The Beast in Heat (1977) User Reviews (51)

Monkeyboy

[Steve_Nyland · 3/10 · 16 November 2006]

I jotted down some notes about Luigi Baztella's BEAST IN HEAT, which is easily the cumulative apex of both the Italian Nazi Exploitation idiom and Euro War sub-genres all wrapped up into one:

1) The movie is an exercise in applied bad taste ranking up there with Umberto Lenzi's CANNIBAL FEROX or maybe PAINT YOUR WAGON as one of the silliest movies ever made about a potentially serious subject. Anyone who is offended by it is too stupid for their own good, and I wonder how they might get through the day without hurting themselves or accidentally blowing something up.

2) During WW2 there was apparently an ultra-secret Nazi medical experiments division headed by outrageously sexy female bisexual dominatrix type Gruppenfuhrers (here personified by the undeniably arousing Macha Magall, in grave need of a proper spanking for being so naughty) who looked great strutting around in Nazi regalia and spent many hours perfecting the act of crossing & uncrossing their garter/hose encased legs, sexually harassing their subordinates, and sucking on phallic cigarette holders. We are lucky we won.

3) The star of the film is Monkeyboy (veteran character actor Salvatore Baccaro, who was able to convincingly play simian characters without any special makeup or costuming), a name given by one of my drinking buddies to the half ape half man crossbreed creature injected with a serum that enhances it's libido to the point where the thing just exists to hump whatever females are thrown into it's cage. The Nazis then stand around and watch the proceedings while taking notes. Just what they hope to achieve by this experiment -- and just how they cross bred an ape with a human so quickly -- is sadly never addressed during the film's duration.

4) The movie is actually 2 or 3 or 4 movies edited down into about 85 minutes of screen time. The most watchable segments of Mr. Batzella's truly awful 1970 Euro War failure WHEN THE BELL TOLLS with Brad 'Zambo' Harris are combined with newsreel and stolen war movie footage to pad out the approximately 40 minutes of stock exposed for the principal action of the film. Harris must have taken a swing at Mr. Batzella after being informed he was included in this film & viewing the results, and be sure to check out how one character's hair style and costuming changes between scenes taken from one or the other project. Seven years really is a long time.

5) Nazi storm troopers often amused themselves by tossing babies into the air for target practice with their Italian made Baretta machine guns. They may have been evil dirtbags but they knew a good time when they saw it and managed to find a few laughs in between extermination roundups, where the first thing they would do would be to separate out all of the young hotties to be molested by their lesbian dominatrix Gruppenfuhrers. Talk about rank having it's privileges.

6) The film is an extension of the Italian Euro War agenda of painting the Italians not as Nazi collaborators who eventually wizened up but as the Good Guys. This is done not by depicting their own story of coming around to the program of stopping totalitarianism, but by painting the Nazis as the most evil, vile, depraved menace possible with one War Is Hell sequence after the other. The Italians may have been bad but they weren't as bad as the Nazis, and this movie is part of their proof.

7) Guinea pigs will consume the intestines of attractive Italian B movie actresses when placed on their abdomens.

8) Monkeyboy totally rulez this movie, and his climactic encounter with Macha Magall has a kind of Hitchcockian inevitability to it that wraps everything up. The best way to watch BEAST IN HEAT is to glom onto the DVD version so you can fast-forward through the filler material and concentrate on the scenes of Nazi depravity -- which is the whole reason to watch it in the first place -- since the history being depicted is about as realistic as a Three Stooges short. A Cliffnotes version of BEAST IN HEAT should be executed, distilling the film down to it's core 40 minutes of nonstop hilarity.

9) The main reason that the Nazi Exploitation idiom is viewed with such disdain is due to the subject matter, which many have deigned to be "sacred". The Video Nasty label wasn't applied here so much for gruesomeness or sexualized content, but for the attitude of daring not to take the subject of Nazi war atrocities with the seriousness it is due. And it bears repeating again that anyone who is offended by this movie is probably a moron for having chosen to watch a movie called SS HELL CAMP it in the first place. If you want to watch something serious about Nazi atrocities dial up the History Channel next time for Pete's sake.

In closing, someone whom I discussed this film with asked me if I actually thought what was being shown really happened, and my immediate reply was of course it was all real. Just like FARENHEIT 9/11 or AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH, here is one of the great documentaries of all time, proving once and for all that Italian genre cinema is a fool's paradise. It may not be very well made or pack a social wallop, but it sure is a hell of a lot of fun when consumed in the presence of your friends with plenty of beer.

3/10

Truly so bad it's good

[JohnSeal · 4/10 · 18 December 2001]

If one can overlook the gratuitous nudity, lengthy rape scenes, and nasty tortures, La Bestia In Calore does provide solid entertainment for those who enjoy particularly inept cinema. Muscleman Brad Harris stars as a priest involved with Italian partisans and provides the film's best line as he sends the resistance off to battle: "trust in the Lord! He's the BEST!" Stock footage from better films with decent budgets is easily discernible, as are toy planes that periodically bomb our heroic partisans--one of whom bears an uncanny resemblance to Saddam Hussein. The award for best torture device must surely go to the 'death by hamster nibbling' sequence, and of course all the actors--including those playing the Nazis--sport truly atrocious 70's hair. Unforgettable!

Yet another genre disappointment.

[Moshing Hoods · 16 July 2002]

In theory, the Nazi-sex cycle of exploitation cinema should be an absolute winner. Not only are all these films based on spectacularly non-PC and offensive plot premises, but by their very nature they give plenty of opportunity for the film-makers to work in scene after scene of gore, nudity, sex, and combinations of the three. Of course, as any seasoned Euro-exploitation fan knows, it is very rare that ANY so-called "video nasty" lives up to the promise of its garish title and plot outline, and in practice, there is nothing that displays this more succinctly than this genre. The Nazi-sex films are ineptly made, dull, boring, and not nearly as offensive as they should be.

Saying that though, THE BEAST IN HEAT does at least enough to raise itself above other dross such as SS EXPERIMENT CAMP. Badly made and boring it might be, but the comedy of the caged "beast" is enough to keep you watching (even though its appearances are few and far between). The nastiest gore surfaces at the very end, and although it's all quite unpleasant in theory (particularly the moment where the "beast" tears chunks out of an unfortunate victim's mons pubis and gobbles them up), the absolutely dire standard of special effects leaves this whole affair more in the niche of BLOODSUCKING FREAKS than MEN BEHIND THE SUN...

Not really worth bothering with unless you are an enthusiast of this sort of thing. "Fans" of this particularly surreal thread of exploitation would be well advised to dabble in the seedy climes of the closely-related "Women In Prison" cycle, because the best of that genre beats this type of gubbins hands down.

Two terrible movies for the price of one!

[Sandcooler · 4/10 · 29 July 2016]

"SS Hell Camp" starts of rather promisingly. In the opening scene we're introduced to an evil Nazi doctor (German actress Macha Magall, playing the role with gusto) AND a weird ape-man creature who has become extremely sex- crazed due to various unspecified experiments. So the idea is that they throw any girl who doesn't collaborate into his cage, so he can awkwardly hump her (without an erection, but why do I check?) until she somehow dies. To me that's a good enough gimmick for 80 minutes of Z-grade schlock, but writer/director Luigi Batzella is a lazy, lazy man. In 1970 he made a war movie called "When The Bell Tolls" that nobody saw, so he figured...why not splice it into this one, almost entirely? If you don't know that in advance, this is a really confusing mess. The war scenes come out of nowhere, but they end up making up more than half of this movie. It's so glaringly obvious that Batzella is just using these scenes as padding, while you just want to find out what's going on in the torture chamber (spoilers: torture). So you get fifteen minutes of terrible, yet delightfully cheesy fun and an hour of intensely boring "sub-plots" that barely pretend to be from the same movie.

The main saving grace of this movie is the aforementioned Macha Magall, an unknown actress that made her last movie in 1982. For shame, because she finds the perfect balance between attractive and freightening. She's certainly an interesting screen presence, but because of Batzella's penny-pinching our lead actress is actually barely in this movie. She deserved to be in much better projects than this, but somehow never really made it into the mainstream. Then again, I guess the lack of a real legacy or any other background information does give her some kind of mystique.

Seedy and boring...A torturous combination.

[capkronos · 2/10 · 25 February 2004]

Basically here we have just another tasteless, dull, haphazardly and carelessly slapped together Euro-sleazefest cheaply made to capitalize on the drive-in success of the ILSA films. This time, Dr. Helene Krast (Macha Magal), a blonde Nazi torturer, uses her gothic torture chamber to pump secrets out of innocent European villagers during World War II. Oh yeah, there's also a fat, naked, hairy, grunting guy (played by the same "Boris Lugosi" cat who portrayed "Ook" in FRANKENSTEIN'S CASTLE OF FREAKS) who paws, rapes and kills women thrown into his cell.

Endless nudity and violence are mixed with badly incorporated (and dull!) stock war footage, choppy editing and cheap, tasteless sadism. This is available on tape under various titles like S.S. HELL CAMP, THE BEAST IN HEAT and NAZI HOLOCAUST. The version I saw was entitled S.S. EXPERIMENT CAMP 2 (which was the original US video version and is probably missing some of the more explicit scenes). Even if it was heavily cut, I think I'll pass on the 'full' experience of LA BESTIA IN CALORE.

Score: 2 out of 10

YOU'VE NEVER HEARD OF NAZISPLOITATION?

[kirbylee70-599-526179 · 5/10 · 15 July 2019]

Okay let's get this out of the way at the start. There is a genre of film known as Nazisploitation. For those unaware of the genre it involved, of course, Nazis and WWII as well as taking place in the few years following. The movies were filled with scenes of torture, Nazis, female concentration camp commanders, gore and sex. Everything that a good exploitation film required. The end result was a genre that kept grindhouses and drive-ins busy and open for some time. Now Severin is releasing one of the later entries into the genre, a film called THE BEAST IN HEAT.

The movie was directed by Luigi Batzella and comprised of footage shot for a previous film and new footage that was added. While that it shows the movie still at least has a coherent plotline. Released in 1977 the film opens with SS officer/doctor Dr. Ellen Kratsch (Macha Magall) displaying her latest creation, a half man/half beast near dwarf like beast she keeps in a cage. To show her colleagues what she's created she brings in a local virgin and has her tossed into the cage with the beast who then forcibly rapes the young girl nearly to death. How does this help the war movement? I have no clue.

As this is taking place in another town the resistance is doing their best to thwart the efforts of the German army. Blowing up bridges, hiding from the Nazis and facing off in various gun battles their efforts are having an effect. The local commandant is told to get things under control and to help him they are sending Dr. Kratsch.

The two stories, that of the resistance and of Kratch's various methods of torture, collide in a mish mash of a film that can't quite decide what it wants to be. That decision to combine two movies into one might not have been a good one after all. But the things that fans of the genre seem to enjoy are all here on display, in particular a good amount of exposed female flesh and plenty of gore.

I've never been a fan of the genre and this film by itself wouldn't be a good way to change someone's opinion of the films. It does provide plenty of laughs though and the extreme over acting of many of those involved. But to be honest I wouldn't have recommended this disc with the exception of something included in the package.

Included with the film is a feature length documentary on the genre called Fascism On A Thread - The Strange Story of Nazisploitation Cinema. The documentary takes on all aspects of the genre taking it far back to early WWII movies that featured some of the same themes and items that made the genre so popular. It includes interviews with various directors and writers who worked in the genre. Most notably among those interviewed is actress Dyanne Thorne whose portrayal of the main character in ILSA: SHE WOLF OF THE SS led to several sequels. By far ILSA was the quintessential film of the genre and to have her speak about it is quite interesting.

Severing has done a fine job with this release giving fans a clean version of the film, perhaps the best ever offered. In addition to the extra documentary there is Nazi Nasty: Interview with Stephen Thrower the author of MUREROUS PASSIONS and the trailer for the film.

If you're curious at all about the genre then by all means pick this title up, if not for the film itself then for the extra documentary. And if you are a fan then you'll want to add this version of the film to your collection.

The rating here is due to the extras, in particular the documentary on Nazisploitation films.

Evil she-bitch creates drooling sex-crazed ape-man in average Nazisploitationer.

[BA_Harrison · 5/10 · 24 May 2007]

SS Hell Camp AKA The Beast in Heat, an infamous (due to its inclusion on the Video Nasties list) Nazisploitation film by director Luigi Batzella, not only has a great title (or titles) but also features quite a lot of camp nastiness and glorious sleaze. Unfortunately, it also has more than its fair share of painfully dull moments, which means that the film is ultimately rather disappointing.

Nasty Nazi Dr. Ellen Kratsch (Macha Magall) is conducting experiments on a half-man/half ape creature (Salvatore Baccaro) as part of her research into creating a genetically perfect master race. Female prisoners are taken from a nearby village (which is also the hiding place for a bunch of Italian partisans that the Germans are keen to apprehend), tortured for information about the enemy, and then thrown into a cage with the sex-mad beast, who proceeds to rape and kill the poor girls.

As with a lot of other films in this genre, most of the violence is either too silly or over-the-top to really be that offensive; highlights of the film include a Nazi soldier who uses a baby for shooting practice, a woman who is eaten by a couple of ravenous guinea pigs (I think they're supposed to look like rats!), some torture via electrodes to the genitals, and, of course, Salvatore Baccaro's rampant slobbering sex-crazy creature (who, in one amazingly tasteless scene, bloodily tears the pubic hair from a victim's crotch and stuffs it in his mouth!).

Between these delightfully silly and outrageous moments, the film is padded with loads of unimpressive war footage from other films and a very tedious plot thread about an Italian priest (Brad Harris) and a beautiful female villager who are helping the resistance..

If you are a fan of the genre, and think you can manage to sit through quite a bit of boring fluff in order to get to the 'good bits', SS Hell Camp is just about worth giving a go.

Camp, tasteless but fun

[jenlee99 · 4/10 · 14 October 2014]

The British censors have a lot to answer for. By creating a list of films which in their opinion will deprave and corrupt anyone who watches them they have subjected me to some badly made, boring and extremely bizarre movies which I would probably never heard of if it hadn't been for them and I love them for it! Although censorship in the UK has been greatly relaxed since the video nasty scare, we are still a conservative nation and a few of those films still remain banned and unavailable since it is illegal to sell films in the UK unless it has a rating from the BBFC.

The Beast in Heat hasn't actually been submitted to the BBFC since being prosecuted all those years ago and there really isn't any point in trying because if I know one thing it's this - this film will NEVER legally see the light of day in this country.

The plot is really nonsense. The Nazis are in town and in some dodgy basement a scary female scientist (the superb Macha Magall) is trying to produce some sort of randy beast for reasons that aren't really that clear. Here she throws poor naked local lasses in with him where he rapes them to death. If this isn't enough she also tortures them in other ways as well. Meanwhile, the local partisans are blowing up bridges and trying to infiltrate the Nazis for information while arguing amongst themselves.

The obvious aim of a film like this is to shock and dare to go where no film has gone before. It puts the film on banned lists and it rises to immortality when really it should have been forgotten years ago.

Yes, the production values are bad, the acting is bad, the dubbing is laughable. The partisan parts are there to flesh out the run time and no attempt has been made to make those sections coherent. Characters appear and disappear, you haven't a clue really who anyone is and what they are meant to be doing half the time. Although the priest is brilliant, especially when he gets angry! Of course the film is really about what goes on in the Nazi basement. Conceptually these scenes are horrendous. Water torture, finger nails pulled off, eaten alive by rats. In practice though they are so badly done you are almost embarrassed for the filmmakers.

There were a few interesting things I found though. The rape scenes are filmed in such a surreal way that it takes the edge of the disgust you should be feeling. Lots of weird camera angles and bizarre close ups of the man-beast are more trippy then anything else and completely at odds with the way the rest of the film is shot. Conversely the scene where the evil Doctor gets her horribly ironic comeuppance is shot in a more conventional way, much less swirly camera and loads more focus on her suffering really made for uncomfortable viewing.

Also the ending is rather sad and strange and would almost be poignant if there where any earlier attempts at plotting or character development, even just a little.

What I find interesting about exploitation films, even one as bad as this is that you can always find teeny tiny glimpses of attempts made by directors to actually be interesting rather then just shoot and cash the paycheck.

All in all this film is likely to offend a lot of people, likely to bore the others but I have a high trash tolerance and I found myself drawn in to the film for all its faults and enjoyed it for what it is - high camp, tasteless, disgusting filth!

Pretty sick exploitation film.

[HumanoidOfFlesh · 6/10 · 3 October 2003]

Luigi Batzella's "Beast in Heat" is a hyper sleazy and hyper hilarious and just plain sick nazi exploitation turkey that beats every other film of the questionable genre.The film rips so many other films and documentaries off it makes you laugh alone.There are many scenes of some war documentaries that have extremely bad picture quality.The same thing is with Bruno Mattei's "Hell of the Living Dead" that rips also everything possible off,including the Goblin score from "Contamination" and "Dawn of the Dead"."Beast in Heat" is also very graphic with its violence,mainly towards naked females that get abused and sexually violated as we can expect.Plenty of nudity and pubic hair ripped off and then eaten by the monster and so on.The film doesn't even have a credits in its beginning;I've heard that every member of the crew,including the director,wanted to take their names off from this film.Overall,"Beast in Heat" is surely wild,so fans of Italian exploitation won't be disappointed.

Perverse violence and extreme sexual torture

[lastliberal · 4/10 · 28 August 2008]

La Bestia in Calore (also known as SS Hell Camp, SS Experiment Part 2, The Beast in Heat and Horrifying Experiments of the S.S. Last Days) is one of the 74 video nasties banned in Britain. This film was not re-released and remains banned, as it should be.

This is Naziploitation taken to the extreme. The doctor (Macha Magall) creates a love machine to use in torture. This is a beastly looking chap that is hopped upon drugs and can have sex non stop. Maybe this is the stuff they advertise on TV today for sexual dysfunction. The idea is to get captured locals to reveal the location of the partisans, but nobody ever seems to get a chance to talk before they are f*cked to death.

There are many other methods used by these Germans including ripping fingernails, some nasty business with hamsters, and lots of whipping.

In between the sexual torture, there is a war going on between the Germans and the partisans. I believe this is some stock footage taken to fill out the film. It is not very good stock footage as they appear to use toy planes.

This film is strictly for those who like the Italian exploitation films of the 70's. All others will be repulsed at the extremely violent rape.

Sleazy, campy, titillating fun.

[Baphomet-4 · 8/10 · 7 April 1999]

SS hell camp, or the beast in heat rode the crest of the wave of the late 70's early 80's video nasties phenomenon in Britain- well, in style anyway, since it has always been curiously scarce. An SS atrocities film with an Ilsa style villainess named Krast, who performs human experiments to advance the nazi cause. She creates a brutal beast-man and injects it with a libido enhancing serum, and throws captured virgins into its cage. Why? who knows. The local resistance get p****d, and attempt to invade the experiment compound. Krast in turn gets p****d with the resistance and tries to extract information about the resistance by torturing the locals. The film cuts between scenes of the resistance struggle and the sleazy goings on within Krast-ville, the former being mostly comprised of war footage (Cheap!) and the latter showing assorted torture techniques (Gory but camp). As a film SS hell camp is pretty shabbily made, and including war scenes seems more of a digression than a plot element, but there again, a film like SS hell camp neither has nor needs a real plot, since it simply serves to titilate.

Historians will hate it, Genre fans will enjoy it.

One of My Favorite 70's Nazisploitation Fliks

[catheter1st · 7/10 · 25 January 2008]

While obviously flawed in the film making department(budget, script, continuity), one has to wonder just how the idea of this gem came to be, and where the hell they found actors who were willing to perform this type of trash! The story follows 2 plots which eventually converge on each other - The first, is the story of the sadistic female Nazi Dr. who has created a sexually aberrant mutant human, and unleashes his drugged sexual fury on female prisoners. She uses her discovery as a way to climb the chain of Nazi command, while enjoying the torturing of several prisoners, either by throwing them to her beast, or doing the job herself!

The second plot follows a group of resistors trying to free Northern Italy from the clutches of the 3rd Reich. Ultimately their adventures lead them to the Nazi Dr. woman, who is running the garrison controlling the area. They rout the baddies, and give the good Dr. a taste of her own sadistic ambitions.

This film is fun if you are open minded, not easily offended, and enjoy strange cult films unlikely to be made today. It is worth noting that there is no reference to Jewish imprisonment anywhere in this film, which is odd for a Nazisploitation flick. The budget was so low, that in one scene where a German bomber is destroying the town, it is clearly a model on string being whipped around in front of the camera with a blue screen in the background! Classic! Ed wood himself would be proud.

Ug-ly

[haildevilman · 4/10 · 13 May 2007]

Another Italian sex-prison romp.

Naked and buxom women tossed in jail to be raped by a half man/half subhuman deviant. The title said it all.

As far as it goes, it told the truth. If one like naked savagery, see this. If you like beauty, avoid it. Reality? Ditto. None of that here. The women look OK, but in a seedy way.

Sal Baccoro (spelling?) plays the beast perfectly. He really looks like a cross between a gorilla and a rabid pit bull so it was no stretch. His look made him perfect for any monstermen the Italians may have needed. He had a blink and miss it cameo in Goddess Gemser's "Emanuelle In America" too.

If you must...here it is. But I don't think I'll watch it again.

SS Hell Camp

[Michael_Elliott · 13 March 2008]

SS Hell Camp (1977)

** (out of 4)

Naziploitation film has a wacked out female German doctor performing experiments on beautiful naked women. This is considered one of the more graphic naxiploitation films but I've seen a couple that are a tad bit worse. Like the others this one here is full of naked women, rape, violence, some blood and various "Hail Hitler's". The biggest problem here, much like the others, is that there isn't enough camp and there's way too many disgusting scenes including one where a baby is taken from its mother, thrown into the air and then shot.

Almost as bad as the Nazis

[tomgillespie2002 · 3/10 · 5 September 2011]

Beautiful and sadistic Nazi officer Dr. Kratsch (Macha Magall) has created a horrific mutant beast who she keeps locked in a cage, offering it POW's to rape and feast upon. She aims to use her experiments to eventually win the war, but first must deal with the Italian resistance. After blowing up a bridge that was one of the keys to the Nazi's strategic positioning, the resistance plans to move into action as a few of their army are caught and are being subjected to the brutal experiments.

Also known as SS Hell Camp or, more laughably, Horrifying Experiments of SS Last Days, this is one of many Nazi exploitation movies released in the 70's and 80's (commonly known as 'nazisploitation'), and was only made notorious due to its placement on the Video Nasty list. Otherwise it would have become as forgetful as the likes of Hitler's Lust Train and SS Girls. Inspired by movies such as Pasolini's Salo and Cavani's The Night Porter, both European art-house films, the nazisploitation sub-genre commonly consisted of brutal experimentation, degrading masochistic sexual acts, dominatrix female wardens, and generally being very, very s**t. The Beast in Heat does not disappoint in this department, although it is one of the few to truly live up to its 'nasty' title.

Not to say the film is effective in any way, but sitting through torture scenes such as a woman having electric shocks applied to her vagina, someone having their insides eaten by guinea-pigs, and a woman being raped by the 'Beast' who rips off chunks of her pubic hair and eats it, is rather unpleasant. This is repulsive film-making at its most desperate. It is so devoid of ideas or artistic flair that it must try to amp up the shock factor to the max to render itself memorable. The beast itself is actually just a pretty ugly guy with big lips, a stunted stature, and a boil on his arse. It's a film full of memorably awful moments, and it's unnerving to see a director so blasé about his work that he would allow a panning shot that clearly shows the shadows of himself, the camera and half his crew to remain in the film. Almost as bad as the Nazi party itself.

www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com

Hugely offensive and hugely boring at the same time

[adriangr · 3/10 · 21 April 2010]

My god, this film is terrible!! One of the hardest films to track down in the UK "video nasties" scare, there are instances even now of this selling for £200-£300 on eBay in it's original VHS video format ...!! Unfortunately this film being rare had nothing whatsoever to do with it being any good.

"The Beast in Heat" (to use its more famous title) seems to be a low budget clone of "Ilsa She Wolf of the SS", but without a single ounce of the talent or budget present in any aspect of even that film's production. It's basically a very boring war movie in which we watch grumpy (and very obviously un-German looking) Nazi soldiers trade insults with civilians and members of resistance groups in some anonymous European village. Every so often some very obvious stock footage kicks in of planes and tanks attacking, which, apart from being obviously filmed completely separately, is also in a different aspect ratio to the main feature footage!! Yes it's that bad! This dull state of affairs drags on for 85% of the films running time and is enough to have you reaching for the fast forward after just a few minutes. Everything is awful - the acting, the script, the dubbing, the sets...one hilarious moment occurs early on when a railway bridge is blown up. I guarantee you've never seen anything so lame. I swear they had the camera zoom in wildly on a STILL PICTURE of a very small detonation and even added extra hand drawn flame effects directly onto the celluloid. If it wasn't for the unbearable tedium of the rest of the film, you could at least spend a few happy minutes laughing at this type of stuff.

But of course, somewhere in this mess lurks the reason for the film's true appeal - the scenes of SS officers torturing naked women prisoners. I'll give this film one (just ONE!) compliment - it does star a very foxy leading lady in the shape of Macha Magall, as the sadistic "Doctor Kratsch". Sadly no match for Dyanne "Ilsa" Thorne in the charisma stakes, but it's impossible to tell if she's any good as an actress due to the inept dubbing she is saddled with (along with the rest of the cast).

That aside, the "cruel" experiments that she is in charge of are real bottom-of-the-barrel trash. Making most shock value in the cheapest way possible is easy - have everyone naked. Right, what next? Well from there the flaws really start to pile up. The central "experiment" of the film is a sex-crazed dwarf that Dr Kratsch keeps in a cage, and whom she occasionally whips up into a frenzy of over-acting by throwing a naked woman in with him. What follows each instance of this is a montage of the worst possible face-pulling and general pantomime style rape attacking from the dwarf, and plenty of screaming from the hapless naked actress while she tries to look as though she is being overpowered by the crazed mini monster (rather difficult, as he is so small!) The camera zooms in wildly on splashes of too-red tomato sauce being liberally splashed about, as the beast carries out his assault. In one sequence, the dwarf even ups the outrage stakes by lifting his cross-eyed face from woman's lap to show a mouthful of torn-out bloodied hair...ugh! Don't worry, there's not even a hint of realism to any of this. All the while, Dr Kratsch and her attending guards watch silently, occasionally licking their lips in apparent arousal at the gruesome sight (I don't know where all the unusable footage of them laughing their heads off is, but there must be loads of it).

Realism fares no better in other scenes as still more naked prisoners are tortured, eaten alive by rats (yes they are gerbils), or have stuck-on fingernails pulled out, The dubbing in these scenes is the worst synched dialogue you have ever seen. "Stop it...you're hurting me..." the soundtrack burbles while a bored looking actress's lips move in completely unconnected directions. Even throwing a baby in the air for rifle target practise or shooting a naked woman directly between the legs can't raise a gasp with production values as low as these.

Due to the sparse placement of the torture scenes within the rest of the generally boring war and resistance action, it's rare for anyone to manage the feat of sitting through this rubbish to the bitter end, so should you fail, I'm sure you can guess the well deserved fate that awaits our cruel SS lady doctor...have a guess where she ends up. Sadly it's presented very half heartedly...you'll be only too happy to see the end of the film roll up on your TV. To realise that such a waste of space as this has been given a DVD release is more entertaining than actually watching the thing. They could at least have kept the original cover ( a hint of which can be seen in the lower left corner of the sleeve), it was a masterpiece of trash cinema promotion.

The irony is that the British politicians and press who campaigned for films like these to be banned have ultimately succeeded in prolonging their shelf life far beyond that which the films deserve. This should go back to the obscurity in which it belongs.

All-Around Bad Movie

[gavin6942 · 3/10 · 28 June 2017]

A beautiful, nefarious senior female SS officer/doctor (Macha Magall) creates a genetic, mutant human Beast (half man/half beast). The Beast is a rapacious, squat, mongoloid sex fiend which she uses to torture and molest female prisoners while the Nazis watch.

This film really has no redeeming qualities. A knockoff of "Ilsa", it tries to up the ante with more torture, nudity and general excess. Arguably, it succeeds in this attempt, but that does not make it a better movie. Director Luigi Batzella offers nothing interesting, and even has to pad the 86 minutes with footage from another of his films, "When the Bell Tolls".

Salvatore Baccaro (the "beast" of the title) has the perfect body for a character actor. He was in Dario Argento's little-seen "Five Days", s well as "Deep Red". Though his role in this film is reprehensible, this is really the fault of the script an those involved... in fairness to Baccaro, he is spot-on as far as being a crazed beat goes, so well played.

Nazis are so booooooring!

[Coventry · 3/10 · 14 December 2005]

Nazi-exploitation is not only the most pointless sub genre in horror cinema ever; the infamous movies that fall into this category also somehow always manage to be extremely boring AND shockingly sadistic at the same time! That's such an irritating combination, as you always continue watching a bad film because you're awaiting more and better shock-moments. Next to "Ilsa – She Wolf of the SS", "SS Hell Camp" is probably the most known title in this questionable horror sub genre, mainly because it gained an immediate "video nasty" status. Judging by all the sick ideas and ill-natured sleaze-footage featuring in this film, it really does deserve its dubious reputation, but most of all it's an unbelievably poor production with imbecile plotting and amateurish editing. "SS Hell Camp" does open more energetically than usual is the case in Nazi-exploitation, with the introduction of a deranged female doctor determined to create a new monstrous race. She has the prototype ready (a hyper-ugly and hairy midget) and gives him Jewish girls to rape and kill. Entirely detached from these typically vile sexual experiments, we also follow a group of local resistance fighters in their battle against the Third Reich. The two poor story lines come together near the end of the film, when crazy doctor Kratsch kidnaps some girl-members of the resistance to experiment upon. The experiments are effectively nauseating despite a rather high cheese-factor. During the film's sickest sequence, a pan camera move shows several girls being tortured in repulsive ways and the "highlight" involves the monster tearing out a poor girl's pubic hair before eating it. Bah! Earlier in the film, I was already perplexed by the image of a baby being thrown in the air and shot. When there isn't any torturing going on, it's a dreadfully boring film with real WWII documentary footage is badly edited it and acting performances so lousy they'll make your ears hurt.

The Beast of Boredom

[The_Void · 4/10 · 28 June 2006]

I consider myself a fairly open minded film fan, and don't tend to shy away from any particular genres or subgenres; but even though this is only the second Nazisploitation film that I've seen, I've got to say that it's a really useless sub-genre. The reason I saw this film is down to the fact that it's a proud member of the DPP's Video Nasty list, and just as was the case with SS Experiment Camp; I really shouldn't have bothered (and just to show how bad the aforementioned film is; it's not as good as this one!). It took five minutes for me to start clock watching, and I didn't stop until the boredom finally ended. The Beast in the Heat blends several uninteresting plot lines with a load of repetitive scenes of sex and shooting, and it's always clear that if there is a point to this film; it is simply to satisfy fans of extremely graphic and absurd cinema. The dual plot follows a female SS Warden who pumps a midget full of aphrodisiacs, and then performs 'experiments' with him and a load of naked women. The other plot follows some sort of rebellion.

The first thing that caught my eye about this film was, of course, Macha Magall. Even though she's in and amongst an infestation of disgusting and truly vile sleaze, she still manages to be supremely sexy, as she teases her officers and gets it on with several of her 'test subjects'. As you might expect, the stocking clad experimenter is the only positive element of this film; as the rest is incredibly dull. When I heard about the sex-craving dwarf, I was expecting some kind of cinematic monster; but the film even disappoints on that front, as all we have is a rather hairy man. To his credit, at least if the Nazi's decided to sack him - he wouldn't look out of place collecting bins or selling fish at market. The other plot which handles some sort of rebellion is even less interesting than the sex between the dwarf (more of a short man) and the buxom women. Even worse, Luigi Batzella didn't even have the decency to cast attractive women as sacrifices to the 'beast'! Overall, this film is crap whichever way you look at it. Nazisploitation fans (you know who you are) may find something here; but for the rest of us, this is worth missing out on.

Another Mediocre Nazisploit Film...

[EVOL666 · 6/10 · 25 January 2006]

SS HELL CAMP is another in a long line of relatively dull, yet sometimes entertaining Nazisploit films. I know that seems like a contradictory statement, but almost all of the films that I've seen of this genre fall into that category, namely - most of the film is pretty dull, with atrocious acting, stupid story lines, bad accents and lots of pointless dialog...which are then punctuated with some "shocking" scenes of torture and/or sex. I kind of like these films for the sheer "sleaze-factor", but I feel that the Nazisploit genre as a whole is relatively disappointing and the subject matter has never really been handled to it's full potential.

Amidst the rather dull plot - the basic story is about a bunch of Nazi's trying to track down and kill a bunch of rebels. Throw in a side story about an "experimental" beast (which is really just an ugly hairy guy that grunts a lot and makes a bunch of goofy faces...)who rapes the Nazi's prisoners - and there ya have it...

There are definitely a few sleazy scenes that are amusing - particularly the baby-target-practice and the female pubic hair removal by the "beast", who then proceeds to eat said bush. Of course the FX are horrible, but a few of the scenes are adequate. There is some nudity, but it's mainly by a bunch of nasty looking broads and a bunch of naked dudes with their wieners hanging out - so not much to rave about there (unless that's your thing....). But even so, SS HELL CAMP was mildly amusing and is probably worth a look to hardcore exploitation fans - but I highly recommend trying to find it to rent, as it's not worth buying. 6/10

Equal opportunities of vilest of all original torture porn naziexploitation?

[Bofsensai · 2/10 · 18 July 2016]

My excuse to have seen this was as triple bill set up on the 70th anniversary Berlin liberated (really): it was the worst of the lot, but left some queries which you may wish to ponder if you still decide to watch this 'shocker' (literally for one of the unfortunate torture porn victims - and note, the only one who was black!)

Such like, not only who bankrolled and scripted these stories/scenarios, since to the former, there's some decent military vehicles shown, but the latter, just who were these actors and actresses that allowed themselves to be set up for these scenes?

Besides the visceral standard torture women tropes (one with the 1984 like rodent in a top fired upturned bucket on woman's stomach - latterly shown as cute wouldn't gnaw at a fly, guinea pigs (not hamsters), still menacingly guarded over by hirsute soldier that a modern hipster would be proud to sport), in this one you also get the guys equal opportunities full frontal tortured, too: one, inferred castrated by the evil female experimenter Nazi Dr. Kratsch (beautiful believable turn by Macha Magall), and later, equally full frontally revealingly (!) chained arms up, the 'hero' (?) resistance guy whose dubbed voice comes out like some upper class British toff! (Oh, and the tortured naked gals sport superb 70s hairstyles and eye make up, too.)

Other 'interesting' tortures of both men and women, are former, beefy - but little (!) - guy hung upside down and dunked in water trough whilst being whipped by male Nazi guy minion, under the gloating gaze of said female Doctor and her loyal two cohorts (but y'know, some might pay good money for this treatment rather than confess?!) and for the latter, besides superb 70's 'big hair' beauty having her perfectly manicured (false? No way) nails extracted, then the caged eponymous 'beast' guy who besides every which way ravishes (well, its appalling rape, actually) plus relishes munching on freshly ripped off pubic hair! Mmm, tasty, n'est pas?

Then, for the shoot 'em out scene, most seem to have taken their shot and die chops from kids' playing time, falling down dead but still shifting limbs about into comfortable reposes. It should be in the goofs, that one of the old lady hostages to be machine gunned down in reprisal, is held in place by the Nazi boss- yet himself escapes without a scratch! Plus the meek and mild until pushed too far priest, with his Clint Eastwood delivery style.

So: your call on whether to waste your time to watch this one: either utterly stupid offensive tosh or vile seminal torture porn genre!

Fantastic docu-drama

[radioactive_ape2001 · 10/10 · 8 December 2004]

Many revisionist historians have discussed the Nazi era, with fake claims of weasel pointing and duck larceny... at last! a film that manages total historical accuracy. On first viewing i mistook this fine film for the works of Goddard and Fellini, but on closer inspection realized it is far better. An allegorical tale about mad German women and hairy men who enjoy eating pubic hair. This is a lot of fun, especially for people in the baking or hunting industries. My uncle Phil claims he was the beast in the film, but he also eats live dogs so his opinions are not always valid, Bad films come and go, this one lasts forever, like most Andy Warhol films. Maybe i'm sarcastic or maybe i'm genuine. Watch this film and find out for sure because you will never see another film like it. If you have, phone up the guy who made it and swear very loudly.

Sal Boris raping his way through the entire film

[christopher-underwood · 6/10 · 11 January 2007]

Some very watchable graphic scenes of full frontal sex and brutal violence have to compete with war footage from other movies, crap dialogue (as the third finger nail is removed: 'Hey, that hurt') and a nonsensical structure. It has to be said that Macha Magall is one of the better looking female Nazi leaders and her idea to inject men to make them rampant at least affords us of the opportunity to see the freakish Sal Boris raping his way through the entire film. The film is unredeemable and at times (attempting pathos!) plain stupid but undeniably it certainly doles out large portions of that good old S and V!

Cheap Italian exploitation flick

[[e-mail] · 2/10 · 13 February 2006]

"SS Hell Camp" is just another exploitation flick of the late 1970s that combines naked women, torture and Nazi war crimes. It seems that exploitation directors of the 70s thought that SS experiments were good fodder for sleazy films and an excuse to torture beautiful naked women. A classic in this genre was "Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS." After "Ilsa" it seems that quite a few exploitation directors caught the Third Reich buzz and started making movies about the depravity of the Nazis.

The plot is simple (as is the case with most exploitation fare), Dr. Kratsch is conducting secret experiments to create a new race of people using a Neanderthal man and injections to arouse his passions. She routinely has her experiment rape young women, I'm not really sure if the man is supposed to impregnate them or what because most of the time they seem to end up dead afterward. However, the Italian partisans are making an inept German army officer's life miserable, so Dr. Kratsch is called in to assist him in finding out the partisans' hiding place. All in all the plot is really not important anyway.

The film was mostly unremarkable because about all that happens is some torture, some sex and some explosions and fighting. If you're not a hard core exploitation viewer don't even bother.