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The prospect of prison is scary enough for most people. Being locked up 24/7 in a tiny cell with one’s every move being dictated and watched is not most people’s idea of a good time. Then there’s the constant threat of violence from other inmates seen in every television show and movie, which never depict prisons as a pleasant place to be.
There’s no way prison could be any worse than it appears to be. Or is there? What if inmates not only had to deal with the standard horrors of prison life, but supernatural horrors as well? These horror movies set in prisons and jails will make anyone who sees them glad of their freedom.
The little-known 1987 movie Prison actually features some pretty big-name stars. Viggo Mortensen, Tom Everett, and horror icon Kane Hodder all appear in this supernatural tale of a wrongly executed inmate returning from the grave for revenge. Creedmore Prison has been reopened after 30 years, and it quickly becomes clear that there are more than echoes of the past haunting the cells of the building. In 1964, Charlie Forsythe was given the electric chair for a murder he didn’t commit, and now he has returned to get revenge on the officer who did nothing while he died.
The film was shot in an actual decommissioned prison in Rawlins, Wyoming that had been abandoned in the early 80s. Because of this, the crew could do whatever they wanted, including destroying areas because the facility was due to be demolished. Another fun fact about the film is that a majority of the extras seen in the film were actual inmates of Wyoming State Penitentiary.
One of Wes Craven’s lesser-known films, 1989’s Shocker stars Mitch Pileggi as serial killer Horace Pinker, who is finally tracked down and caught thanks to the psychic dreams of the foster son of one of the cops on the case. Once he’s caught, he reveals that the boy, Jonathan, is actually his biological son before being swiftly put to death in the electric chair. Unfortunately for everyone, that is just the beginning, as Pinker has made a deal with the Devil and comes back to continue his killing spree, this time powered by electricity.
Now able to not only wield electricity and become it, Pinker can also possess others in order to continue his kill streak. While the psychic ability subplot of Jonathan is a little unnecessary and similar to Craven’s A Nightmare On Elm Street, Shocker is a really fun ride with an unhinged performance from Pileggi as the eponymous Shocker.
The third installment in the Alien franchise sees Ripley crash-land on a penal colony planet directly after the events of Aliens and the demise of the Sulaco. As the only survivor of the crash, Ripley tries to warn the planet’s Warden about the danger of the Xenomorphs but is ignored. When she finds the mostly destroyed android Bishop in the trash, she reactivates him for a short time, just long enough for him to confirm by scanning that the threat has followed her. The Xenomorphs are here.
The film marked David Fincher’s feature directorial debut and was generally poorly received. The production was more than a little troubled, with writers and directors going through a revolving door and some of the film being shot without scripts. However, the film is unfairly maligned, and the Assembly Cut of the film was released in 2003 with an extra 30 minutes of footage. This cut is considered to be the superior version and lead to the movie becoming more of a cult favorite amongst audiences.
The 2007 vampire film 30 Days of Night may stretch the definition of prison a little, but it’s still worthy of a spot on this list. In it, the inhabitants of Barrow, Alaska are trapped in their small town for 30 days as the annual month-long polar night blankets the town in darkness. Once it does, a horde of vampires descends upon them. Just before night descends, a stranger (Ben Foster) appears, rowing ashore from a larger ship. He then proceeds to destroy the town’s communications and murder their sled dogs, leading to Sheriff Eben Oleson (Josh Hartnett) locking him up in the town’s small police station.
The drifter is an advance scout for the vampire horde, and with the town cut off from the outside world, it’s now an all-you-can-eat buffet for the bloodsuckers. Originally starting as a comic series, 30 Days of Night felt like a fresh take on the vampire sub-genre after it had grown stale.
Rookie officer Jessica Loren (Julian Harkavy) is given her first assignment: to work the last shift at the police station before it is permanently closed. This boring but necessary job leaves her alone in the building all night. Once her commanding officer leaves, there isn’t much to do — until distress calls start coming in from a woman named Monica, who claims to have been kidnapped by a cult. The only problem is, that all calls have been rerouted to the new station.
From there, things really start to take a turn. Bloodied people appear and disappear, and furniture moves of its own accord. Jessica encounters Marigold, who tells her that one year ago that day, the cult leader John Michael Paymon and his followers committed suicide in the cells at the station and not at their commune as the public was told. Last Shift is a twisty and genuinely frightening supernatural film with a finale that will stay with viewers long after.
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