Ilsa She Wolf of the SS (1974)

An unparalleled masterpiece of degradation, this stands out as a trashsploitation classic of monumental proportions. The film features one of the most memorable characters in the crazed Nazi goddess of sadism and brutality, Ilsa.

She runs the highly efficient Camp 9 for “Medical Research”, where she and her team of battle-hardened thugs subject the hapless inmates to the most shocking and horrendous tortures. Among them was the injecting of young women with lethal syphilis and typhus of the most nightmarish kind. We have delectable scenes of open sores and wounds being left to fester with wriggling maggots. The audience is treated to the sight of women being electrocuted and ripped apart by shock-giving dildoes and exploding diaphragm’s. Fingernails extracted, all depicted in loving close-ups with several lingering shots of gaping wounds spouting jets of blood here there and everywhere.

Ilsa’s undoing comes through her insatiable lustful desires, which leave her vulnerable and open to attack. She uses the services of a remarkable American stud who can perform endlessly without a break – just the tonic Ilsa needs—pining for more and leaving her guard down long enough alas to allow her toyboy to turn the tables in a cruel twist of fate.

Ilsa’s dedicated and tireless efforts at Camp 9 broadly support Fraulein’s theory that the female can withstand pain to a far greater degree than the male. The film is filled with blood and gore and enormous amounts of nudity which is a prerequisite for exploitation cinema of this kind. It succeeds in appalling and shocking in equal doses. Still, the script and the marvellous performances should have you guffawing in approval as well as reeling in disgust at numerous points in the film.

It’s a classic, trashy, super-cult farce all the way. To be relished and enjoyed by all with a taste for the unconventional. Camp classics don’t come too much sicker than even if John Waters produces them. It’s at least as funny as it is revolting, and then there is the phenomenal performance of the marvellous Dyanne Thorne, who performs miracles by not cracking up at least once during events. Ms. Thorne’s performances ranks among the finest of campy cult. She sinks her teeth into this role with true relish, and that Germanic accent is also one to behold.

Cult and Exploitation fans will enjoy this delectable king-size slice of trash to the hilt. Meanwhile, we look forward to watching the other Ilsa films in quick succession, having found this one such a “treat”.