Turns out prison isn’t sexy, even if “penal system” suggests otherwise.

Bruno Mattei’s turn with the Black Emanuelle series sees Emanuelle go undercover in a prison where the female prisoners are kept adjacent to the male ones. It’s a simple setup. A woman is trying to find proof of abuse in prison only to be found out and tortured even further than she already is. It feels like Mattei only understood the “brutality” part of exploitation films, as eroticism is barely there and the effects makeup for stuff like bruises and cuts are a lot more believable than the more fake-looking stuff found in D’Amato’s films. Ultimately, this film would be a whole lot more dull if Laura Gemser and Gabriele Tinti weren’t so goddamn cute whenever near one another. The abuse is miserable, the way characters treat one another is miserable, and the drama is miserable, and none of it in an overwhelmingly interesting way, either.

Turns out prison isn’t sexy, even if “penal system” suggests otherwise.

Bruno Mattei’s turn with the Black Emanuelle series sees Emanuelle go undercover in a prison where the female prisoners are kept adjacent to the male ones. It’s a simple setup. A woman is trying to find proof of abuse in prison only to be found out and tortured even further than she already is. It feels like Mattei only understood the “brutality” part of exploitation films, as eroticism is barely there and the effects makeup for stuff like bruises and cuts are a lot more believable than the more fake-looking stuff found in D’Amato’s films. Ultimately, this film would be a whole lot more dull if Laura Gemser and Gabriele Tinti weren’t so goddamn cute whenever near one another. The abuse is miserable, the way characters treat one another is miserable, and the drama is miserable, and none of it in an overwhelmingly interesting way, either.