it is the rare 'crazy' movie that actually has something to say.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Well, I personally have been a fan of the movie for quite some time now. I see a lot of negativity towards this film, it's just a tad bit depressing but hey, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. I first saw Death Row on Sci-Fi(SyFy)a few years ago, On the guide it was listed as ''HAUNTED PRISON'' (Therefor making it extremely hard to find to purchase on DVD because the DVD title is ''DEATH ROW'', haha.) Surely enough, I came to my senses and looked the film up on here(IMDb) and ordered it right away.In a nutshell, Death Row (AKA Haunted Prison) is about two groups of people, one group just robbed a bank but came to the prison due to things not going as planned, so they went to hide out. While the second group was only trying to get some film on the prison for the documentary about the place they are filming. Both soon see that there is a lot wrong with the place... The rest is for you to see.The movie ,in my opinion, was a very solid horror film ( especially for a STARZ production for Sci-Fi.) Jake Busey did a really good job with his roll, he made the whole movie and set the tone of the film. All of the other actors and actresses weren't really special to the film, but I give them all credit for making the film believable and working in 2 actual abandoned prisons for most of the film. One of the prisons had no electricity, so i could imagine the difficulties with that.The gore in the film is actually pretty good and hard to believe it turned out so well with the budget that it was made with. I must say, when Anibal gets chopped up in the license plate machine, the effex and camera angles are very impressive. The scene where John chops off his legs in the gas chamber was pretty intense too. The scene where Ron gets pushed through the fence was definitely an idea I've never seen that before in a movie, I liked it. The make-up effex are over the top. Favorably, with the nun that can be seen several times throughout the movie.Overall, I love this movie and i would recommend it to anyone who likes horror. It's very good to watch this movie with friends, especially with some drinks or pop-corn. Just have a good time and i hope you enjoy the movie as much as I do.

About the worst aspect of Death Row is its cast; not because of the acting but because with half the characters being criminals, ones shown to be without qualms about killing, there's not much reason to invest in these guys.Sure, Steven Monroe made similar characters somewhat sympathetic in Sasquatch Mountain, but Monroe's movies usually put more effort into the characters than most horror movie crews do today...Anyways, we see these people's deaths coming from miles away. Fortunately, the writers managed to think of interesting methods of offing people, and there is occasional humor thrown in, keeping the inevitable entertaining.Most importantly, it is fun horror. While watching people get offed one by one, without any atmosphere or investment in the characters, keeping it entertaining is important.

Death Row starts as six on the run jewel thieves decide to seek refuge in an abandoned Texas prison called Isla de la Roca, one of their number Vincnet (James Leo Ryan) has been shot in the leg. The thieves manage to get the electricity running again but the prison automatically goes into maximum security lock-down trapping them all inside. Inside with them are also five teens making a documentary on the notorious prison & it's violent past, a past which is still present in the ghosts of the inmates that died there. Strange things begin to happen, people start to die horribly & the two mismatched groups decide they have to work together if they ever want to leave the prison alive...Co-written & directed by Kevin VanHook this made-for-TV horror thriller isn't anywhere near as bad as I feared it would be despite yet again plenty of 'this is the worst film ever' type comments here on the IMDb, I really wish the IMDb would ban 'this is the worst film ever' threads on the message boards I really do. Anyway, the script by VanHook & Rick Glassman maybe takes itself a bit too seriously & the story is somewhat underdeveloped but it moves along at a decent enough pace, I was never bored with it & there's some satisfying gore in it. The whole explanation behind the haunted prison is weak, the script indicates the prison has great evil in it & that's all there is too it. I'm sorry but couldn't the makers have come up with a slightly more substantial reason behind the ghostly events than that? Then there are some inconsistencies with the ghosts, some have this blurry edge around them while others don't, some can speak while others can't, some can possess human beings while others can't & it would have been nice to have things a bit more consistent. Then there's the somewhat clichéd character's, they are alright by low budget horror flick standards but why do they keep splitting up? It's so annoying when it happens & why don't they spend more time on trying to find a way out of the prison? It seemed to me they spent most of the time walking around doing nothing in particular. One also feels obliged to point out that the ending isn't very good either. The actual story is sort of fun, there's enough gore to keep one entertained & at least it doesn't last too long so I'd say it's worth watching if your a fan of this sort of low budget horror flick although more demanding viewers will probably want to give it a wide berth.Director VanHook does alright although I thought it was too over-lit at times which limited any sort of atmosphere that could have been achieved, the film looks too much like a film as it were. I wouldn't say there's many scares here either but there is some good gore including someone chopping his own legs off with an axe, someone is sliced in half by a spinning ceiling fan complete with guts splattering on the floor as well as assorted spinal column pieces & the like, someone is wrapped in possessed barb wire in a scene similar to one seen in another haunted prison flick Prison (1988), someone is cut up into little bits in some sort of machine with the cut up bits of their body falling off the end of a conveyor belt, there's plenty of blood, gory gunshot wounds & my personal favourite kill when someone is pushed through wire mesh fencing & there's shots of the mesh sinking & cutting into their flesh. For those interested there's gratuitous & pointless shower scene in the prison toilets but she keeps her underwear on so it's a bit of a none starter.Technically the film is fine, it's well made & competent although it's not stylish. The special effects are pretty good with CGI computer effects kept to a minimum. The acting is OK, there a couple of familiar faces faces here including Jake Busey, Stacy Keach & Danny Trejo.Death Row is an OK way to pass 90 odd minutes, it's nothing deep or meaningful & it won't change your life but I thought it was watchable enough for what it was. Better than I had expected although to be fair that wasn't going to be difficult.

I see the IMDb rating is a 3, and I think it's about right. The best part of this movie are some decent gore scenes, but the rest is pretty poor. I do like the premise, an old haunted prison, but not much is done with it. Not scary or suspenseful, and the actors don't impress. I don't know what the previous reviewers who all gave it a good review saw in this but it wasn't a good horror movie, even for a B-movie. I will say the special effects on some of the gore were well done. Stacey Keach was the only star you would know, and he seemed to sleepwalk through his role. The rest of the cast are all unknowns. It's too bad because the story could have been a good one, if a big Hollywood budget was available I could see this storyline having some potential. As it is I wouldn't waste a rental on this like I did on Netflix.