If you haven’t guessed (and I seriously doubt any of you guessed wrong), SS Experiment Love Camp is an Italian Naziploitation flick… it’s a subgenre not for everyone, so if you skip out on this one, I can dig it.
Anyway, wait until the rest of you feast your putrid peepers on this over-the-top grindhouse fracas…
What are those nasty Nazis up to this time? Being horny mostly… sadistic and horny.
Col. von Kleiben (Giorgio Cerioni) is the head of a concentration camp that specializes in breeding experiments between the cream of the Kraut crop and comely female prisoners as per The Führer’s command.
While all of that is going on, ol’ Kleiben has an extra interest in the erotic experiments… he’s been injured in a tender location (he’s missing a ball or two if your curious… ) while sexually assaulting a helpless woman, and he needs a real stud to provide what he’s missing!
That’s pretty much it story-wise, besides a few secret trysts here and there… but absolutely no one would chose a picture like this to park their ass in front of to experience a rich, complex narrative.
Instead, Co-Writer/Director Sergio Garrone (Django the Bastard) fills the screen with exactly what one would want in a sleazy Naziploitation flick; absolutely gobs of exposed female flesh… and dubious medical experiments full of questionable effects!
Speaking to that, those procedures are nonsense (even some of the characters think so) and involve classic Italian cinema surgery scenes (featuring whatever was left-over at the butcher shop thrown down on an actress while the “doctors” move the shit about), a tank of water, which ostensibly is for people to fuck in for some reason, but can freeze or burn people depending on whatever sadist is at the control knob, and most ridiculously presented/doubtless most offensive of all… women are shoved in a giant oven where they are burned alive via a process of hammy over-acting and super-imposed flames…
And while the actors are definitely Italian dudes playing Germans, the acting is strong across the board by the principles with everyone appearing totally game and committed to the pulpy debauchery at hand… but for my money, Patrizia Melega steals the show as the emotionless, evil lesbian, Dr. Renke.
Adding to the mania is the film’s score… a heady blend of peppy, circus-like tunes, a few shock stingers, and Beethoven.
Before I dive into the special features present on this 88 Films release, I must mention the clarity of the picture (a 4K remaster from the original negatives) is intense… you can see every make-up application, every greasy smear on the walls, every sleazy detail… a huge step-up from having seen this flick previously via a janky VHS dub ages ago.
So, those special features… they begin with audio commentary by Italian Cinema Experts Eugenio Ercolani and Nanni Cobretti which takes us through the film’s history and legacy in detail, and continue on with interviews featuring Director Garrone, Music Historian Pierpaolo De Sanctis, Editor Eugenio Alabiso, and Cinematographer Maurizio Centin that take us through SS Experiment Love Camp‘s production.
Also included are the original Italian opening and closing credits, and the film’s trailer.
Additionally the package contains a Blu-ray cut of the film, and a booklet featuring writing from Film Historian Tim Murray.
Brash, offensive, and totally over-the-top, SS Experiment Love Camp is everything you’d want a grindhouse sleaze-fest to be, and it wears that fact like a badge of honor!
