Prisoners (1991)

Prisoners: Directed by Sam Irvin. With Rod Steiger, Lauren Hutton, Heather Graham, Lyman Ward. A female parole officer discovers a secret death row prison under a meat plant, that’s being run by the plant’s unhinged vigilante owner and his reverend friend. A politician with a shady past becomes its latest “guest”. But is he guilty?

“This is a strange film. It is a black satire that reminds me of a cross between Roger Cormanu0026#39;s u0026quot;Black Scorpionu0026quot;, Wes Cravenu0026#39;s u0026quot;Swamp Thingu0026quot; and Alfred Hitchcocku0026#39;s u0026quot;Family Plotu0026quot;. The casting is eclectic with Rod Steiger, Lauren Hutton, Heather Graham, Isaac Hayes and Zelda Rubinsten and deserves an A. The acting, however, is uneven and gets a B. The story (weu0026#39;ve been here before) is a C. Not much of the budget is on the screen. With better production values it would have been a very interesting movie. As it is, the production values gets only a D.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe look of the film is that of a poor manu0026#39;s direct-to-video. Thatu0026#39;s too bad. With more texture to cover the obvious staleness of the story (ex: Tim Burtonu0026#39;s u0026quot;Batmanu0026quot;) this could have been a remarkable film. Still, itu0026#39;s worth a look even if it never reaches itu0026#39;s potential. I donu0026#39;t know if you can blame the budget or the director, but it just misses. Still, certain moments do transcend the filmu0026#39;s problems. Rod Steiger, Isaac Hayes and Heather Graham make this film worth a look even if in the end it is a disappointment.”