The Movie:

n 1988, before he would go on to become synonymous with Hollywood action films like Deep Blue Sea and Die Hard 2: Die Harder, Finnish director Renny Harlin would make a small dent in the horror genre with the one of the last of Charles Band's Empire Pictures productions, Prison. The film was made in 1988 (the same year the director lensed A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master), making it a busy year for the fledgling director who would soon go on to much bigger projects than this.

In the film, Viggo Mortensen (before he become Aragorn in Peter Jackson's epic Lord Of The Rings Trilogy) plays Burke, a recently incarcerated prisoner sent along with two hundred and ninety nine other inmates to rejuvenate Wyoming State Penitentiary. The prison was shut down long ago but due to recent budget cuts, it's being reopened to make room for the inmates. Due to an increasing population and those aforementioned budget cuts, it seems that that there is no room for these guys in the other prisons. This doesn't sit well with Katharine (Chelsea Field), who works for the Department Of Corrections and wants to ensure that the prisoners are given a fair shot at reform.

After everyone moves in, the sadistic warden of the prison, Sharpe (Lane Smith, who played Nathan on V), sends Burke and another inmate to the basement to open up the old execution chamber. By doing so he unwittingly unleashes the ghost of an old inmate who was put to death in the prison years ago before it was closed. Obviously, no good can come of this and things go horribly wrong for all involved from here on out and - and we'll leave at that as we don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen the movie before.

Harlin crafts a nice little horror movie with this one. Some of the effects are a little bit dated, particularly the energy/laser effects that we see in the later part of the movie, but other than that, this movie is quite well done and it holds up very well. If it tends to drag ever so slightly in a couple of scenes, for the most part it is pretty well paced. The movie also features some impressive performances, even if Lane Smith as Sharpe is a bit reminiscent of Tommy Lee Jones' character in Natural Born Killers (which Prison predates by quite a few years). Mortensen shows his leading man potential here and he's got a solid screen presence that definitely works in the movie's favor. While we're not surprised where things go with Chelsea Field's character, she plays her part well too and all involved do a good job of injecting some believable and interesting personality into their characters. This goes a long way towards making the movie more interesting than it would have been had the script not fleshed the main players out as carefully as it does and had the cast not been up to the challenge of bringing those details to life. Supporting efforts from Larry Jenkins, Ivan Kane and Tom Everett are also easy to appreciate and help fill in the inmate population of the prison nicely.

A couple of interesting gore set pieces and a truly amazing location combine to make for an atmospheric and moody chiller that's not a bad way to kill an evening. Harlin does a great job of integrating the prison location into the movie so that it becomes as important to the story as any of the actual characters themselves. The movie was actually shot on location by the late, great Mac Ahlberg at Wyoming State Penitentiary and Harlin uses the authenticity of the set to maximum effect. The end result is a solid horror film with some interesting revenge elements worked into the script that winds up a pretty atmospheric and occasionally intense viewing experience. Solid entertainment through and through.

Video:

Prison debuts on Blu-ray in AVC encoded 1.78.1 widescreen in 1080p high definition. Aside from some softness inherent in the original photography and which has always been part of the movie's look, the film looks very good here. The image is clean and shows solid detail for a modestly budgeted picture of this vintage, while skin tones look lifelike and natural. Texture is pretty strong and color reproduction is impressive. Black levels are solid and there are no obvious issues with compression artifacts, edge enhancement or noise reduction. Grain is intact but never distracting and there are no serious problems with print damage to note. The movie looks very good here, Shout! Factory have done a fine job in the video department.