Ahhhh, women prison movies or in Hellhole’s case, women sanitarium movies. If there is one genre out there that oversexualizes the plight of nude women just trying to take a shower, it’s these kickass flicks. I’ve watched a good amount of them and have reviewed most on my site. We had Women’s Prison Massacre, which was an awfully bad, but so incredibly fun flick, and just recently the equally fun Destroyer came out. Hellhole has been on Scream Factory’s to do list for quite some time, but it always kept being pushed and pushed. Thankfully, the movie has finally seen the light of day and boy was it worth the wait. Don’t quote me on this, but Hellhole is a gratuitously glorious good time. As for the Blu-ray, it’s a bit rough around the edges, but I’ll get into that later. For now, let’s see what happens in Hellhole…
Product Information
DISCS: 2 (1 Blu-ray, 1 DVD)
RUN-TIME: 95 min
ASPECT RATIO: 1.78:1
RESOLUTION: 1080p
AUDIO: English 2.0 DTS-HD MA
LANGUAGE: English
SUBTITLES: English
REGION: A/1
RATING: R
PRODUCTION DATE: 1985
RELEASE DATE: July 26, 2016
Plot Summary
Having witnessed her mother’s brutal death, Susan (Judy Landers, Dr. Alien) gets amnesia from a fall while being pursued by the killer, Silk (Ray Sharkey, The Idolmaker). Awakening in Ashland Sanitarium, she is once again terrorized by Silk, disguised as an orderly. To pry an incriminating secret from Susan’s brain, Silk forms an uneasy alliance with Dr. Fletcher (Mary Woronov, Rock ‘n’ Roll High School), a psychotic scientist who has been testing a new lobotomy technique, using helpless inmates as her guinea pigs. These vicious experiments are carried out in the “Hellhole,” a torture den awaiting Susan as its next victim.
Movie Review
After witnessing the death of her mother by the hands of a Freddie Mercury lookalike Silk, Susan (Judy Landers) lands in a sanatorium where only hot crazy women go. The reason for the murder of the mother is because she had some incriminating papers on a doctor and the doctor doesn’t want those to get out. Susan hid the papers but is now suffering a terrible case of amnesia from a fall. She is being held up in the sanitarium for “safety” reasons, but the doctor is just pulling some strings and getting Silk in undercover as a custodian to find out where the secret papers are. Meanwhile, lots of crazy shit is going down in this place as any girl that acts out ends up in a special placed titled Hellhole. Hellhole is a secretly run lab led by the psycho Dr. Fletcher (Mary Woronov – Nomads), who is experimenting on the women with the help of her assistant Dr. Dane (Marjoe Gortner – The Food of the Gods).
What gets you thrown in Hellhole? Well, all sorts of things. You could be spouting craziness in the cafeteria and end up there. Or, you could be having some sexy sex time with a fellow hot patient while sniffing glue. It’s pretty damn easy to get thrown in Hellhole. Every woman in this movie is so damned horned up; they can’t help do bad things.
Susan is being assisted by Ron (Richard Cox – Zombie High) who is undercover trying to expose the deadly experiments. Meanwhile, Silk is busy hanging out in a mud bath with a big breasted blonde and an equally big breasted brunette nympho. The man knows how to make the best of his time.
The “plot” for Hellhole is checkpointed to show you more and more nudity. What was the point of the extended shower fight scene? Nothing, really, but my god I don’t care. As for everything else in the movie, it serves up enough cheese to fill a paper bag, and I loved every minute of the damn thing. It’s clearly 80’s exploitation all the way, but the acting isn’t that bad, and the story is entertaining enough to keep you glued to the breast filled scenery. Plus, Robert Z’Dar (Maniac Cop) is in it as a rough and tough guard. How could you not end up loving this rollicking bad, but incredibly awesome flick?
Hellhole is for people that like naked women, 80s over the top cheesiness and shower scenes with so much 80s bush you would need a weed wacker to find the plot.
Blu-ray Opinion
Scream Factory throws up a warning on screen when you first play Hellhole. It warns the viewer that the negatives for Hellhole were missing, and the only existing inter-positive for Hellhole was missing scenes. Thankfully, though, Scream Factory was able to locate a film print and used sections of the print to complete the movie. There will be noticeable dips in quality during those certain scenes, but overall, the video quality makes Hellhole look the best it probably has ever looked. The dips aren’t overly distracting, and I don’t think you need to worry about it ruining your enjoyment.
Special features for Hellhole aren’t going to impress many people, as the only thing included is a 5-minute interview with Mary Woronov and a trailer. The interview is enjoyable, as Mary reminisces about her time on Hellhole. She never thought anyone would see the movie.
Special Features
- NEW Interview With Actress Mary Woronov
- Original Theatrical Trailer
Verdict
I’ve based my rating for Hellhole on the number of boobs on screen per second of film time. I ran out of numbers at 10. If you enjoy a dash of boobs, a sprinkle of a story and a great heaping of damn that was fun, Hellhole is the place you want to be. Be sure to pick up the Blu-ray from Scream Factory today!