i pull down a vhs box from my vast collection many unseen and pick out a movie and base on the box art and i think would be fun and and yes and bad . prison have that 80 cheesy look all over that box . i sit down and watched and and lo . and behold . and find that sometimes we do indeed sit down to a movie with preconceived expectation in mind . fortunately and i reverse mine quickly and soon realize i be sit down not just to an okay film but a rather good movie in total . prison tell the story of an old and dilapidate prison be reopen to save on budgetary concern . it look creepy a all empty and fill with prisoner . the prison use a a set be incredibly atmospheric and easily the most important character in the film . the story use the prison a it central setting tell in a prologue of a man be kill via the electric chair . we see lane smith a a guard tear away a crucifix before send the man to his maker . we then go to present day and first with a government board at a meeting decide to open the prison and send a beautiful doctor in to make sure that condition be acceptable a she campaign vigorously against re open the old prison . then we see the new warden and lane smith and haunt by a nightmare in bed and give the new job of open a prison he have not be to in year . well and the rest follow suit represent prisoner and guard arrive with plenty of stereotype abound . we be give some character depth and several of the prisoner be interest character . the acting be good than one might expect with lane smith do a always a workmanlike job . viggo mortenson a a very different prisoner be solid . tom everett and tiny lister and and ivan kane really explore the boundary of their stereotypical character . chelsea field be okay a the female lead . the best performance be by lincoln kilpatrick and an underrated character actor and a cresus a prisoner who have be in that very same prison year ago when the man have be execute with some kind of terrible secret . prison be not the next best thing to slice bread or anything like that and but it be definitely worth a look and definitely good than most would expect from it . i be pleasantly surprise at the way director renny harlin create a story so visually atmospheric . the film have a tense and taut pace and harlin know how to build his scene . there be a few excessively shot gore scenes the one with the barbed wire be a bit much a be the one with all the pipe . but these scene be visually creative and interesting . the acting be uniformly decent . the script actually much more cohesive than one usually get from film like these . that may in part be credit to irwin yablans who write the story . you may remember he come up with the idea of make halloween scary a a holiday . here he make incarceration a hell of a lot more scary than it already be . give prison a break ( get it ) .