Prison of the Dead
Kristof, an eccentric rich kid, tricks his high school friends into getting back together for a reunion of sorts, under the pretense of a funeral. The group of twenty-somethings is forced to spend the night in an old abandoned witches' prison. During a Ouija Board séance, the schoolmates accidentally unearth three dead executioners from their graves. A little confused, and quite a bit angry, the Crypt Keepers initiate a killing spree that will only end when everyone is dead. Fortunately, the schoolmates all wore black. Too bad it's for their own funerals...
Why it matters
A low-budget late-90s slasher with a witchy twist that’s equal parts camp and gore, trapping a group of friends in a haunted prison hellscape.
- Practical gore effects deliver the kind of gooey, rubbery nastiness fans of Tom Savini’s work will appreciate despite the cheap sheen.
- The witches’ prison setting taps into occult horror with a ’90s teen reunion slasher vibe — think *I Know What You Did Last Summer* meets *Night of the Demons*.
- Performances lean toward the stilted, but the earnestness adds to its guilty pleasure charm for fans of DTV cult horror.
- For those who love digging into overlooked era-specific slashers, this one’s a time capsule of turn-of-the-millennium genre tropes and synth-heavy scores.
Director
37 horror films in catalog
Dreamaniac 1986
Creepozoids 1987
Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama 1988
Nightmare Sisters 1988
Murder Weapon 1989
Puppet Master III: Toulon's Revenge 1992
Blonde Heaven 1995
Curse of the Puppet Master 1998
Shrieker 1998
Totem 1999
The Killer Eye 1999
Retro Puppet Master 1999
Witchouse 1999
Prison of the Dead 2000
Ancient Evil: Scream of the Mummy 2000
The Brotherhood 2: Young Warlocks 2001
Final Stab 2001
The Brotherhood 2001
Wolves of Wall Street 2002
The Frightening 2002
Speed Demon 2003
The Brotherhood III: Young Demons 2003
Leeches! 2003
Ring of Darkness 2004
The Sisterhood 2004
Grizzly Rage 2007
House of Usher 2008
The Brotherhood V: Alumni 2009
The Pit and the Pendulum 2009
Puppet Master: Axis of Evil 2010
1313: Bigfoot Island 2012
Snow White: A Deadly Summer 2012
1313: UFO Invasion 2012
Hansel & Gretel: Warriors of Witchcraft 2013
Bigfoot vs. D.B. Cooper 2014
90210 Shark Attack 2015
Sorority Slaughterhouse 2015
Cast
Horror DNA
Gore
43
Slow Burn
17
Psychological
0
Supernatural
80
Creature
36
Disturbing
33
Fun Factor
67
Cerebral
14
Survival
100
