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The prospect of prison is scary enough for most people. Being locked in a tiny cell 24/7 with every move dictated and watched is not the idea of a good time for most people. Then there’s the constant threat of violence from other inmates that can be seen in every television show and movie, never portraying prisons as a pleasant place to be.
Prison can’t be worse than it looks. Or is there? What if inmates faced not only the standard horrors of prison life, but also supernatural horrors? These horror movies set in jails and jails will make anyone who sees them happy with their freedom.
The Little Known Movie from 1987 Jail actually includes some pretty big names. Viggo Mortensen, Tom Everett and horror icon Kane Hodder all appear in this supernatural tale of a wrongly executed prisoner who returns from the grave to exact revenge. Creedmore Prison has reopened after 30 years and it soon becomes apparent 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 take revenge on the officer who did nothing while he died.
The film was shot in an actual decommissioned prison in Rawlins, Wyoming, which had been abandoned in the early 1980s. This allowed the crew to do whatever they wanted, including destroying areas as the facility was to be demolished. Another fun fact about the film is that a majority of the extras featured in the film were actual inmates of the Wyoming State Penitentiary.
One of Wes Craven’s lesser known films, from 1989 shock absorber Mitch Pileggi plays serial killer Horace Pinker, who is eventually tracked down and caught thanks to the paranormal dreams of the foster son of one of the agents in the case. Once caught, he reveals that the boy, Jonathan, is actually his biological son before being quickly put to death in the electric chair. Unfortunately for everyone, that’s just the beginning, as Pinker has struck a deal with the devil and returns to continue his killing spree, this time on electricity.
Now Pinker can not only use electricity and become it, he can also possess others to continue his killstreak. Although Jonathan’s paranormal subplot is a bit unnecessary and similar to Craven’s A nightmare on Elm Street, Shocker is a really fun ride with Pileggi’s unhinged performance as the eponymous Shocker.
The third installment in the Alien franchise sees Ripley crash into a penal colony planet right after the events of Aliens and the demise of the Sulaco. The lone survivor of the crash, Ripley tries to warn the planet’s director of the danger of the Xenomorphs, but is ignored. When she finds the largely 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 directorial debut and was generally poorly received. The production was more than a little restless, with writers and directors going through a revolving door and part of the film being shot without scripts. However, the film has been unfairly maligned and the Assembly Cut of the film was released in 2003 with 30 minutes of additional footage. This cut is considered the superior version and has led to the film becoming more of a cult favorite among the audience.
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The 2007 Vampire Movie 30 days night may stretch the definition of prison a bit, but it’s still worth a spot on this list. In it, the residents of Barrow, Alaska, are trapped in their small town for 30 days as the annual month-long polar night covers the town in darkness. Once that’s the case, a horde of vampires descends on them. Just before night falls, a stranger (Ben Foster) appears and rows ashore from a larger ship. He then destroys the town’s communications and kills their sled dogs, leading to Sheriff Eben Oleson (Josh Hartnett) locking him up in the town’s small police station.
The bum is a scout for the vampire horde, and with the city cut off from the outside world, it’s now an all-you-can-eat buffet for the leeches. Originally started as a comic series, 30 days night felt like a new take on the vampire subgenre after it got old.
Rookie officer Jessica Loren (Julian Harkavy) is given her first assignment: running the last shift at the police station before it is finally closed. This boring but necessary job leaves her alone in the building all night. Once her commanding officer leaves, there’s not much left to do – until distress calls come in from a woman named Monica, who claims to have been kidnapped by a cult. The only problem is that all calls have been diverted 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 meets Marigold, who tells her that a year ago that day, cult leader John Michael Paymon and his followers committed suicide in the cells of the station and not in their congregation, as the public was told. Last shift is a twisty and truly terrifying supernatural movie with a finale that will stay with viewers for a long time.
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