WWII—the Germans are losing the war, but their atrocities continue unabated, a shipment of new prisoners arriving at a women's concentration camp, where they are immediately divided into two groups: whores for the sexual gratification of German officers, and human guinea pigs for Nazi experimentation.
Having presumably made a tidy profit from his infamous video nasty SS Experiment Camp, director Sergio Garrone went and did it all over again with SS Lager 5, another tasteless concoction of sex and violence guaranteed to offend the sensibilities of all but the most jaded Nazisploitation fan.
This one has all the ingredients one might expect—evil Aryan doctors, a lesbian head guard called Greta (Patrizia Melega), a sadistic lieutenant (Serafino Profumo), group shower scenes, a botched escape plan, one particularly plucky prisoner (Jamaican babe Alina, played by Rita Manna), and the brutal torture of numerous naked women (fingernail-pulling, head-crushing and tongue-ripping, oh my!)—but what makes it REALLY objectionable is its use of genuine concentration camp photography during the opening credits (an eye-opener of an introduction if I've ever seen one) and, later on, authentic death camp footage depicting the unceremonious dumping of corpses in mass graves.
This shameless plumbing of the depths of taste and decency in the name of entertainment make SS Lager 5 one of the most effectively nasty films of its ilk.
Having presumably made a tidy profit from his infamous video nasty SS Experiment Camp, director Sergio Garrone went and did it all over again with SS Lager 5, another tasteless concoction of sex and violence guaranteed to offend the sensibilities of all but the most jaded Nazisploitation fan.
This one has all the ingredients one might expect—evil Aryan doctors, a lesbian head guard called Greta (Patrizia Melega), a sadistic lieutenant (Serafino Profumo), group shower scenes, a botched escape plan, one particularly plucky prisoner (Jamaican babe Alina, played by Rita Manna), and the brutal torture of numerous naked women (fingernail-pulling, head-crushing and tongue-ripping, oh my!)—but what makes it REALLY objectionable is its use of genuine concentration camp photography during the opening credits (an eye-opener of an introduction if I've ever seen one) and, later on, authentic death camp footage depicting the unceremonious dumping of corpses in mass graves.
This shameless plumbing of the depths of taste and decency in the name of entertainment make SS Lager 5 one of the most effectively nasty films of its ilk.