99 Women
99 Women is a 1969 film from West Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK and Liechtenstein, directed by Jesús Franco, running 108 minutes. reelscum files it under euro-gothic and women in prison.
- Year
- 1969 · 1960s films
- Country
- West Germany · Italy · Spain · UK · Liechtenstein
- Runtime
- 108 min
- Director
- Jesús Franco
- Updated
- 29 Oct 2026
- Obscurity
- cult (39/100)
- Also known as
- Island of Dispair · The Hot Death · Isle of Lost Women · Women's Penitentiary XII
Defined in the glossary: Euro-gothic, Women in prison
Franco doing the formula early, with Mercedes McCambridge as the warden.
Jess Franco doing the women-in-prison formula early, before the cycle even had a name, with more sleaze and more style than most. Women suffer in a brutal island prison under a sadistic governor (Mercedes McCambridge) until a reformer arrives, and Franco shoots it in his usual hazy, zoom-happy manner.
It exists in multiple versions of wildly varying explicitness depending on the territory, which is characteristic of Franco. Herbert Lom and Maria Schell lend it some class it does not entirely deserve.
An early, influential WIP picture from exploitation's most prolific director.
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The cycle in depth
- Fantaterror: the Spanish horror boom, 1968 to 1976
Two cuts of every film, one for the censor in Madrid and one for the drive-in. Democracy killed the trick in two years.
On these lists
- Women in prison: the essentials
Roger Corman worked out you could film the whole genre in the Philippines for nothing, and everyone spent the next decade reshooting his shower scene.
Filed alongside
The Horrible Dr. Hichcock
Barbara Steele married to a necrophile surgeon, and Freda smuggling it past the 1962 censors on innuendo alone.
Alucarda
The most hysterical nunsploitation film ever made. A convent, two possessed girls, and constant screaming.
The Grapes of Death
Rollin does an outbreak. A pesticide turns wine-country villagers into oozing killers.
The Blood Spattered Bride
Spanish Carmilla adaptation with an unusually pointed anger about marriage.
Kill, Baby... Kill!
A ghost child with a white ball. Fellini and Scorsese both stole from it.
Black Mama White Mama
The Defiant Ones with Pam Grier, shot in the Philippines by a Filipino who actually knew the terrain.
Castle of Blood
Barbara Steele in a haunted house on a bet. Better than it sounds.
Women's Prison Massacre
Late Italian entry. Laura Gemser, and a body count instead of a plot.
The Shiver of the Vampires
Rollin with a fuzz-guitar band and a vampire who lives in the clock. His most fun.
A Virgin Among the Living Dead
Franco at his dreamiest. Distributors added zombies later without telling him.
Succubus
Franco's arthouse credentials, such as they are. Fritz Lang liked it.
Lisa and the Devil
Bava's most personal film, and his strangest. Telly Savalas as the devil, holding a lollipop.