Verdict
Summary
One of many “Nazisploitation” sex films from the ’70s, SS Experiment Love Camp is somehow more notorious than the harder-edged and more outrageous Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS, and yet I’m not sure why because while it has tons of nudity and some gore, it’s much more boring than that film and lacks the ultimate cruel edge it’s reputation suggests.
Plot:
A Nazi doctor performs experiments on a group of human test subjects at a concentration camp, with the hopes of creating a “master race” … as well as a cure for his own disease.
Review:
Truckloads of male and female Jews are deposited at a concentration camp, run by a blonde-haired Aryan Colonel named von Kleiben (Giorgio Cerioni), who is told that these test subjects are the cream of the crop of all the concentration camps around the area. The women are all gorgeous beauties, while the men are all virile, strapping examples of masculinity and strength. The groups of test subjects are stripped, cleaned, thoroughly examined by a line of doctors who poke, prod, and measure each of them, and then the real testing begins. The men are paired with the women, forced to perform sex under high stress and under torturous conditions, and then when some of the women are thrown to the SS troops for orgies, things get totally out of hand when the emotional and physical stress of the routines push some of the subjects over the edge into madness and suicide. Von Kleiben is working from a tight timetable, as the Führer demands results for a “master race,” but also von Kleiben is suffering from an incurable disease, and he’s hoping that by experimenting on these people that a cure will arise. One prisoner, a strong male named Helmut (Mircha Carven), is specifically chosen from the males for his ultimate masculinity and strength, and when his testicles are removed under the scalpel, he wakes up to find that he can no longer perform (“What have you done with my balls?!“), he leads a revolt against their captors and grabs a machine gun and goes to war.
One of many “Nazisploitation” sex films from the ’70s, SS Experiment Love Camp is somehow more notorious than the harder-edged and more outrageous Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS, and yet I’m not sure why because while it has tons of nudity and some gore, it’s much more boring than that film and lacks the ultimate cruel edge it’s reputation suggests. Not that I need or want more from it because this is not one of my favorite subgenres of exploitation, and yet it delivers all the yucky stuff voyeurs and creeps would crave from flicks such as this, just not quite in the way that pushes it to the max for these kinds of movies. The girls are gorgeous and almost always completely nude in the film, but I still don’t quite know or understand the appeal of this subgenre. They’re typically vile, disgusting, shocking to the point of being numbing, and the payoff at the end of this one isn’t enough to warrant a recommendation from me. So … the film exists to showcase tons of nudity? Or for Nazi fetishists? It’s a strange thing to watch this from the standpoint of a film historian because I’m not an expert on this baffling subgenre, and I just find it to be a very alien experience to examine it in any capacity or from my viewpoint. Directed by Sergio Garrone.
88 Films has pulled out all the stops for SS Experiment Love Camp with a new 4K restoration for the clearest detail possible, audio commentaries, interviews, new artwork, and much more. This is for the fans! You know who you are!
Bonus Materials
- INCLUDES SLIPCASE WITH ART BY JOEL ROBINSON
- BOOKLET WITH NOTES FROM TIM MURRAY AND RACHAEL NISBET
- Brand New 4K remaster from the Original Negatives presented in Ultra High Definition (2160p) in 1.85:1 Aspect Ratio
- Presented in Dolby Vision High Dynamic Range (HDR10 Compatible)
- High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray in 1.66:1 Aspect Ratio also included
- English 2.0 LPCM Stereo with Optional SDH Subtitles
- Italian 2.0 LPCM Mono with newly translated English subtitles
- Audio Commentary by Italian Cinema Experts Eugenio Ercolani and Nanni Cobretti
- Sadistically Yours, Sergio G. – An Interview with Director Sergio Garrone
- SSadist Sound – An Interview with Music Historian Pierpaolo De Sanctis
- The Alibiso Dynasty – An Interview with Editor Eugenio Alabiso
- Framing Exploitation – An Interview with Cinematographer Maurizio Centini
- Italian Opening and Closing titles
- Original Trailer
