1987 Cult Horror Classic Starring A Young Viggo Mortensen Filmed At Rawlins Prison

The 1987 horror movie “Prison” opens with a dramatic scene from the point of view of a prisoner being marched to his final end in the electric chair.

The details are stark and realistic.

The prisoner leaves his cell and walks down a concrete hallway to enter the execution chamber, passing by barred cells. The condemned then enters a room where five men actually met their deaths.

“Prison” has become a clult classic with fans of horror flicks, and was filmed in the historic Wyoming Territorial Prison, which had just closed six years prior. The harsh lighting and cold cells served as a dramatic backdrop for the low-budget horror film.

It also was one of the first starring roles for a young Viggo Mortensen, who would become a huge global star nearly 15 years later as Aragorn in the blockbuster "The Lord of the Rings" trillogy.

A Real Prison Of Horror

The gas chamber where the movie’s electrocution took place was a genuine room of death.

It was built in 1936 when the gas chamber replaced hanging as Wyoming’s execution method of choice, according to historians at the prison, now known as the Wyoming Frontier Prison.

Ultimately, 14 death sentences were carried out there. Nine men were hanged, and five were executed by hydrocyanic acid gas.

The cornerstone of the prison was laid in 1888, but due to funding issues and Wyoming’s notorious weather, the doors wouldn’t open for another 13 years.

In December 1901, the prison opened and consisted of 104 cells, no electricity or running water, and very inadequate heating.

After serving the state for eighty years, the prison closed its doors and sat abandoned until 1987, when the horror movie was filmed on location.

Unfortunately, significant damage was done to the prison grounds during filming because it had not yet been considered a historic site.

In 1988, a joint powers board renamed the penitentiary the Wyoming Frontier Prison and established it as a museum. The Wyoming Frontier Prison has since been listed on the National Register of Historic Places and offers tours to about 15,000 visitors annually.

Hollywood Comes To Rawlins

Dean Petersen, a Cheyenne podcaster, spent months researching the movie "Prison" and reaching out to locals who were part of the filming for his podcast, “That Doesn’t Happen Every Day.”

It fascinated him that the prison was used as a movie set before it became a museum and that more than 100 Wyoming men were extras. They mostly played inmate roles rioting and just trying to survive in the prison.

“It is rather surreal and strange that a Hollywood production company came to this little town, known mostly for refinery workers and antelope herds, to make a horror movie at the prison,” Petersen said.

At the time, Rawlins was a community of about 10,000 people, mostly blue-collar workers who were employed in the oil fields, at the refinery, and for the railroad.

“How often is a small town like ours having a movie filmed in it?” Rawlins resident Whitney Gore said to Petersen. “We did not know who Viggo Mortensen or Tiny Lister were.”

Gore referred to several actors in the low-budget horror film that had come to Rawlins before they had achieved Hollywood celebrity.

• Kane Hodder, who went from playing the murderous ghost in the Wyoming prison to playing Jason Voorhees in the “Friday the 13th" series.

• Tommy Lister, who would one day go on to play the president of Earth in "The Fifth Element," played an inmate called Tiny.

• Mortensen, who played a car thief named Burke, is now the most recognizable of the horror flick's cast.

• Even American horror movie royalty actress Linda Blair, the possessed child from “The Exorcist,” made an appearance in Rawlins, although it was just to hang out on the set with her boyfriend and not for an acting part.

“Back then, you didn’t think of Wyoming and Hollywood as a combination,” Petersen told Cowboy State Daily. “And you definitely didn’t think of Hollywood coming to Rawlins.”

The Wyoming Travel Commission had sent photos of the prison to producer Ernie Yablans, who then made a personal visit to the old penitentiary, Petersen said.

The Hollywood producer told the Casper Star-Tribune, “It is amazing how uniquely on the nose the prison is.”

Aside from the then-unknown producer, “Prison” was the first American film for Finnish director Renny Harlin, whose next movie was “A Nightmare On Elm Street 4: The Dream Master.”

It was produced by Charles Band’s Empire Pictures, known later for such shock fests as “Ghoulies” and “Metalstorm: The Destruction of Jared-Syn.”

Rawlins Actors

The whole premise of the horror movie “Prison” was that overcrowding had forced a long-closed prison to reopen.

However, the ghost of an innocent inmate who died in the electric chair at the prison was angry and taking revenge on everyone, especially the warden, with gruesomely inventive killings.

Pearce’s Horror Movie Reviews calls “Prison” a highly entertaining movie.

“It’s filmed in an actual abandoned prison, and it makes great use of this location both for its atmosphere and for its set pieces,” Pearce said.

Petersen said that the Hollywood people weren’t condescending to the locals. They were there to do a job and treated everyone well.

Nearly 1,000 miles from Hollywood, the production company hit their first snag. It was a personnel problem.

“A ‘Rawlins Daily Times’ article from May of 1987 said that about 300 inmates from Wyoming’s current prison, just a few miles south of the filming location, were supposed to be in the film,” Petersen said. “If that sounds like a recipe for something crazy happening, so did the warden, who decided it was a security risk.”

This meant that production was then short of expected actors. Desperate and with a very low budget, an ad was taken out for an open call for extras.

“You would just report to the prison at 7 in the morning every single day,” Petersen said. “And if they needed you, then they would keep you and put you in the scenes.”

Most of the actors were paid in pizza and entered into a drawing for the car being used in the movie since there was no budget to pay the extras.

Larry Moore, who was the drama teacher at the local high school, was one of the extras who made it into the movie alongside his fellow professionals.

“They had all these gentlemen, local real estate agents, doctors, accountants,” Moore said. “All these people had come to be a bit actor.”

Moore landed a role as a guard who tormented the prisoners.

“There’s a time where the ghost escapes, and I’m walking the tier, and you see me with my billy club clanking against the door,” Moore said.

Petersen also discovered that an inmate did make it into the movie after all.

Steven Little, who Petersen believes through research was a convicted killer, played a scary criminal named Rhino and was very convincing in the role.

The Rawlins Premiere

The movie “Prison” premiered in Rawlins, and the locals came in droves to see themselves on the big screen.

Gore was a teenager in Rawlins when the horror movie was filmed in the old prison, and her father played a small part in the movie.

“Everybody showed up to see this movie in the theater, hoping to see themselves or their father or their neighbor or their minister,” Whitney Gore said. “Most of them were basically inmates with guards.”

Gore said that she was a bit concerned because of the part her dad said he ended up with.

The prisoners had rioted and were stripped of all their clothing, and her dad was part of that mob of Rawlins men standing in the hot sun.

“It was full of Rawlins’ finest. All these guys that probably had never taken their shirt off at the beach,” Gore said.

Gore figured no one would recognize her dad, but then, there he was. One man in the middle of the mob looked like he was wearing sunglasses.

“I just slunk down in my seat, and my friend sitting next to me hit my arm and asked me very loudly if that was my dad,” Gore said. “I said, yep, it is.”

Doug Hecox had just graduated from high school and had gotten a job as a tour guide at the prison. He was able to watch the filming and helped out as a grip on the makeshift set.

The premiere was also his favorite part of the entire experience.

“There was always a lot of laughter because everybody in the audience knew someone on the screen,” Hecox said. “It showed me that being an adult can be fun.

“You don’t have to necessarily wear a tie and become an accountant and slog your way through your life until you’re 60 and get a gold watch," Hecox said. "You can do fun, weird, unusual things as a grownup. And it’s OK.”

Jackie Dorothy can be reached at jackie@cowboystatedaily.com.