HumanoidOfFlesh Roger Wenzil is transferred to one of the new humane maximum-security prisons as an inmate.The new prisons have been built open plan and the guards have a relaxed attitude toward hard-drug use.However the prison bureaucracy begin a crackdown,stirring up minor incidents– confiscating all drugs and weapons,turning the TV's off–but this creates a state of high tension that sets the inmates and guards against one another.Everything finally explodes in one violently bloody outburst.This bleak and somber prison drama offers truly unsettling look into the penal system.There are some unflinching scenes of violence and heroin use,so be prepared.The performance of Nick Cave is absolutely insane.The singer plays a psycho,who screams obscenities and paints on the wall in his own blood.The climax where one inmate starts repeatedly stabbing at a guard's body is hard to stomach too.9 out of 10.

philip-rhoads Manages to instill in the viewer a true sense of claustrophobia and unease. The violent scenes are some of the most graphic i've ever seen and especially the scene with the guard in the cage gives me the shivers of impending dread whenever i watch it. Also the use of tattoo as punishment is another horrible thought. Cave is brilliantly unhinged in his role and the scenes of him drawing on the walls in his own blood will be oddly believable to anyone who ever saw some of the more ferocious birthday party gigs of the early 80s.A truly original movie that is only half the film that Cave's script was meant to portray........The soundtrack (by Cave etc) is also brilliantly effective Can we have a DVD release please?

ksaelagnulraon Stunning, almost horrific statement of the effect prisons have on the rest of society, Hillcoat has created a no-holds-barred, fabricated `report' on the inner-workings of an imaginary future prison that is worth seeing - if you can stomach it. There's certainly no doubting what writers Nick Cave and Gene Conkie think of prisons as Australian society's most corporal method of punishment and rehabilitation: although the on-screen activity is certainly shocking enough, what is perhaps even more so is what is not shown (perhaps because it didn't get past the censors?). Field's best role ever.

michael.mhsw I saw this film in the early 1990s on British late night TV. I had never heard of it and caught it by chance, expecting a piece of gory men-in-prison schlock. I got a lot more. I recently had the chance to see Ghosts... again, and I wasn't disappointed. Although the film is deeply disturbing both visually and suggestively, the real kick in the head is when you start to think about what the film means. The prison can be interpreted as a microcosm of society, but also resonates with other cultural themes such as the loss of innocence, and the (illusory?)possibility of redemption. It is the kind of flick that Dostoevsky would have made had he been a film director in the 1980s!