Prison (1987)

In Hollywood most actors director and writers start out in horror (or depending on how well their career went, end in horror). Prison is an early film for action film director Renny Harlin (Cliffhanger, DIe Hard 2, Long Kiss Goodnight) Aragorn himself Viggo Mortenson. Prison is a supernatural horror film about an old defunct prison from the 1930s-60s being opened again to house inmates while the new prison facility is being constructed/renovated. However in reopening the old prison, the spirits of many a former inmate come back to cause mayhem particularly for the staff of the "new" prison. The best way for me to describe this movie is to call it a mix between the Shawshank Redemption or The Green Mile and 

Hellraiser. The movie is also similar in style to Michael Mann's The Keep. The effects are done very well and there are some gruesome death scenes in this one, but in my opinion they're just gruesome enough to be frightening without be being over the top or disgustingly unwatchable. The other things that make this film so good are it's cinematography (lots of atmospheric lighting shots/effects), it's tense musical score, the screenplay, and surprisingly great performances from everybody too.When I first heard of this movie and read the existing reviews on Rotten Tomatoes about it, I did not think I would like it so much. I have to say other than The Long Kiss Goodnight this is my favorite Renny Harlin movie. Viggo Mortenson is really good in it as a strong but mostly silent highly intelligent prisoner. The movie was previously unreleased on DVD and had a very limited VHS release so it was fairly hard to find until recently when Shoutfactory recently released it on Blu-ray and DVD. I give Prison a 4.5/5 and highly recommend this underrated and lesser know horror gem. You can watch the trailer here.