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Prison
Prison
	Theatrical poster
Directed by	Renny Harlin
Written by	Irwin Yablans; C. Courtney Joyner
Produced by	Charles Band; Irwin Yablans
Starring	Lane Smith; Viggo Mortensen; Chelsea Field; Lincoln Kilpatrick; André De Shields;
Cinematography	Mac Ahlberg
Edited by	Andy Horvitch
Music by	Richard Band; Christopher L. Stone
Distributed by	Empire Pictures
Release dates	December 8, 1987 (United Kingdom); March 4, 1988 (United States);
Running time	102 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$1–4 million
Box office	$354,704 (US)

Prison is a 1987 horror film directed by Renny Harlin and starring Viggo Mortensen, Tom Everett, Kane Hodder, Lane Smith, and Tommy Lister. It was filmed at the Old State Prison in Rawlins, Wyoming, with many residents on the cast and crew.

Plot

In Wyoming, corrupt prison guard Eaton Sharpe (Lane Smith) watched as an innocent man named Charles Forsyth (Kane Hodder) was executed in Creedmore Penitentiary's electric chair in 1964, for a murder that he did not commit. Creedmore was closed in 1968.

Now, the decrepit old Creedmore Penitentiary is reopened to accommodate an overflow of about 300 inmates from other facilities, and Sharpe is now the warden.

Katherine Walker (Chelsea Field), a reform-minded member of the Department Of Corrections, objects to Sharpe's posting as the warden, not just because of his archaic ways, but because she suspects that he's hiding much more than he allows to be revealed.

That’s something that fearful and newly-arrived prisoner Cresus (Lincoln Kilpatrick) seems to agree with, for reasons of his own, having been in Creedmore with Sharpe years ago.

On the other hand, the other newly-arrived prisoners—including professional car thief Burke (Viggo Mortensen), proud Italian-American Joe "Lasagna" Lazano (Ivan Kane), and hulking giant Tiny (Tom "Tiny" Lister) -- are more concerned with adjusting to the horrendous conditions of the prison, as well as the harsh disciplinary environment that Sharpe has put into effect.

When Sharpe orders Burke and another inmate to the basement to break down the wall to the execution room, they unknowingly release the angry spirit of Charles Forsyth, who is out to make Sharpe pay for framing him. Before long, a series of grisly deaths has both inmates and staff panicked.

On the surface, Sharpe remains in denial, blaming the growing body count on troublesome inmates, while his guilty conscience propels him to new heights of sadism and erratic behavior.

Burke and the other inmates soon realize that they will all be killed, unless Forsythe is allowed to repay his long-standing debt.

Cast

Prison staff

Chelsea Field as Katherine Walker
Lane Smith as Warden Ethan Sharpe
Arlen Dean Snyder as Captain Carl Horton
Hal Landon Jr. as Wallace
Matt Kane as Johnson

Prisoners

Viggo Mortensen as Burke
Lincoln Kilpatrick as Cresus
Tom Everett as "Rabbitt"
Ivan Kane as Joe "Lasagna" Lazano
André DeShields as Sandor
Tommy Lister as "Tiny"
Stephen Little as "Rhino" Reynolds
Mickey Yablans as Brian Young
Larry "Flash" Jenkins as Hershey
Kane Hodder as Charlie Forsythe

Production

The film was shot on location at the former Wyoming State Penitentiary now known as the Wyoming Frontier Prison in Rawlins, Wyoming. The facility had been vacant since its closure in 1981 after the construction of a new State Penitentiary, and was made freely available for film production after producer Irwin Yablans approached the State during a search for abandoned prison facilities as the setting for a prison horror movie.

Because the facility was slated for demolition, little regard was given for its preservation, and the production crew was offered free license to make permanent, oftentimes destructive modifications as necessary. This included drilling a large passage through the prison's reinforced concrete perimeter wall, which was mocked up as a vehicle gate for the film.

A majority of the extras portraying prisoners were real-life inmates of the Wyoming State Penitentiary, including former stuntman Stephen E. Little, who was serving a sentence of manslaughter at the time. His SAG membership dues were paid and current, and he was cast in a speaking role as "Rhino."

The execution chamber shown in the film is the Penitentiary's original gas chamber, which replaced hanging after 1936 as the legal method of execution for condemned criminals in the State. The chamber was never used for electrocutions in reality.

Release

The film was given a limited theatrical release in the United States by the Eden Distributing Company in March 1988. It grossed $354,704 at the box office.^[2]

The film was released in 1988 on VHS by New World Pictures. It had originally been released on DVD overseas, but not in the United States, save for bootlegs. However, on February 19, 2013, Shout! Factory released the first official Blu-ray Disc and DVD and the first through their new subdivision Scream Factory.^[3]