Thewomen-in-prison film (orWiP film) is a subgenre ofexploitation film that began in the early 20th century and continues to the present day.[1]
Their stories feature imprisoned women who are subjected tosexual andphysical abuse, typically bysadistic prison wardens, guards, and other inmates. The genre also features many films in which imprisoned women engage inlesbian sex.
As they are traditionally constructed, WiP films are works of fiction intended aspornography. The films of this genre include a mixture of erotic adventures of the women in prison.[2] The flexible format, and the loosening offilm censorship laws in the 1960s, allowed filmmakers to depict more extreme fetishes, such asvoyeurism (strip searches, group shower scenes,catfights),sexual fantasies,fetishism (bondage, whipping, degradation), andsadism (beatings, torture, cruelty).
Prior to these films, another expression of pornographic women in prison was found in "true adventure" men's magazines such asArgosy in the 1950s and 1960s, although it is possible thatDenis Diderot's novelThe Nun anticipated the genre. Nazis tormentingdamsels in distress were particularly common in these magazines.
Most women-in-prison films employ the same stock characters and formulaic situations. Characters that are fellow inmates may include a sarcastic prostitute, a manipulative snitch, or an aggressive lesbian. The female criminals are usually hypersexualized and fetishize homosexual relationships.[3] The authority figure of the prison is usually a cruel woman who herself is a variation of the traditional prison lesbian.[4] Common scenes in women in prison films may include:
The narrative peaks with some kind of rebellion, which may include a fight, attempted break out, or natural disaster such as a prison fire or earthquake.[4] The story then follows with an uprising or escape sequence in which the villains are killed and the prisoner is freed. Occasionally a new inmate is an undercover reporter investigating corruption as inBare Behind Bars or a government agent sent to rescue a political prisoner (Caged Heat 2: Stripped of Freedom,Love Camp 7). Most commonly, the prisoner is reunited with a man (a lover, father, or priest) who guides her to goodness so she can reestablish her life with familial and heterosexual relationships.[4]
In the silent era, only a few films featured women as leading characters in crime dramas. A silent film star who perfected such roles wasPriscilla Dean, most notably inThe Wicked Darling (1919) andOutside the Law (1920).But it was not until the 1930s that Hollywood began making movies partially set in women's prisons, such asUp the River (1930), withClaire Luce,Ladies They Talk About (1933), withBarbara Stanwyck,Hold Your Man (1933), withJean Harlow, andGirls on Probation (1938), withJane Bryan, but generally, only a small part of the action took place inside the institution. Women-in-prison films developed in the 1930s asmelodramas in which young heroines were shown the way to a righteous life by way of the prison. Under the influence ofpulp magazines and paperbacks, they became popularB movies during this period. It was not until the 1950s, beginning with the release ofCaged (1950), starringEleanor Parker andAgnes Moorehead,So Young, So Bad (also 1950), withAnne Francis andRita Moreno,Women's Prison (1955) withIda Lupino andCleo Moore and, in Great Britain,The Weak and the Wicked (1954), withGlynis Johns andDiana Dors, that an entire film was set inside a women's correctional facility.
Several films were made about women prisoners interned by the Germans and Japanese during the Second World War such asTwo Thousand Women andThree Came Home.
The film that kicked off the genre in a new direction wasJesús Franco's99 Women, which was a big box office success in the U.S. in 1969. That yearLove Camp 7 was also among the first pureexploitation films that influenced the women in prison andNazi exploitation genres.
From 1979 to 1986, Australian Television's hit women's incarceration drama,Prisoner: Cell Block H, ran to 692 episodes.
In 1999, the popular TV seriesBad Girls was released on Britain's television network, ITV.Bad Girls took a turn from the usual prison drama seen before to show a different perspective of women's lives and sexuality in prison. Sociologist Didi Herman states, "Unlike other mainstream television products that may have lesbian or gay characters within a prevailing context of heteronormativity, [Bad Girls] represents lesbian sexuality as normal, desirable, and possible."[5]
A number of the WiP films remain banned by theBBFC in theUnited Kingdom. Among them areLove Camp 7 (rejected in 2022) andWomen in Cellblock 9 (rejected in 2004), on the grounds that they contain substantial scenes ofsexual violence and in the case of the latter an actress who at 16 was under age at the time of production, rendering itchild pornography under U.K. law.[6]
Examples of traditional WiP films set in the U.S. include:The Concrete Jungle (1982), andChained Heat (1983) withLinda Blair,Tamara Dobson andSybil Danning,Cell Block Sisters (1995),Caged Hearts (1995),Bad Girls Dormitory (1985),Under Lock & Key,Caged Fear (1991),Caged (1950),Freeway (1996) withReese Witherspoon andBrittany Murphy, andStranger Inside (2001).
American tourists are incarcerated overseas inChained Heat 2 (1993) withBrigitte Nielsen andRed Heat (1985) with Linda Blair. Both films are about innocent women who are thrown into foreign prisons and forced to face sadistic guards and brutal rape. Mainstream, non-exploitation prison films dealing with this theme includeBangkok Hilton (1989) starringNicole Kidman andBrokedown Palace (1999) withClaire Danes, both which are set in Thailand and are focused on women who are imprisoned for smuggling drugs. AlsoPrison Heat (1993 film), set in Turkey, is about four innocent American women who are mistakenly thrown in prison for cocaine possession.
Jonathan Demme'sCaged Heat (1974) is one of the better known WiP films and has a cult following due to its tongue-in-cheek approach and casting of horror iconBarbara Steele as the warden. Demme also co-wroteThe Hot Box in 1972, which is about female prisoners who break free and start a rebellion against their captors.
In recent years, films that parody or pay homage to the classic WiP films of the '70s have emerged such as Cody Jarrett'sSugar Boxx (2009) andSteve Balderson'sStuck! (2010). Both of these films mimic classic WiP films by including typical WiP film characters, predictable scenes, and similar plots overall.
Italian exploitation directors have produced scores of WiP films with far more graphic sex and violence than those produced in the U.S.
Bruno Mattei directedWomen's Prison Massacre (1985),Caged Women (1982), andJail — A Women's Hell (2006). Other films includeWomen in Fury (1985) andCaged Women in Purgatory (1991).
TheNazi exploitation subgenre centers on the same theme of captive women suffering abuses in war-time prison camps. Many of these films were developed in the late 1970s and the early 1980s as the industry continued to grow. Films such asSS Experiment Love Camp,SS Camp 5: Women's Hell,Hell Behind the Bars andHell Penitentiary directed by Sergio Garrone in 1983,Gestapo's Last Orgy (1977) directed by Cesare Canevari,Helga, She Wolf of Spilberg (1978) andFraulein Devil (1977) directed by Patrice Rhomm,SS Hell Camp (1977) directed by Luigi Batzella,Women in Cell Block 7 (1973) directed by Rino Di Silvestro andNazi Love Camp 27 (1977) directed by Mario Caiano were partly inspired by the U.S./CanadianIlsa series.
The abuse of Chinese women in Japanese detention or prisoner-of-war camps during World War II is depicted in a series of Hong Kong films, includingBamboo House of Dolls (1973) withBirte Tove, andGreat Escape from a Women's Prison.Comfort Women (1992), which is based on real events, depicted Chinese prostitutes abducted by Japanese soldiers and used for brutal scientific experiments at the notoriousUnit 731 medical camp.
A Chinese Torture Chamber Story (1994) and its sequel are based on historical records of China'sQing dynasty. The topic of sex was usually considered taboo in traditional Chinese society, which makes the film industry scandalous and frowned upon by many.
One of the very early examples of the genre in Japan isDeath Row Woman, a noir drama made by the master ofJ-horrorNobuo Nakagawa in 1960, although the plot doesn't entirely take place inside a prison. Later WiP films were orften adaptations of popularmanga,Prisoner Maria and theFemale Prisoner 701: Scorpion series of films starringMeiko Kaji. Many Japanese films include themes of vengeance and retribution with a heroine who takes revenge against the drug or prostitution syndicates responsible for her incarceration. The filmFemale Prisoner 701: Scorpion depicted "a story of Japanese women in captivity, with lots of very life-like scenes" due to the director's desire to produce "natural-looking stories" with an enhanced sense of reality.
The "jungle prison" subgenre has films set in fictionalbanana republics run by corrupt dictators in either South America or Southeast Asia. The majority of these were filmed in thePhilippines, where production costs are low. Here, a group of nubile prisoners are herded together in a stockade prison camp and used as slave labor, doing tasks such as cutting sugar cane or digging in a quarry. These films usually involve a revolution subplot with political prisoners freed by other inmates in a climactic raid where the villains are killed. ActressPam Grier starred in several Filipino jungle films such asRoger Corman'sThe Big Doll House and its sequelThe Big Bird Cage, plusWomen in Cages, andBlack Mama White Mama (story co-written by Jonathan Demme).
Sweet Sugar (1972) starredPhyllis Davis,Caged Heat 2: Stripped of Freedom (1994) featuredJewel Shepard as an undercover agent. The especially brutalEscape from Hell, a.k.a.Escape (1979) and its sequelHotel Paradise came from Italy.Jesús Franco'sSadomania features scenes such as gladiator fights to the death and prisoners hunted like animals in an alligator-infested swamp.
Thenunsploitation (nun exploitation) subgenre emerged at the same time as the WiP film and is composed of the same basic elements. The stories are set in isolated convents that resemble prisons where sexually repressed nuns are driven to rampant lesbian sex and perversity.
The Mother Superior is usually a cruel and corrupt warden-like martinet. The nuns are treated like convicts, with rule-breakers subjected to whippings or Inquisition-style tortures. The added element of religious guilt entails scenes of masochism and self-flagellation.
The WiP film has also expanded into other areas and film genres such as horror and science fiction.
A notable European horror-hybrid is the 1969 Spanish film,The House That Screamed. A psycho-killer lurks in a house for wayward girls run by a harsh disciplinarian (Lilli Palmer). This groundbreaking film has influenced many others, particularly theDario Argento thrillerSuspiria.
Human Experiments (1979), andHellhole (1985) are two examples of a spate of horror films where prisoners are experimented on by mad scientists.
Werewolf in a Women's Prison (2006) draws from the monster-movie genre.
Caged Heat 3000 (1995) starsLisa Boyle (a.k.a. Cassandra Leigh) as an inmate on an asteroid prison. Includes futuristic touches such as electric bra torment and cattle prod-like sticks.
Star Slammer, a.k.a.Prison Ship (1986) is one of several low-budget space sagas set in the future.[7]
Chained Heat 3: Hell Mountain (1998) andChained Rage: Slave to Love (2002) are both set in a barbaric post-nuclear world where slaves are forced to toil in the mines.
Terminal Island (1973) withPhyllis Davis,Tom Selleck, andMarta Kristen andCaged in Paradise (1989) starringIrene Cara are both set on isolated island penal colonies with no prisons or guards. Inmates are simply stranded there and must fend for themselves. The 1985 Japanese filmBanished Behind Bars has a similar theme.
Janet Perlman's satirical graphic novelPenguins Behind Bars is a parody of the women in prison genre. It was later adapted by Perlman as an animated short which aired in the U.S. onCartoon Network.[8][9]
In recent years, North American Pictures, the Canadian makers ofChained Heat 2 set up a separate production company in the Czech Republic called Bound Heat Films for creating R-rated, erotic WiP, Nazisploitation, and female slavery films. Many of these starRena Riffel (fromShowgirls). Titles include:School of Surrender,Dark Confessions,Stories from Slave Life,No Escape,Caligula's Spawn,Slave Huntress, andBound Cargo.[10] While not technically consideredpornography the nudity in many of the scenes in these films draws onfetishes as a dramatic element.
Bars and Stripes is a video producer that maintains a website entirely devoted to its line of prison-based BDSM fetish films. A stable of recurring "inmates" are listed with mug shots and information. Most of the films are part of a continuing story. Other companies that exclusively produce prison fetish films include Chain Gang Girls, CagedTushy.com, and SpankCamp.com.
Cheryl Dunye is an independent film producer who produced the prison dramaStranger Inside (2001) about a young African American women who purposely misbehaves in juvenile detention to get transferred to the women's prison in an effort to reunite with her imprisoned mother.[11]
