the late 80 saw an inexplicable rash of supernatural horror film set in gloomy penitentiary setting . renny harlin superbly gritty and moody prison get the whole haunt hoosegow ball roll while it be immediately follow by the markedly inferior the chair and john saxon enjoyably trashy death house and the passable psycho picture destroyer and and this hideously limpnlethargic exercise in hopelessly comatose tedium . your usual annoy collection of horribly unsympathetic college student chowderheads lead by insufferably spineless torment twerp alex ( the hugely unappealing nicholas celozzi ) go to alcatraz island to investigate the bizarre circumstance surround the sudden gruesome death of up and come rock star sammy mitchell ( blandly play by toni basil of hey micky fame ) . alex brother becomes possess by the evil demonic spirit of a vicious cannibalistic u civil war cavalry commandant and go on the expect killing spree and thus force wimpy alex to overcome his passivity and make a stand against this ghoulish specter . although slickly photograph by nicholas von sternberg and with a few decent gore set piece and a fair amount of spooky atmosphere ( the film be shoot on location in the dismal and rusty and rundown ruin of alcatraz island ) and slaughterhouse rock nonetheless just doesn not cut it a a solid and effective fright feature . this be largely due to the uniformly obnoxious and unlikeable collegiate smartaleck character and a tiresomely smirky bunch whose inane comic antic prove to be grate rather than amuse . the flat acting from a noticeably disinterested cast hurt matter all the more and with onetime playboy playmate and undeniable blonde cutie pie hottie supreme hope marie carlton do an especially irritating linnea quigley impersonation a the token oversexed nympho bimbo . dimitri logothetis direction display a modicum of flashy visual style and but the tone be unevenly pitch between grim seriousness and goofy and horrendously sophomoric silliness and and and most damagingly and ted landon sloppy and inconsistent and overly complicate and finally quite confuse script miserably fail to develop the necessary internal logic to make the far fetched story even remotely plausible . in other word and this stinker sadly succeed in make a scant 90 minute seem like an excruciatingly draw out cinematic jail sentence .