I was introduced to the films of Finnish export director Renny Harlin back in 1988, when I was a highly impressionable lad of 11 and I first laid eyes on A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, which would go on to be (and admittedly still is) my favorite entry in my favorite 80’s slasher franchise (suck it, Jason Voorhees!).
After the Box Office receipts totalled up to make Freddy’s fourth kick at the can the most profitable of the franchise, the New Kid in Town director wound up with his pick of film projects in Hollywood, quickly landing at 20th Century Fox to helm their upcoming Alien 3 (I would’ve LOVED to see a peak-career Renny Harlin direct William Gibson’ unproduced script!).
Well, anyone who knows anything about the production of THAT flick knows that it was a fucking nightmare for everyone involved and it’s a friggin miracle that we got ANYTHING watchable, much less David Fincher’s ambitious and interesting, but hugely misguided attempt at an Aliens follow-up. It seemed Harlin saw the writing on the wall and bailed out partway through the already tumultuous pre-production phase, landing directly on a 1990 one-two punch of releases, both for Fox, those being the serious Box Office blockbuster Die Hard 2 and the serious dud, the hilariously misogynistic chaos that is The Adventures of Ford Fairlane (a flick that would NEVER get made now, no fucking way…yet I still find it hugely and unapologetically entertaining! Interpret that how you want).
After 1990’s simultaneous celebration / critical shellacking, Harlin, bolstered by the rousing success of the second Die Hard film, headed off into the world of boisterous 1990’s action movies, coming in with a personal favorite, 1993’s Die Hard-on-a-mountain rollercoaster Cliffhanger, which solidified his spot on the Action Director Scoreboard. From there, he found both success and failure throughout the 1990’s, leading into a low-key journeyman-like progression of ‘any work to pay the bills ‘ projects that felt like imitations of his earlier, better work.
However, in the last decade, Renny Harlin has been staging something of a comeback, with a number of notable upcoming projects under his belt. This genuinely excites me, as I feel that, as Ridley / Tony Scott clones go, Renny Harlin is one of the ones who shows the vibrant influence of that British commercial / music video world of the 1980’s (which I still love, nostalgia be damned!), while also having enough of his own personal touch shine through. The man has undeniable talent behind the camera and I’m glad he was able to hang on to a low-key successful directing career after the Box Office depth charge that was 1995’s overblown vanity project Cutthroat Island (which, taken just as a silly over-the-top pirate movie with a stupidly sized budget, is perfectly fine for what it is, ya haters!). Having recently read up on some of his on-the-horizon projects (a new Strangers trilogy, another killer shark flick etc), I was reminded of the fact that I’ve never seen his first couple English-language films, those being 1986’s Born American (which I’d completely forgot existed and I MUST now find!) and his first horror film, 1987’s haunted prison flick, aptly named Prison.
At first, as I’ve recently developed a mild addiction to hunting down hard-to-find physical media, I instantly began scouring Amazon and Ebay for a version. But that ended quickly with this title. I’m not one to normally ‘blind buy’ movies and the prices I was seeing come back were a bit nauseating, so I thought I take a shot in the dark and check Youtube. Lo and behold – 1987’s Prison, in its entirety.
And…not a terrible-looking version either…so that was a plus.
Prison is the story of a group of prisoners who, due to cuts in federal spending, are transferred to a formerly abandoned penitentiary and forced to renovate their new digs back to liveable conditions. During this time, a small group of prisoners, tasked with breaking down a door and led by ‘Aragorn’ himself, Viggo Mortenson (A History of Violence), accidentally unleash a vengeful spirit (is there any other kind?), which wreaks havoc upon the prison’s new inhabitants, often in hilariously gruesome fashion.
So, on a rainy Saturday afternoon, I sealed myself in The Cave, grabbed my pad and writing implement, and hit Play.
Here lie scribbles…
-Cool PoV intro. Death row. We’re some doomed bastard as he’s led from his cell, down death row and to the execution chamber. Style, right off the bat.
Origin of vengeful spirit – CHECK.
-Amateurish dialogue right away. Chelsea Field. I’ve never felt that Chelsea Field (The Last Boy Scout) is a strong actress, largely reliant on her striking good looks, and this role, that of an upper tier Justice official, comes off like it belongs in a really good high-school play. She tries…I can tell that she tries…It’s just…well…sorry, Chelsea.
-Harlin’s visual flair is evident. It seems like it was only a matter of time before success came calling, as the 1980’s rabidly embraced the music video aesthetic that Harlin’s style both pulled from and influenced. This flick showed that he could mold THAT style over an older-than-dirt horror story and breath some MTV-friendly life into the genre. While Prison didn’t exactly blow up the Box Office, the following year’s A Nightmare on Elm Street 4 sure would, owing in huge part to Harlin’s infusion of youth-centric imagery and pacing, both presented with easily digestible slickness that had been largely absent from the more grindhouse-y nature of the horror genre, as a whole, up the that point.
-Oh no. Of course, shit threatens to get rapey. As to be expected, certain ‘prison’ cliché’s are present, more hinted at as opposed to full-on Shawshank Redemption territory. Thankfully, the focus quickly shifts elsewhere
-Deebo?! Tommy Lister Jr. (The Fifth Element) was EVERYWHERE in the 80’s and 90’s, almost always as some goon or bully. Interestingly, after initially coming across as such, his character does show some humanity develop as the story plays out.
-A Rambo First Blood Part 2 poster? From the future director of Stallone’s Cliffhanger?! Uncanny. Yep, some character smuggles in a rolled-up piece of prized contraband…which turns out to be a Rambo 2 movie poster! That alone is hilarious but what’s funny is that one of Renny Harlin’s biggest hits came 6 years later, with Sly, when they did the still-badass Cliffhanger (where’s the Director’s Cut, Renny?!). Synergy, anyone?
–No eye pro?! WTF? Execution chamber. Viggo and his buds go at demolishing an old concrete wall in the bowels of the prison with pick-axes and NO EYE / EAR PROTECTION! As a big believer in safety on the worksite…this irked me to no end! Splinters in the eyes, guys!
-Very Elm Street Boiler room scene. When the evil electricity fucker escapes, the nearby boiler room goes all fiery and ape-shit, very much reminding me of sequences that would turn up in the fourth adventure of Freddy Krueger
-Viggo grabs a handful. Um…ok. Yeah…this scene. Ok, so this big burly Alpha-male wannabe prisoner gets up in Viggo’s shit…and Viggo grabs said prisoner’s junk…in front of EVERYONE, and twists. Eventually, Burly Guy bitches out and backs down. But…that happens.
-Again, very ‘Elm Street’ imagery. No wonder Harlin got #4. Don’t recall the scene that prompted this scribble…but yes, I could definitely see why New Line Cinema took notice of Harlin’s little horror movie, even just part way in.
-Gruesome pipe death. I approve. I’ll just say ‘pin cushion with piping’ You should get the picture.
-Of course there’s the blatantly racist guard! Just like the threats of man-rape, there always has to be a blatantly racist asshole of a guard, in this case played by Hal Landon Jr., who everyone will remember as Keanu Reeve’s evil dad in Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1988).
-Barbed wire shooting a 12 gauge. Ok, that’s new. Someone falls victim to a possessed bail of coiled barbed wire. During the attack, some of the metal tendrils take hold and rack the slide of, then aim and fire, a shotgun. Gotta admit, the effect was cool and the gag was one I’ll admit I don’t recall seeing before.
–The warden is a hammy clown. Not sure what approach Harlin and actor Lane Smith were going for with the character of ‘Warden Sharpe’ but holy shit! He comes off like a drooling maniac, insane for the sake of acting wacky, with very little explanation for why. It was comical enough that I was rooting for his demise and felt that he sucked the air out of every scene the ‘Warden’ was in.
-Entertainingly hectic 3rd Act. Shit gets crazy and I had fun with it, as nonsensical and over-the-top insanity ensues.
-Oddly abrupt ending. Not only does the end feel abrupt, it also ends on a strangely amateurish final shot, like it was the only footage they could find to maybe match what they were trying to do. But to me, it felt like a moment of random B-roll pressed into service to bring everything to an ‘Oh shit, we just ran out of money!’ ending. Just speculation on my part, but that’s how it felt.
-Overall, not terrible. I was entertained. And that right there, kinda sums it up.
I always like going back to the early work of well-renowned filmmakers and seeing what aspects of their individual styles were formed early on and have carried through over the years (or decades). This, was a case of that.
As mentioned, I’ve always found something entertaining in Renny Harlin’s work, even the lesser titles. If nothing else, he knows how to keep a camera moving and an image pretty. For a lesser known, small budgeted horror film, helmed by a talented but still rough-around-the-edges filmmaker before he hit the Big Time, Prison is a perfectly serviceable addition to the ‘Haunted Scary Place’ genre, boasting some creative effects, kinetic camera work, and some inventive gore, all riding on a current that doesn’t take itself TOO seriously.
All in all, I had a fun time checking this title out for the first time and if you appreciate a fun 80’s horror flick, or the work of Renny Harlin, then I can recommend you check this out, guilt-free, even just from a completist stand-point. For everyone else…you could do worse, as Halloween-season movie choices go.
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