Sharpe is the warden, and Burke returns from the dead to exact revenge on the wicked warden when the prison re-opens. Two victims drip blood while dangling in barbed wire in a macabre dance of death, and the guards and inmates suffer at the hands of the malevolent Burke as he seeks his supernatural vengeance. The film location was the Wyoming State Prison. Built at the turn of the century, the jail became a tourist attraction in 1981. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
Review
Hit-or-miss extraordinaire Renny Harlin directed this death row horror schlocker back in 1988, exactly the same year he busted out of the gates with A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master. It makes sense that he was handed the mantle, because one look at Prison and you'd swear that it was a Freddy Krueger flick in disguise. How so? Well, take a Nightmare film and cut out all of your favorite homicidal burn victim moments, focusing instead on the surreal real-life death scenes, and you've got about half of this film in a nutshell. The effects are deftly handled and must have proved that Harlin had it in him to tackle bigger and better FX pictures. The script, on the other hand, can be thrown right out the window. Then again, you don't pop this flick in your player looking for Mamet dialogue and plot twists, do you? Acting-wise, Prison is littered with familiar faces like future Lord of the Rings heartthrob Viggo Mortensen. Still soft-spoken but a little younger and less buff, this is Viggio with prime Top Gun hair as he does his best to make sense out of the grisly supernatural deaths happening around him. It's a tough job, but then again, who's really spending too much time looking at this part of his resumé now? Also, horror hounds should note the appearance (albeit brief) of Friday the 13th vet Kane Hodder in not one, but two walk-on roles. In the end, Prison works as a pretty good atmospheric low-budget prison-horror movie. Definitely worth a look if you're interested in what these boys were up to back before they were big shots. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide
Ivan Kane - Lasagna; Steven E. Little - Rhino; Mickey Yablans - Brian Young; Tom "Tiny" Lister, Jr. - Tiny; Tom Everett - Rabbitt; Larry "Flash" Jenkins - Hershey; Hal Landon, Jr. - Wallace; Arlen Dean Snyder - Horton; George D. Wallace - Joe Reese; Kane Hodder - Charlie Forsythe/Gas-Mask Guard; John Hoke - Old Warden; Larry Moore - Reptile Guard; Rob Brox - Pervis; Luciana Capozzoli - Claxton; Jeff L. Deist - Gate Guard; Matt Kanen - Johnson; Lyle D. Kelsey - Guard; Rod Lockman - Kramer; Pat Noonan - Collins; Duke Spencer - Scully
Credit
Philip J.C. Duffin - Art Director, Anthony Barnao - Casting, Stephen Chudej - Costume Designer, Renny Harlin - Director, Andrew Horvitch - Editor, Ted Nicolaou - Editor, Charles Band - Executive Producer, Richard H. Band - Composer (Music Score), Christopher L. Stone - Composer (Music Score), Richard H. Band - Musical Direction/Supervision, Margaret Connell - Songwriter, Melissa Connell - Songwriter, Sunny Hilden - Songwriter, Ron Jankowski - Songwriter, Suzanne Sanders - Makeup, Philip J.C. Duffin - Production Designer, Mac Ahlberg - Cinematographer, Barin Kumar - Production Manager, Charles Band - Producer, Irwin Yablans - Producer, James Shumaker - Set Designer, John Carl Buechler - Special Effects, Jan Brodin - Sound/Sound Designer, Kane Hodder - Stunts, Kane Hodder - Stunts Coordinator, Irwin Yablans - Screen Story, C. Courtney Joyner - Screenwriter
In 1956, inmate Charlie Forsythe swallowed 60,000 volts of electricity for a murder he didn't commit.
When Creedmore Prison is reopened after thirty years, it has not been standing empty. Charlie Forsythe is back - still charged with electric heat. Waiting for Eaton Sharpe (Lane Smith) - the man who stood by as Forsythe rode the electric chair.
Forsythe quickly makes up for lost time as his vengeance rises to a fever pitch of violent fury. Burke (Viggo Mortensen) and the other inmates soon realize that they will all be slaughtered unless Forsythe is allowed to repay his long-standing debt. With the lives of Creedmore in the balance, Sharpe and Forsythe are finally brought face-to-rotting-face in a duel that will pit Forsythe's supernatural rage against Sharpe's bloodthirsty instinct for survival.
The film was released in 1988 on VHS by New World Pictures. In addition, this film has also since been released on DVD overseas, but not in the United States, save for bootlegs. As of December 20, 2009, no plans have been made for a legitimate Region 1 DVD release.
