Years after a Charlie Forsythe has been executed via the electric chair the state of Wyoming reopens the prison . During some renovation work a wall is knocked down releasing the spirit of Forsythe who is now bent on revenge
This is a cross-genre film featuring prison exploitation movie mixed with horror . Before the credits role you know what to expect and no one is expecting the cerebral psychological horror dished out in John Hillcoat's GHOSTS OF THE CIVIL DEAD because this is more in keeping with ghost of the very uncivil undead
Noticing the credit of director Renny who would give us DIE HARD 2 and DRIVEN strikes you that this is going to be a bit loud , noisy and exaggerated and guess what we get ? That said we also get an early starring role from Viggo Mortensen possibly the most underrated actor of his generation
The story and style plays out as you expect it . A diverse group of cons split in to predators , prey and intelligent lone wolfs are sentenced to serious time in the penal system . You can't help thinking perhaps the conditions seen here are a bit to grim to be realistic but then you stop to consider that in real life convicted prisoners in some states live in tents in the yard then maybe no embellishment is given . It also noticeable how similar in some ways on a visual level this film is to Michael Mann's THE KEEP from 1983 but Mann did manage to make his film a bit more hypnotic than Harlin has done with PRISON
