Prison (1987)
Horror has a new home.
After Charles Forsyth was sent to the electric chair for a crime he didn't commit, he forever haunts the prison where he was executed. Flash forward several years when the prison is reopened, under the control of its new warden Eaton Sharpe, a former security guard who framed Charlie. When prisoners are ordered to break down the wall to the execution room, they unknowingly release the angry spirit of Charles Forsyth, a powerful being distributing his murderous rage to all, leading up to the Warden himself.
- Date of release
- 1987-12-08
- TMDB
- 5.8 / 10 (146)
- Runtime
- 1h 42m
- Genres
- Crime, Horror, Thriller, Drama
- Director
- Renny Harlin
Casting
- Viggo Mortensen — Burke / Forsythe Electrocution
- Chelsea Field — Katherine Walker
- Lane Smith — Warden Eaton Sharpe
- Lincoln Kilpatrick — Cresus
- Tom Everett — Rabbitt
- Ivan Kane — Lasagna
- André De Shields — Sandor
- Tommy Lister Jr. — Tiny
- Stephen E. Little — 'Rhino' Reynolds
- Mickey Yablans — Brian Young
- Larry Jenkins — Hershey
- Arlen Dean Snyder — Captain Horton
Interesting facts
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.
Production
Producer Irwin Yablans came up with the initial concept for Prison while C. Courtney Joyner wrote the actual script. Yablans stated he approached the concept similarly to Halloween where like Halloween, the most horrific night of the year, had never been used for a horror film, prisons as the world's most horrific institutions had that same untapped potential.
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 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 Reynolds.
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