A prison run by three people? Seems unlikely, especially if there's a ghost that needs guarding. The staff of three (not including mostly unseen clerical staff) includes an idiotic psychologist (James Coco) who gathers in the hallway of the cellblock to get each of the violent inmates to share their feelings and reveal their dreams, virginal assistant Trini Alvarado and nervous warden Paul Bentley. When they get settled in, they discover by accident (the violent electrocution death of a visiting electrician) that a prison riot lead to the death of a guard by the same method and that their spirit angrily still roams the halls.
I thought it was somewhat clever that Coco, Benedict and later Alvarado, relive the riots by seeing the guard's death through their faces on his body, and the giant eye of the dead guard appearing as a lightbulb as electricity flies around the cellblock. But the script is filled with idiotic psychological mumbo jumbo that makes Coco's character come off as a huge fool, and that results him giving a performance that comes off as hammy and phony. Even actors in parody knew when to reign it in, and Coco never does. Benedict, determined to make viewers forget about his droll character of Mr. Bentley on "The Jeffersons", is a bit more subtle, but also comes off poorly. Only Alvarado, who seems not to be doing any acting, manages not to be outlandish, just beautifully bland. Low budget and forced, this horror spoof is an instant blackout where the viewer hopes the lights never come back up.
I thought it was somewhat clever that Coco, Benedict and later Alvarado, relive the riots by seeing the guard's death through their faces on his body, and the giant eye of the dead guard appearing as a lightbulb as electricity flies around the cellblock. But the script is filled with idiotic psychological mumbo jumbo that makes Coco's character come off as a huge fool, and that results him giving a performance that comes off as hammy and phony. Even actors in parody knew when to reign it in, and Coco never does. Benedict, determined to make viewers forget about his droll character of Mr. Bentley on "The Jeffersons", is a bit more subtle, but also comes off poorly. Only Alvarado, who seems not to be doing any acting, manages not to be outlandish, just beautifully bland. Low budget and forced, this horror spoof is an instant blackout where the viewer hopes the lights never come back up.