In the UK, if you remember the early 80's there's a very good chance that you'll have heard of the exploitation movie SS Experiment Camp (1976). This was after all an infamous flick that was majorly responsible for helping kick off the whole video nasty furore in Britain back at that time. The promotional poster used for it was the one from its video box and it depicted a naked woman hung upside down with a swastika hanging from her, while an ominous face of an SS officer looks sinisterly on. This, along with a title that promised all kinds of atrocities played out in the hugely taboo arena of the Holocaust, meant that it quickly became an enemy of the state and condemned by all manner of people who most probably hadn't seen it. I reckon most couldn't have because in reality SS Experiment Camp turned out to be an enormously silly film with some genuinely hilarious moments (I realise that is hard to believe but trust me on this one please). Whatever the case, along with fellow nasty Driller Killer (1979) its legend far outstripped its content, which was admittedly in poor taste but hardly shocking stuff. Anyway, getting back on track, its director Sergio Garrone made another nazisploitation film back-to-back with it called SS Camp 5: Women's Hell. This one never made the notorious video nasty list but only due to the trifling matter that it was never actually released on home video in the UK at that time because if it had I would be willing to bet my mortgage that it would have found itself on that list in super quick time. Despite having a less prominent reputation, there is no question that this is the nastier film of the two.The Italian nazisploitation sub-genre is one that I have some interest in given that it still seems incredible that there was an actual cycle of these kinds of movies. Even today they are pretty notorious and are not necessarily the kind of thing you would tell everyone you had spent time watching. But the way I see it is that in the 40's if Adolf Hitler and Heinrich Himmler had envisioned that thirty-five years in the future a bunch of low budget Italian film-makers were to depict their beloved Nazi regime as compromising of badly dubbed sexually deviant sociopaths in a bunch of z-grade exploitation movies, I daresay Adolf and Heinrich would have been mortally offended. So for this reason, I say hooray for nazisploitation. In fairness, it's a genre which is decidedly ropey and with some entries that are particularly unpleasant. But they are a historical oddity now and so seem safer to prod and check out with the benefit of hindsight.Like the genre in general, SS Camp 5: Women's Hell operates under the women-in-prison bracket of film. In this one, the women are immediately divided into two groups by the Germans. Those that will work as forced prostitutes and those who will be used for human experiments. To this end, both the soft-core and horror bases are covered right away. Of the latter there isn't necessarily a lot but what there is is pretty sleazy and violent – a group of escapees are burned in one of the camp ovens (very unconvincingly to be fair), while a grim torture scene follows on from this where we witness all manner of delights such as a tongue being ripped out, fingers being burned, a stomach being shredded by a metal knuckle-duster and a head being crushed in a vice. The camp experiments themselves restrict themselves to legs being set on fire. None of this stuff is particularly convincing but it's the thought that counts and its pretty mean-spirited throughout. The soft-core stuff compromises of lashings of nudity and some rape scenes – if you're looking for erotica it sure isn't to be found here! Despite all this depravity, the most offensive thing about the film is the decision to include genuine death camp footage in amongst all this sleazy movie exploitation. Now, that is bad taste in the truest sense of the word and definitely not in a good way. On the whole, I enjoyed this one though. It's basically another slice of successfully unpleasant Italian Nazi exploitation. Its neither in the bracket of the most extreme of this genre, nor is it one of the softer ones; I would say it falls slap bang in the middle and could accurately be described as a textbook example of this kind of thing.

All kinds of horrible stuff happens to the luckless lady prisoners at SS Camp 5. Their fierce and sadistic Nazi captors either force the women to become prostitutes so they can sexually service Nazi officers and boost morale or use them as guinea pigs for barbaric scientific experiments. Director/co-writer Sergio Garrone certainly doesn't skimp on the leering low-grade sleaze: we've got plentiful gratuitous distaff nudity, two group shower scenes, an orgy, a few sordid soft-core sex scenes, and one very nasty rape. Moreover, Garrone delivers the raw, ugly and sickening brutality by the nauseating bucketful: Among the hideous sights on display are four would-be escapees being torched in an oven, various poor ladies having their legs set on fire, one gal has her head crushed in a vice, another gets repeatedly punched in the stomach with sharp brass knuckles, a third lass has flaming bamboo sticks placed under her fingernails (ouch!), and a fourth woman has her tongue torn out with a huge pair of tongs. This thoroughly fetid flick further benefits from the sound acting by a capable cast, with especially stand-out turns by foxy Pam Grier lookalike Rita Manna as feisty Jamaican Alina, Giorgio Cerioni as the humane Colonel Strasser, Serafino Profuma as cruel commandant Lt. Hans, Paola Corazzi as fetching blonde Edith, Patrizia Melegna as mean Nazi bitch Greta, Paola D'Egidio as the gutsy Deborah, Attilio Dottesio as quack scientist Dr. Abraham, and Paola Lelio as homely fat whorehouse madam Magda. Maurizio Centini's plain cinematography, the moody, melancholy, flesh-crawling synthesizer score by Vasili Kojucharov and Roberto Pregadio, and the grim, despairing tone all greatly add to the overall considerable sliminess and mean-spiritedness of this choice sick Italian Nazisploitation trash.

"Naziploitation" has got to be the most worthless and redundant sub genre of horror cinema, and yet it was extremely popular during the late 70's. All these controversial-sounding titles like "SS Hell Camp", "SS Experiment Love Camp" or this "SS Camp 5: Women's Hell" are extremely boring and poorly made movies and not even half as shocking as they think they are. Tinto Brass' "Salon Kitty" and the ever-infamous "Ilsa – She Wolf of the SS" are still somewhat interesting, but that's merely because they function as simple and straightforward sex films. This "SS Camp 5: Women's Hell" is the worst one yet. It's a totally mundane and ugly movie without action, suspense or atmosphere. The Second World War is almost over, but these sadistic Generals in the camp don't yet realize that Germany is losing. Whenever a shipment of new prisoner girls arrives, they get divided into two groups, namely whores and medical guinea pigs. The only thing I learned from this movie is that Nazis apparently liked to play with fire… The medical experiments all involve setting the girls (or at least certain body parts) on fire. Whenever they want to punish a girl for insulting the Third Reich; they use fire. Whenever a girl needs to be eliminated… Well, you know the drill. In the end Russians invade the camp, the female prisoners – led by a Jamaican babe – join the battle against their torments, and they live happily after all. Insufferable garbage, avoid at all costs.

This notorious video nasty, "SS Camp 5 - Women's Hell", was shot back-to-back with Garrone's "SS Experiment Love Camp", some of the same scenes were used. It isn't more vile than others but the otherwise liberal Holland cut over 30 min. of it's 92 min. running time! It's uncut like most releases in Denmark. The film delivers the same usual over-the-top torture and sexual degradation against women (they escape in the end, though). Not the best or worst of the genre - for collectors only.