If you’re curious about Gestapo’s Last Orgy (aka Last Orgy of the Third Reich or Caligula Reincarnated as Hitler) and how far it takes its Nazi-ploitation extremities, the short answer is: “How far can you imagine? Farther than that.”

The 1977 film came at the tail end of Italy’s run with the genre, after such films as Love Camp 7, SS Girls, SS Experiment Camp and … well, plenty of other stories about the sexual torture of naked young women in concentration camps. It also trailed Pier Paolo Pasolini’s infamous Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom, and Orgy tries to constantly outdo its predecessors scene to scene. And it does, of course, but without the political edge of Salò it all feels like shallow provocation and nothing more. When a Nazi guard serves his superiors a bowl of pulled pork, aka “A pot roast of unborn children,” the result is something that’s both unpleasant and trying too hard. Of course any way you cut it, either film is pretty upsetting.

This is not to make light of Orgy‘s imagery and content, which remains banned in the United Kingdom. It goes without saying that concentration camps aren’t funny, nor is anything contained in this film. By today’s standards (and even those of the era in which it was made), Nazi-ploitation films feel even more unthinkable — and even in their time, they were comparatively abhorrent even amongst the most extreme ’70s exploitation genres. Aside from the level of graphic cruelty, what reportedly sets Orgy apart is the nasty romance plot at its core. Lise Cohen (Daniela Poggi) is a prisoner of the camp. Conrad von Starke (Adriano Micatoni) is the Commandant. He takes a liking to her. They fall in love. They have a baby. He kills it because it’s impure. Does she have a grand plan for revenge? I wouldn’t say I was engaged with the story, but I did want to see how she’d extract her revenge.

It’s hard to imagine who would buy this film, but I’ll admit I was curious when 88 Films sent me a copy of their new Blu-ray release. On a technical level this is indeed an excellently restored Blu-ray release of a film few people would have any real reason to watch. It makes me wonder whether films like this — that generally existed for decades in the VHS collections of teenagers wanting to shock their friends — really need this kind of deluxe treatment. Does it remove the mystique of such grotesque filmmaking? To some extent, the appeal of such films is their forbidden existence, which disappears with boutique packaging and digital-restoration touch-ups, priced at a mere $25. What does it mean to have picture quality so good you can count the acne spots on actors’ faces as they writhe, scream and bleed through unthinkable evil?

For what it’s worth, the package also includes a booklet of essays, which provide historical context for Orgy and its begotten genre. The essays help contextualize the movie, and are pretty interesting reads in their own right. 88 Films’ new release also features a double-sided poster which…well, to each their own, I guess.

Gestapo’s Last Orgy is impossible to recommend. If you’re into watching movies that test your limits, you’re probably already intrigued, but unless you enjoy having your sensibilities assaulted there’s no reason to convince you to watch it. I’m not upset for having watched it, even though the film is upsetting to watch. I’d never seen a Nazi-ploitation film, and as far as the genre goes this seems to be regarded as one of the “best.” Incest? Rape? Scat? Urination? Mutilation? Cannibalism? Gore? Infanticide? If it’s taboo, if it’s bad taste, if it’s hard to watch, it’s was in the genre. It’s in here. Anything to get a rise out of its audience. Now that I’ve seen one, though, I’m pretty happy to never watch another.