To date, this is the only the second film I have seen by German director Andreas Bethmann, but that is enough to tell me that the guy has a major fixation on the trashy cinema of Jess Franco: K3 Prison of Hell is highly reminiscent of the prolific Spaniard's women-in-prison movies (Women in Cellblock 9, Ilsa, the Wicked Warden, Barbed Wire Dolls, to mention just a few) being not only similar in content, but also in style ie., sleazy, violent, and extremely dull to watch. In fact, it's quite possible that, despite being more explicit, K3 is even less entertaining than the bulk of Franco's filth.
This is due to the fact that there is virtually no plot to speak of, and the action is extremely repetitive, with the majority of screen time devoted to close up crotch shots, and incredibly tedious and un-erotic sex scenes between a motley selection of German skanks and ugly men (prior to watching, I was unaware of the high adult content, although I soon guessed when I saw the names of some of the performers in the opening credits: Suzi-Anne, Candy-Sue, Dirk and Arnie).
Whilst the endless beaver shots might prove to be of some value to amateur gynaecologists, explicit German smut really isn't my thing; I stayed the distance thanks to the involvement of Olaf Ittenbach, Germany's finest purveyor of quality splatter, whose name guaranteed that, somewhere in this endless mess of nudity and rough sex, there was going to be some outstanding gore. Sure enough, only minutes from the end, the film finally delivers what I had been waiting for: bones are smashed, intestines are munched, and the blood flows in rivers in an outrageously violent scene involving an unlucky lass and a drooling, bald psycho named Pete-Scissor-Hands. Unfortunately, it's a real chore to get to the good stuff, and it doesn't last for long.
Ittenbach's realistic and disturbing contribution to K3 deserves a rating of 8/10, but Bethmann's lifeless hardcore and dreadful direction means that the film as a whole really doesn't deserve any more than a 3.