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5
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5 |
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10
= Highest Rating |
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'Naziploitation'
flicks are the true bottom-feeders of the cult
movie universe... You just can't get any lower
in terms of sleaze and depravity without resorting
to outright fetish porn. While certain films of
the notorious 'Nunsploitation' subgenre might
give 'em a run for their money in the perversity
department, the Gold Party Badge for Abject Heinousness
goes to these freaky fascists in a cakewalk. One
of the most notorious Naziploitation films is
1977's SS Hell Camp
(aka The Beast In Heat), which earned its
bad boy rep when banned in the U.K. during the
"Video Nasties" era. The movie's actually more
stupid than offensive, though it does contain
enough vileness to disgust just about anyone.
Luckily for us the filth is inundated by an avalanche
of cheese. When a film can be both utterly revolting
and unintentionally hilarious at the same
time — well, I suppose
that counts for something.
In Nazi-occupied Italy, foxy female SS
scientist Dr. Kratsch (Macha Magall) is conducting
experiments to "artificially" create a Master
Race. Somehow this involves giving injections
to a Neanderthal-like brute and throwing naked
women into a cage for him to rape to death. (This
sex-crazed "Beast" is played by Salvatore
Baccaro, billed here as "Sal Boris",
though cult movie mavens will recognize him as
"Boris Lugosi" from Frankenstein's
Castle Of Freaks.) Partisan raids and acts
of sabotage increase in the area as Allied forces
approach, so the local German Army commander launches
a wave of brutal reprisals on the villagers. Old
ladies and kids are shot. Young, good-looking
women are rounded up and taken away. Later some
of the resistance fighters are captured. The twisted
Dr. Kratsch is ordered to lend her expertise to
their interrogation. She and her co-ed squad of
private SS bodyguards amuse themselves with the
prisoners as the rapacious Beast enjoys a steady
supply of test subjects. Meanwhile, the surviving
partisans — aided
by a kindly priest (Brad Harris) and a prostitute
(Brigitte Skay) spying on the Germans —
plan a full-scale attack on Kratsch's HQ...
SS Hell Camp
is so hideously awful and embarrassing that I
can easily understand why its (semi) 'name' performers
— 'eurospy' star
Harris (the Kommissar
X series)
and the voluptuous Skay (Twitch
Of The Death Nerve) —
would want to remain uncredited despite playing
central roles, and why director Luigi Batzella
(Nude For Satan)
helmed under an alias. The actors and craftspeople
who did use their real names obviously
have no shame or even an ounce of dignity.
The film manages to avoid total debasement
by steering clear of the Holocaust as sexploitation
fodder, yet one can't have a Z-grade Naziploitation
pic without atrocities. SS
Hell Camp certainly has its share: a baby
is tossed into the air and machinegunned; a woman
is raped and then shot point blank in the vagina
by her attacker; various methods of sexual torture
are applied with lascivious glee by the horny
Dr. Kratsch and her minions. The
rape scenes with the Beast are simply appalling,
plumbing subterrene depths of crudity even within
the realm of exploitation. Most
repellent of all is the infamous sequence in which
Kratsch's caged monstrosity bloodily rips a large
patch of pubic hair from one of his victims —
dangly bits of skin still attached —
and proceeds to eat it... all
in extreme close-up. (To be blunt: this is
some SICK-ASS SHIT, y'all.) Mercifully, the bulk
of this carnage is so sloppily, ineptly staged
that it's funny rather than horrifying.
In one scene docile, black-painted guinea pigs
stand in for (supposedly) voracious rats... Shades
of Bruno Mattei!
Of course the real atrocities here
are the acting, dubbing and dialog. They are pathetic
— some of the worst
I've ever seen in an Italian film.
The script is brimming with nonsensical howlers
which the wretched dubbing only accentuates. (One
of the partisans has an Oklahoma drawl, while
a Wehrmacht lieutenant reports to his superior
sounding like cartoon voice artist Arnold Stang!)
As to the film's technical merits, there are none.
It's shoddy, inept and woefully cheap-looking.
Military history buffs like me will guffaw at
the screwed up German uniforms/regalia and the
toy P-47 fighter-bombers. Anachronisms abound.
(German soldiers sport long 1970s hairstyles under
their helmets; a pair of men's bright red bikini
briefs is seen hanging on a clothes line.) Most
of the battle footage is lifted from another movie,
made years earlier, and is poorly integrated with
the partisan scenes. Naturally, all the sex and
torture stuff is completely gratuitous. (And follows
the pattern for most Naziploitation fare in being
gender-neutral in its misanthropy. There's quite
a bit of full frontal male nudity on display,
and men are tortured and sexually abused as well
as the women.)
Thank goodness SS
Hell Camp is loaded with cheesy laughs...
Otherwise I'd feel pretty icky for having watched
it.
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| With
the release of SS Hell Camp
Media Blasters launches a new DVD sub-label, Exploitation
Digital, to join the ranks of Tokyo Shock, Shriek
Show and Guilty Pleasures. This debut disc presents
its subject in anamorphic 1.85:1 widescreen, utilizing
a transfer in that's in pretty fair shape — some
of the nighttime scenes are too dark and there's
some print damage here and there, but overall it's
quite acceptable when one considers that the movie
was made on a shoestring. (It should be noted that
stock footage incorporated into the battle scenes
looks decidedly worn and washed-out in comparison
to the rest of the film.) The DVD's mono track is
reasonably clear, permitting full enjoyment of all
the screams, grunts and ridiculously bad dubbing.
For bonus
materials you get are a photo/still gallery and
a slate of trailers (for this
film and three other MB titles, including
a future Exploitation Digital release, Elsa:
Fraulein SS). Brief liner notes on Naziploitation
flicks (and SS Hell Camp
in particular) are also included. Curiously, the
Nazi officer depicted on the disc's cover art and
Main Menu screen looks a lot like an angry Bruce
Willis!
1/15/05 |
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