Ilsa She Wolf of the SS (1976)

I remember when I first started getting into the Eurohorror scene, in order to score a copy of the films you wanted, one had to go through "alternative" routes to obtain them. All of the catalogs that I got in the mail from bootleggers always went on and on about this film, saying how it was so graphic, appalling, and just plain sleazy, not to mention that you "had to order it!" Anyways, when I saw that Anchor Bay had just released a remastered and uncut version, my curiosity got the best of me and I plunked down my hard earned cash for the tape. And yes, it was graphic, appalling and pretty damn sleazy, just the way I like them. I was expecting perhaps a little more in the gross out department, but perhaps that comes from all of the hype I have heard over the years about it, not to mention I've become a tad jaded and desensitized through the years. You do get plenty of big breasted female prisoners, female nazi guards, and big boobed Ilsa herself, sporting a pretty bad blond wig to boot! Ilsa has a theory that women can withstand pain better than men, so to prove her theory she of course conducts lots of wicked torture methods on the poor female prisoners of her concentration camp to prove this. We get toenails ripped off, prisoner dippings in scalding water, innards blowing up in compression chambers, whippings, etc. For the men prisoners, they get to shovel the graves and have the undaunted task of pleasing Ilsa in the sack, if they fail to do this, our horny commandant is more than happy to oversee their castration! Talk about performing under pressure, you know? My personal favorite scene and what I felt was the most disturbing was the dinner scene, in which while the SS officers are enjoying their meal, a poor lass is standing up on an ice block on the table, noose around the neck ready to catch, much to the amusement of the dinner party. Pretty wicked. All in all a pretty damn sleazy film, and an exploitation classic. One last thing, what is it that makes women in SS uniforms so damn appealing?