Bruno Mattei strikes again! After initiating me into his bad movie universe with HELL OF THE LIVING DEAD, Mattei once again makes me a full-fledged fan of his with BLADE VIOLENT, one of two back-to-back women-in-prison epics starring Laura Gemser, Gabriele Tinti and Lorraine de Selle.
BLADE VIOLENT starts with an odd montage of stage scenes with three female prisoners describing themselves. It then escalates into an all-out brawl between prisoners, establishing Emanuelle (the sexy Laura Gemser) as the heroine and Albina as the villain. The warden (Lorraine de Selle) and the guards side with Albina on every issue, as she doesn’t incite the other inmates to revolt. Emanuelle, it is revealed, was blackmailed for drug possession by a politician and she vows vengeance. Meanwhile, four convicts on their way to death row (led by Gabriele Tinti) are involved in a police chase and are put in the womens’ prison for a short period of time. They manage to take the warden and a guard hostage and demand money. And that’s the plot in a nutshell. In-between the actual plot are lesbian scenes, sex with the convicts, an arm-wrestling scene between Emanuelle and Albina, a chicken fight with switchblades, a deadly game of Russian roulette, a necrophiliac fantasy, a convict eating the neck of a guard, a SWAT team member videotaping a bloody shootout, and a female inmate putting a razorblade in her vagina so that one of the convicts slices his penis in half when he tries to rape her! AMAZING STUFF!
Laura Gemser, not known for her acting talents, displays some true acting chops here. Unusual, huh? Lorraine de Selle, who was excellent in CANNIBAL FEROX, has nothing to do here. The woman who plays Albina is amazing when she’s clenching her teeth and being bitchy (every scene). BLADE VIOLENT is one hell of a movie and is 100% entertaining! One qualm with the film: the Goblin-inspired synthesizer score gets old after a while, but provides for some great sleazy atmosphere in some scenes.
BLADE VIOLENT is on video in the US as WOMENS’ PRISON MASSACRE, not CAGED WOMEN. CAGED WOMEN (or VIOLENT IN A WOMENS’ PRISON) is a totally different Mattei film with the same cast, shot back-to-back with this one. Both are great, but this one is a bit better. Watch it if you find it, you will never forget it!
