Nostalgia Kinky

Eight years after its notorious initial release in 1977, Sergio Garrone’s (Lager SSadis Kastrat Kommandantur) (SS Experiment Love Camp) was still making international headlines when unsuspecting readers of The Chicago Tribune were introduced to the film via Pat H. Broeske’s June, 1985 expose on Women in Prison films. Interviewing Continental Motion Pictures’ Development and Sales lead Helen Sarlui, the article noted Garrone’s film was still playing in Europe nearly a decade after its release and had grossed a whopping 1.5 million on a 200,000 budget.

Reappearing every decade in unlikely places, Garrone’s shocking Naziploitation film popped up again in 2008 via pieces in The Guardian on Extreme films where it was called “Undeniably tasteless” and that it “trivializes the holocaust”. Arriving on the heels of the film’s long gestating declassification for British audiences, The Guardian had much to say about the then 31 year old film finally giving it a slight defense noting that if the film was to be banned due to any historical inaccuracies the same would have to be true for some like Schindler’s List.

Love it or hate it, SS Experiment Love Camp is an important part of European genre film history and 88 Films have now done a hell of a job bringing it to 4K and Blu-ray.

Viewed now nearly five decades after its original release, SS Experiment Love Camp is still offensive, morally objectionable and gratuitous…a real nasty piece of work. I like it very much. Released as the Punk movement was really gaining steam worldwide, SS Experiment Love Camp is a prime example of shock-art and like the original punks its very existence stands as an afront to the atrocities that inspired it. Garrone might be wallowing in the muck here but here but SS Experiment Love Camp is a sometimes powerfully weird film that succeeds as both Naziploitation and a reconfiguring of horrifying real-life iconography.

While the genre is mostly connected to the seventies, Naziploitation as a vague concept had been around since Hitler’s traumatic reign. Early works like Hitler: Beast of Berlin (1939) and She Demons (1958) were examples of films willing to use the Nazi’s real-life atrocities for entertainment value. The sixties saw dozens of titles that began pushing the envelope more and more regarding borderline acceptable ways of exploiting genocide. Due to the period’s censorship issues, these early examples of Naziploitation were much more subtle and less rabid versions of the films that followed but by the time a film like Réseau secret (1967) was retitled Orgies of the Gestapo a new much more extreme dawn was clearly appearing.

On their informative audio commentary track for 88 Films new release, Eugenio Ercolani and Nanni Cobretti both correctly note that SS Experiment Love Camp is a ‘2nd tier’ Naziploitation title and I agree. While it’s hard to imagine anyone placing Garrone’s film on the same level as masterpieces like Visconti’s The Damned (1969), Cavani’s The Night Porter (1974) or even Brass’ Salon Kitty (1976), SS Experiment Love Camp has a lot more going for it than say French director Alain Payet’s offerings like Helltrain (1977).

As he points out during his excellent half hour chat that appears as a supplement on 88 Films’ disc, Sergio Garrone had been away from cinema for a few years before returning for SS Experiment Love Camp. Lost in the creative woods after a couple of maligned Klaus Kinski films from the early seventies, Garrone’s return to the screen was a ferocious one and SS Experiment Love Camp stands as his most popular film. No doubt helped by its headlining inclusion on Britain’s Video Nasties list, SS Experiment Love Camp has continued to stay in the public view long after many similar films have fallen away to time.

A twisted look at The Third Reich’s obsession with medical experiments and evil eugenics, SS Experiment Love Camp ignores any actual historical accuracy choosing instead pure exploitation and the decision serves the film well. SS Experiment Love Camp is a deliberate freak show, so over-the-top that it neutralizes the film’s offensive tone. Both ugly and hyper-stylized, Garrone’s opus is an eroticized carnival ride of torture and death but the film is so far removed from reality that it almost seems to be daring anyone to actually take offense. Censors certainly did although their scissors only gave the film added allure and power.

Working from a threadbare script by novice Sergio Chiusi, Garrone and his team treat SS Experiment Love Camp more like an experimental theater piece rather than a traditional narrative film. Taking place almost entirely inside a dingy wartime torture prison, with scattered nighttime scenes, SS Experiment Love Camp is a claustrophobic and (literally) very dark film. Like the British Punks who were changing the world in 1976, Garrone wasn’t afraid to make his work ugly. That actually almost seems like the point as cinematographer Maurizio Centini gloomily photographs the film, bypassing some of the genre’s more gorgeous offerings like Salon Kitty. SS Experiement Love Camp is harshly photographed but Centini’s work is essential to the film’s nasty tone. Same goes for editor Cesare Bianchini, who seems to delight in allowing Garrone’s more graphic elements as much screen time as possible, rarely cutting away when expected. Bianchini and Garrone frequently worked together and it shows as the editing of SS Experiment Love Camp is amongst the film’s highlights…or perhaps more fittingly lowlights.

On a purely technical level, SS Experiment Love Camp is more than competent if rarely exceptional. This is a pure exploitation film made by a group of B-level Pros collecting checks. I doubt anyone working on SS Experiment Love Camp thought it’d still be in the public eye half a century after its release but here we are. Everyone’s efforts serve this low-budget film well, with only usually reliable composer Roberto Pregadio delivering less than adequate work.

Unlike some of Naziploitation’s other noteworthy entries, SS Experiment Love Camp doesn’t have anyone in the cast considered a ‘star’ per say. In the place of say a Teresa Ann Savoy or Helmut Berger, SS Experiment Love Camp gives us a large ensemble of relative minor European players with Mircha Carven and Paola Corazzi receiving top-billing. The cast is fine if not overly memorable, although their willingness to participate in some of the film’s more exploitative sections are admirable. If there is a stand-out performance it is probably by the very prolific Attilio Dottesio, playing the doctor assigned with the film’s notorious cock and ball transplant scenes.

88 Films bring SS Experiment Love Camp to 4K and Blu-ray via a “Brand New 4K remaster from the Original Negatives” and this rather dingy looking film has never looked better than it does here. Colors are stable, grain is present and the entire presentation looks cinematic. This new 4K presentation does expose just how low-budget SS Experiment Love Camp is as the high quality resolution shows just how much of a DIY production this is perhaps making the Blu-ray version just as rewarding in its own way. SS Experiment Love Camp is a deliberately ugly film so it is to 88 Films credit that they didn’t try to modernize or prettify it here. As for the audio, both the Italian and English dubs are present. Both 2.0 tracks are perfectly serviceable, although again they do serve as a reminder to the film’s original budgetary trappings.

It is the exhaustive supplemental material on hand for SS Experiment Love Camp where this new 88 Films release really shines. Containing hours of interviews, along with the commentary track and some other added goodies, this new 4K/Blu-ray set is a grand-slam as far as being a historical document. The aforementioned commentary track is very enjoyable and provides lots of information about the film, its makers and the Naziploitation sub-genre in general. As a companion of sorts to the commentary, a booklet with an excellent Tim Murray essay is included. I especially appreciated Murray’s focus on the Punk movement of the period and how it related to Garrone’s film. The original Italian opening and closing credits are included as well as the film’s original trailer.

Best of all are the interviews created by 88 Films. First up is the spirited, humorous and even slightly cantankerous interview with Garrone where he discusses his career, the film and the Italian film industry in general. It’s a great chat with a fascinating character. Further lengthy interviews are also included with Editor Eugenio Alabiso
and Cinematographer Maurizio Centini making this an essential purchase for Italian genre fans. Perhaps my favorite of all of the interviews is with Music Historian Pierpaolo De Sanctis, who provides so much intriguing knowledge centered on composer Pregadio. De Sanctis really knows his stuff and this is one of my favorite film/music-history based interviews in recent memory.

SS Experiment Love Camp is clearly not a film for everyone. For fans of the Naziploitation canon, as well as Italian genre films though this new 88 Films release is absolutely essential. For any cineastes not into any of the above but still into film history, the disc’s supplements put the film in its proper context and will be of interest to even those who aren’t down with this type of cinema in general. A highly recommended 4K/Blu-ray release of a difficult film to recommend to everyone.

-Jeremy Richey, November 2025-

SS Experiment Love Camp can be ordered here directly from 88 Films.

MVD Also has copies for sale as well.