
For those who don't know, this film is a grandmother of "torture porn", a revolting sub-genre of horror that the recent Saw and Hostel franchises have tried to bring back to popularity.
What makes Ilsa, She Wolf Of The SS particularly notorious is that it is set in a Nazi medical camp in 1945.
Admittedly it is a low-budget prison camp with only about a dozen prisoners and the same number of German staff!
The movie opens with a message from the producer on how this film is based on "factual research" and is dedicated to the memories of the prisoners who died in the Nazi concentration camps, so "this may never happen again"... then cuts straight to a middle-aged blonde woman and a younger man having sex in what could be an up-market hotel room.
It turns out that woman is camp commandant Ilsa and the man is a prisoner, who is promptly taken away and castrated so he can never be with a woman again.
Much of the film's success can be attributed to the iconic performance of Dyanne Thorne (who, according to Wikipedia is now a registered minister conducting scenic wedding services with her husband) in the title role. She never gives less than her all to the part and has inspired countless imitations over the years (even by people who probably haven't - or shouldn't have - watched this movie).
Like many so-called 'video nasties', the notoriety of Ilsa has snowballed thanks to hysterical tabloid-style journalism and overblown word-of-mouth; many of the genuine shocks in the movie are undermined by the dodgy '70s special effects and the fact that the camera pulls away before we (thankfully) see what is being suggested.
There's a fair amount of naked flesh on display, but none more than you would expect in a typical "women in prison" film, and given the pornographic feel of the piece it remains quite coy in what it can and can't show.
What passes for a story is Ilsa's experiments to proves that women can endure more pain than men - thus making them suitable for front line duties in the war - set against the increasing unrest of the prisoners, stirred up by the new arrival Wolfe (a German/American student played by Gregory Knoph), who Ilsa takes a shine to.
Ultimately the reputation and pop culture influence of Ilsa, She Wolf Of The SS is, unsurprisingly, greater than the film itself. It was never going to be as "over the top" as something we, the audience, could have imagined in our heads which is what makes it such a challenge to watch.