Did we really need this genre? "Ilse She Wolf of the SS."

We all know that film. The one you saw in the video store back in the day. That one you tried to ignore till your friend said. "Dude I got a dime of  kind bud and pizza lets get that flick it looks totally fucked up."

Well okay he had the dope and the food and the film was fucked up, but not in that coherent sort of way that makes you buzzed and goofy, but in a very disturbing way that makes you feel the need to take a shower and never speak of this film again. Until you decide to inflict it on another friend just to see if it's as fucked as you remember.

Congratulations this is the experience of Ilse She Wolf of the SS in a nutshell. It's a cultural dare you take with your friends that never really seems to work out as well as you thought. It's an exploitation film with a lot of nudity, plenty of violence and a warped sense of internal morality.

The plot is simple. Ilse runs a concentration camp during world war 2 where she conducts horrible experiments on the prisoners. Mostly to prove her particularly odd theories of female superiority. I'm not saying women are inferior, I'm just saying she has some seriously warped ways of testing her theories. Most of which involve torture and rape.

So as we can clearly see this film has its foot on banana peel next to a serious moral graveyard. While I am usually the last person to use the term "moral" in most contexts, in this case it seems appropriate.  The film seems to give us scenes of sex and sexual violence and torture mostly to try and titillate us for more. Which makes you feel a bit dirty when it lacks any sense of fantasy or consent, its harsh, nasty and mean spirited. Not for any artistic sense, mostly just for the sake of being in your face.

Which if this was a morality play like "Funny Games" or "Man Bites Dog" would work and make sense. Here these things exist just to exist not driving a plot, just setting the tone for the camp in question and its commandant.

Now as a plus the female lead Dyanne Thorne looks great in and out of uniform, and you do get to see a lot of her in both states.  Which might be one of the films few redeeming qualities.

As a piece of exploitation its odd. It does exploit well, and was responsible for kickstarting a series of Nazipoitation films in the 70's. (Seriously it was a thing, I blame coke.) It titillates but never seems to deliver in a way that's entertaining, more in a way that makes you feel dirty for watching, and sadly not in that good sort of way.

So my advice. Save yourself the time and the trouble and watch Iron Sky. Maybe with nude picks of Dyanne Thorne next to your TV.

Unless of course you have a dime of kind some pizza and a friend who needs to be seriously disturbed. Then roll with it.

Links

The trailer for Ilse (Seriously NSFW)

Wanna be made to feel dirty by a good film? Try this one I'll review it soon.