NAZISPLOITATION 101

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Guten Tag Monstervolk! To celebrate the release of Stephen Amis’ THE 25th REICH we’ve decided to take a gander back in time to a place where political correctness was hidden better than Julian Assange and where concentration camps became a hotbed of deviant, sexual behaviour for full bodied beauties . Achtung baby that’s right … the Nazisploitation film.

The Italians always maintained a hard-on for remodelling hits, and with the advent of German concentration camp films (Nazisploitationers) such as Love Camp 7 (1967), The Night Porter (1974), and the more successful Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS (1974) the celluloid phallus was violently caressed until it ejaculated into a gas chamber full of copycat spawn. These were mostly made by Italian filmmakers with the desire to shock and titillate, relying on sensationalism by money and success hungry production companies, who seemed to have as much conscience as ol‘ Adolf had love for the Jews.  

So with that in mind we’ve invited our two of our most deviant scribes, Michael Helms and Jason Driver to take us on a journey behind enemy lines into the evil Reich of the Nazisploitation flick – it turgid rise, it’s most potent days of power, it’s decline and it’s seedy legacy.

Mein Kampf (1960) - Dir. Erwin Leiser.

Mein Kampf (1960) – Dir. Erwin Leiser.

MEIN KAMPF. 1960 Erwin Leiser. USA.

Nazisploitation developed out of the Hate Film that was epitomised by the US hit The Kaiser: The Beast of Berlin (1918) which in turn was ripped off by poverty row studios PRC who unleashed Hilter: Beast of Berlin so they could get it into cinemas barely before the announcement of WW II. By 1961 the Western world was full of generational change developing new priorities far removed from the Final Solution but the hate was still there if somewhat tempered. Columbia Pictures released Mein Kampf by Erwin Leiser that pushed atrocity footage to a new level. Amazingly PG-rated but utilizing SS-shot footage of a Polish ghetto there’s more dead bodies here than in a Friday the 13th box set. Mein Kampf begins with a credit title phrase that would be constantly regurgitated by the flood of Nazisploitation films that the sexual revolution would soon allow: “Every scene in this picture is authentic”. The footage is raw and far removed from the work of Leni Riefenstahl but its own style is haunting often dropping narration and all sound to reveal life on streets you’d never want to walk down.

Michael Helms

ILSA: SHEWOLF OF THE SS. 1975. Dir. Don Edmonds.

ILSA: SHEWOLF OF THE SS. 1975 Don Edmonds, US.

One of the first and still the best Nazploitationers and most probably the template for the Italian stuff to follow . This sucker was made on the disused sets of Hogans Hero’s by a Canadian director Don Edmonds. Ilsa decides to conduct pain experiments to show that women can endure more pain than men, in order to show that they too should be allowed on the frontline to fight. While she’s not doing that she is castrating any male who happens to ejaculate early with her during a sexual relationship. A classic scene involves a female standing on a melting block of ice while a noose pulls tight around her neck. A classic of the Grindhouse type, it stars genre stalwart Dyanne Thorne and was followed by 3 sequels. Lowbrow stuff which is very entertaining. Not only one of the best Naziploitationers this would also feature heavily in the top ten of any discerning sleaze/exploitation hound. Brilliant!

Jason Driver

DEAD SNOW. 2009 Tommy Wirkola, Norway .

Another Nazi zombie flick but its snowbound setting and sense of fun give it an edge. How could a film that features a character wearing a Braindead t-shirt be bad?

Michael Helms

SS EXTERMINATION CAMP. (1976) Dir. Sergio Garrone

SS EXTERMINATION CAMP. (1976) Dir. Sergio Garrone

SS EXTERMINATION CAMP. 1976 Sergio Garrone. Italy.

I’m sure you’ve all either sung or whistled the old classic” Hitler he only had one ball, the other hangs up on the wall”? Well this is the cinematic equivalent, but nowhere near as catchy. As well as the flimsy plot about experiments for the advancement of the White Race, there is a subplot about a Nazi Commandant who gets his balls bitten off by a crazy Russian whore on the Siberian front. He spends the film’s duration looking for the perfect set of notes which he eventually acquires off a SS Guard. This leads to one of the most unintentional funny scenes in cinematic history. The guard realizes during sex that his goolies are gone and proclaims “What have you done with my balls you bastard” lol. This could possibly one of the most inept films ever made but is amusing enough to be a solid entry in the genre from  Sergio Garrone who made a few of these films along with Django the Bastard.

Jason Driver

GESTAPO'S LAST ORGY (1977) - Dir. Cesare Canevari

GESTAPO’S LAST ORGY (1977) – Dir. Cesare Canevari

GESTAPO’S LAST ORGY. 1977 Cesare Canevari. Italy.

A British video nasty back in the day, the tone of this film is set at the start where a troop of German soldiers are made to watch a film of some buxom beauty bathing herself in excrement. The commandant barks something along the lines of “Look at this Jewish beast wallowing in her own filth” and off we go in a film which is about the training of Jewish girls in the sexual service of the Gestapo. Shot on a cheapo budget this film looks a lot better than many of its counterparts and seems to be inspired more by The Night Porter rather than Ilsa. A jaw dropping moment occurs when German officers sit around spouting Nazi rhetoric while indulging in roast newborn Jew. Italian cinema buffs will also note nods to Fellini, Pasolini and Brass. Not a bad watch at all and a lot less camp, pardon the pun.

Jason Driver

LOVE CAMP 7 (1968) - Dir. Lee Frost

LOVE CAMP 7 (1968) – Dir. Lee Frost

LOVE CAMP 7. 1968 Lee Frost. USA.

Produced by and featuring David F. Friedman as a molesting Nazi who can barely put his stogie aside while he “trains” a “comfort woman” Love Camp 7 established the parameters for all the Nazi prison sleazefests to come, your Ilsas, Elsas and Wandas. Director Lee Frost would go on to helm the far superior urban action flick The Black Gestapo. There was a serious “Let’s dress up as Nazis”, obsession going on with these filmmakers.

Michael Helms

SALON KITTY (1976) - Dir. Tinto Brass.

SALON KITTY (1976) – Dir. Tinto Brass.

SALON KITTY. 1976 Tinto Brass, Italy.

From the director of the star-strewn , fuck and violence fest Caligula comes probably the most well known and biggest budgeted Nazisploitation movie of all time. Salon Kitty is based on the novel of the same name and is a true story about a high class brothel in some yuppie part of Berlin. A German SS Officer has, unknown to Madame Kitty, placed a wire to gain information from top Gestapo and high up dignitaries in order to overthrow some German Generals. Kitty finds out and decides to take measures for revenge. So okay you’re thinking to yourself that this one seems to actually have plot and good production values and you’d be right but don’t forget this is Tinto Brass folks. Naked girls are forced to have sex with midgets and the deformed, nudity is exploited whenever possible.This is probably Brass’ best film and is well worth seeking out.Classy trash at its best.

Jason Driver

THE DEVIL’S ROCK. 2011 Paul Campion, New Zealand.

So few low budget horror films have period settings but The Devil’s Rock is set during WW 2 and features a Nazi obsession with the occult. Gina Varela demonically delivers wearing not much more than the Weta-designed make-up.

 Michael Helms

THE BEAST IN HEAT (1977) - Dir. Luigi Batzella

THE BEAST IN HEAT (1977) – Dir. Luigi Batzella

THE BEAST IN HEAT. 1977 Luigi Batzella, Italy.

This is so off its head with perversity, the majority of the cast and crew had wanted their names removed. The story itself is about an Ilsa type character who is a dominant, big breasted babe, just as of fond of getting her crack filled as advancing the white race by conducting bizarro experiments. One of the results is a grotesque, libido boosted, neanderthal fuck machine to whom she feeds nubile virgins to satisfy his hunger. How this will further the Germans war efforts is beyond me. The rest of the film consists of a flimsy plot about Partisan resistance attempts to hide and conceal info from the Nazi’s. Anyway the Beast in question is kept caged and is thrown naked girls where he unconvincingly tears hair straight from their groinal garden with his teeth and babies are used for clay pigeon shooting practice. A teen girl is raped and then has a pistol inserted into her twat and shot, labia are cooked by sparkling electrodes, men are castrated, fingernails are extracted. Nasty if it wasn’t so crap. Still enjoyable.

Jason Driver

SHOCK WAVES (1977) - Dir. Ken Weiderhorn.

SHOCK WAVES (1977) – Dir. Ken Weiderhorn.

SHOCK WAVES. 1977 Ken Weiderhorn, USA.

This mid-70s low budget item was directed by Ken Weiderhorn who would eventually write and direct Return of the Living Dead 2 but don’t hold that against him. Aquatic Nazi Zombies rule and Shock Waves is one reason why.

 Michael Helms

THE 25th REICH. 2012, Stephen Amis, Australia.

A true welcome oddity part-hardboiled war film and part sci-fi with rousing large scale 50s music soundtrack but filmed in Victoria and made by a man (Stephen Amis) who wanted to see it as much as you.

 Michael Helms

WOMENS CAMP 119 (1977) - Dir. Bruno Mattei.

WOMENS CAMP 119 (1977) – Dir. Bruno Mattei.

WOMENS CAMP 119. 1977 Bruno Mattei, Italy.

Ok still shocked about the atrocities in Beast in Heat? Get a load of this beauty by the master himself Bruno Mattei. This is a whole shitstorm of anti PC mayhem and general craziness. This is basically about a prisoner who gets forced to assist in deranged experiments. One glorious moment has girls dancing naked in front of homosexual males in order to try for a cure,  then other naked girls are forced to cuddle the corpses of frozen soldiers in order to bring them back to life??? We are then in store for lots more nudity, torture and experiments like a uterus transplant and some nasty rapes. The lighting is bad but this lends to the atmosphere and the characters and action are so deplorable it’s like watching a car wreck you can’t turn away from.This drips sleaze from every frame and situation. One of my favourites of the genre.

Jason Driver

About the author: Admin

Monster Pictures is a Melbourne-based distribution / production company dedicated to delivering the most energetic, unique, creative, innovative, provocative, bizarre, frightening, challenging, surreal, offbeat, absurd, twisted, demented, raunchy, cinema in the world today.

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