Hellhole (1985)

5/10

Rare 80's Exploitation Gem: (contains small spoiler)

megatone23024 April 2006

I remember first seeing this exploitation gem on HBO in the mid 80's, while spending the night at a friends house during 8th grade. It reminded me of a cheaper, dirtier Reform School Girls.

Mary Woronov as the deliciously evil, Dr. Fletcher has some great moments. I especially love when she blows the state inspectors a kiss goodbye while they are leaving the hospital... (after nearly discovering her clandestine, underground chamber of horrors, known simply and ominously as Hell Hole.

Lots of the actors look like rejects from a lame porno movie, and deliver their lines accordingly. One will find themselves alternately rolling their eyes and laughing their butts off while watching this.

The movie also has one of those great, cheesy synthesizer soundtracks to add to the fun. If you enjoy watching a movie just to see how bad it is, filled with senseless violence, drugs and lesbian sex, then watch Hellhole.

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5/10

excuse to show naked women

lee_eisenberg31 December 2010

Pierre De Moro's "Hellhole" is everything that we can expect in a 1980s horror flick: psycho killer and a plethora of naked women. In fact, the movie seems to be an excuse to show off the babes' bodies (and I mean full frontal). The plot - so to speak - is that a young woman (Judy Landers) gets sent to a mental institution after she develops amnesia resulting from seeing her mother murdered. This particular institution is run by a sadistic doctor (Mary Woronov of "Eating Raoul") who has some nasty punishment for the inmates who get sent to the title location.

If you watch this movie expecting nothing except pure brainless fun, then you won't be disappointed. Otherwise, avoid it. Also starring Ray Sharkey, Edy Williams and Marjoe Gortner.

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6/10

Worth seeing just for that cast.

Hey_Sweden10 September 2016

Objectively speaking, this B flick is a mess, with a sometimes incoherent screenplay by Aaron Butler. Judy Landers stars as Susan, a young woman who's forced to witness her mother being killed by gleeful thug "Silk" (a scenery chewing Ray Sharkey). While fleeing him, she has a bad fall, gets amnesia, and ends up confined to a mental institution for young women. And it just so happens that the mad doctor in charge, Fletcher (Mary Woronov), is up to no good, performing insidious lobotomy type experiments.

"Hellhole" is not without the charms common to such exercises in pure sleaze. This exploitation-melodrama-horror film comes complete with all of the girl ogling / female nudity that a trash lover could want. There's even a pointless mud bath sequence that one must assume was in there because the producers demanded it. There is some decent atmosphere, but there is practically no gore to speak of. Some viewers will have to prepare themselves for the fact that some story elements are introduced and then pretty much dropped: the "papers" that the bad guys controlling Silk want so badly come off as a MacGuffin.

Making it all worth watching is a B movie cast to die for. Woronov gives easily the best performance in this thing, camping it up in her turn as the female villain. Sharkey is blatantly comical and offbeat as the psycho goon. She may be very sexy, but the less said about Landers' acting, the better. Also turning up are Marjoe Gortner, Richard Cox, Edy Williams, Robert Z'Dar (in his first film), Cliff Emmich, Lynn Borden, Dyanne Thorne, and Carole White. Cox is the nominal hero, a nice guy orderly who sympathizes with Susans' plight. Z'dar is amusing as a sadistic guard. Thornes' cameo as an inmate who thinks she's an actress is a highlight.

Executive produced by A.I.P. legend Samuel Z. Arkoff, and co-produced by his son Lou.

Six out of 10.

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Lurid Entertainment For Fans of Camp

Mike179 August 1998

This somewhat entertaining garbage stars Judy Landers as Susan, a young girl who witnesses her mother's vicious strangling. Following this, she comes down with amnesia(of course)and is sent to a mental sanitarium for women(of course) headed by the mad Dr. Fletcher(played with loads of much-needed camp by cult icon Mary Woronov),who likes to perform unorthodox drug -induced lobotomies on some of the more out-of-control inmates. There is plenty of stuff in this flick to please any die-hard camp or exploitation fan: pointless lesbian scenes, gratuitous shower scenes & nudity, camp dialogue , horrid performances(with the notable exception of Woronov), & a cast that also includes Marjoe Gortner, Dyanne Thorne(of "Ilsa" fame), Ray Sharkey, & Terry Moore. All in all, a classic midnight movie.

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3/10

Silk Stalking

BaronBl00d3 August 2005

Judy Landers plays Susan. She jumps out of the shower, puts a pink aerobics outfit on, walks downstairs to seeing her mother strangled to death by Ray Sharkey(playing a killer named Silk). She runs out of house and into a construction site, meets up with Sharkey and falls. The fall doesn't kill her but gives her amnesia, so with some strings pulled by the man behind Silk's deeds - Susan is put into a sanatorium till she recovers her memory. Unfortunately for Susan, she is admitted to a mental institution run by Dr. Fletcher - the sultry Mary Woronov - who enjoys being sado-masochistic and experimenting on patients in a basement called Hellhole. The hospital is like no other. Most of the wards are playboy playmate caliber-looking girls. All of them disrobe quite freely. In fact this film has a lot of nudity in it with a cat-fight in the showers and a mud bath as standouts...anyway,...ah the mind wanders...Susan is being stalked by the man that killed her mother all the while learning about the atrocities committed by Dr. Fletcher. I found this film somewhat interesting for a number of reasons. It is outwardly a sleazy picture in many ways. It has a spin on the women-in-chains motif. Nudity and shock effects override storyline through much of it. The acting ranges from weird and bizarre(Sharkey) to competent(Richard Cox as the hero) to camp(Mary Woronov doing her best Dyanne Thorne impersonation) to less than credible(Judy Landers((but hey who cares right?))). There are a number of cool cameos by genre notables from the past. Terry Moore from Mighty Joe Young fame has a nice role, Marjoe Gortner has an intriguing yet thin role as a doctor in league with Woronov, and the aforementioned Dyanne Thorne has a brief cameo as a patient that thinks she is an actress. Director Pierre De Moro even has flashes of talent here and there. The opening sequence is somewhat chilling and the settings of Hellhole are very well-utilized in terms of atmosphere, lighting, etc... The ending is wholly predictable but somehow satisfying for a film of this ilk. But make no mistake, while outwardly a horror film, this is also a sexploitation film equally. Watch for Renee Vicary as Silk's girlfriend. Just lovely!

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3/10

Hellhole

Scarecrow-8820 January 2009

Warning: Spoilers

Cult cast highlight trash movie regarding a poor young woman who finds a leather-clad, slick-haired, Elvis-sideburns, hood strangling her mom to death with a scarf. He was simply supposed to retrieve bank statements for a corrupt psychiatric doctor and he just got carried away. The poor woman is Susan, portrayed by the petite beauty Judy Landers. The killer is Silk, portrayed by Ray Sharkey who seems to be enjoying his part as a hired vulgar fiend who torments his victims with relish. Susan, attempting to escape Silk, falls from a building, bumping her noggin and garnering amnesia. Matters only worsen for her as Susan is sent to a mental hospital under the care of the sociopathic Dr. Fletcher(..played cold-blooded by Mary Woronov)who enjoys performing experimental lobotomies on patients who "misbehave." Working along side her is Dr. Dane(Marjoe Gortner), who wishes to help the patients, while Fletcher seems to enjoy them for homicidal kicks. The Hellhole of the title is a prison and lab for those patients who are mistreated to the lobotomies..we get a look at one of the failed procedures as Dane and Fletcher insert a large hypodermic needle into a religious freak and watch as she trembles and convulses into catatonia and death. Will Susan be treated to such a punishment as she pursues an escape route or will the kind orderly Ron(Richard Cox;who is actually an agent trying to infiltrate Fletcher's operation so that the lobotomies to innocent patients will end)be able to save her from a horrifying fate? The crooked doctor hired by Silk to recover the bank statements(..and later recruiting the slime-ball to pose as an orderly within the hospital to torment and terrorize Susan for she saw him murder her mother and to find out about where those bank statements are hidden)is Monroe(Martin Beck). Robert "Maniac Cop" Z'Dar is a hulking guard named Brad who, along with other men, forces patients into the hellhole and has a rather lame/disappointing fight with Cox's Ron towards the end. Edy Williams gets naked a lot as wacky patient Vera, often engaging in lesbian encounters. As a matter of fact, this film carries several Women-in-Prison characteristics such as the copious amounts of female nudity when the patients are in the showers(..there's even a hilarious cat fight between Vera and another patient over another woman ending in bare knuckle fisticuffs!). Silk wishes for Vera to find evidence on Ron for he doesn't trust him..Vera is basically a love-doll for Silk to sexually ravage, and she doesn't seem to mind it at all. Sidnee Hammond(Terry Moore)is the one Ron communicates with..she needs hard evidence that will convict Fletcher of her inhumane crimes.

The film wallows in sleaze and the presentation is scuzzy and imbalanced..with a more polished screenplay this could've been a lot better. The motivations of the characters are often in question(..even Susan makes a few dumb decisions which leave you scratching your head, such as places she runs to hide)such as why Fletcher makes such a outrageous, hasty decision towards the end regarding her experiments(..and not escaping from the place opting to instead confront Dane who is releasing the damaged lobotomy patients) and allowing Silk to run free throughout her establishment boggles the mind. So many problems like how Susan remains unharmed for so long and how someone as sadistic and obviously psychotic as Fletcher could hold such a high-level position over an institution, exist, and the flimsy set up of the story..a killing over bank statements..really doesn't help matters. And, why would a doctor as Monroe ever hire such a loose cannon as Silk

is anybody's guess. Poor Marjoe Gortner is stuck in yet another lousy movie, the guy just couldn't catch a break. And speaking of Gortner, why would his psychiatric scientist agree to work with such a disturbing individual as Fletcher knowing that she was unreliable as a doctor and human being? And, why would he continue working in such an absurd environment with individuals he doesn't get along with? Even decisions he makes at the end as Fletcher wishes to abandon their work, kind of lacks logic(..he'd be willing to jeopardize his career releasing patients that had been tested on like guinea pigs he himself contributed to), although maybe the filmmakers were hoping to humanize him a bit because in working out a formula he was hoping to cure brain ailments.

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2/10

Welcome to hell

PeterMitchell-506-56436416 November 2012

Hellhole is one of the silliest films I've seen. It's camp, but bad camp at that. It waste's a good cast, but does have one asset, Edy Williams. She pops up here and there, one scene involving a naked cat fight in a shower block, amongst a lot of other women void of their clothes. Two other scenes with her are my favorites. One in a spa with Edy and her lesbian lover making out, then we have an intrusion. Bad guy, Ray Sharkey (a fine actor, who's not among us anymore) who whips off his clothes and gets in the spa with our two lovelies. The other scene involves Edy coming into Sharkey's room, on the grounds of this sanitarium. His walls are adorned with pictures of naked women. He starts taking photos of Edy in naked poses, before they end up on top of each other. It's actually a highly erotic scene. Basically the story concerns, Judy Landers, who at least doesn't come into a room, and start getting older guys, hot, where they either end up running out to cool themselves down, or their blood pressure goes sky high. Unfortunately our poor Judy, whose character is one of ill fortune is knocked out, after Sharkey murders her mother. He's after these certain documents. Landers mistaken for the killer ends up in this prison sanitarium, where Sharkey now resides, for reasons obvious. And if you're really lucky folks, you may even graduate to hellhole, the base stayings of this loony bin, where experiments are performed, some of it's results ending in death. The picked cast in this film is interesting. Richard Cox (the killer in Al Pacino's 'Cruising') is the good samaritan/prison inspector who tries to help Landers with her innocence. He highly suspects somethings off with the runnings of this prison. Mary Woronov plays the sadistic doctor who also likes to a naked lesbian lover on standby. She's the evil bitch who performs experiments on the prisoners, using them as lab rats. It's one of Woronov's better performances. Good solid stuff. Fine actor, Marjoe Gortner, who pops up in a movie here and there, plays her disapproving assistant who's not really aware of her real motives. Hellhole does have nudity a plus, something I like a lot about this movie. But the fact remains, this is an ultra bad movie. A ludicrous movie. Something's really off about it. The performances from the score of mains are good, especially Sharkey, with Gortner runner up. The late Sharkey, who incidentally died, three days after my twenty third birthday, another victim of descent in B grade, was an actor I'd really admired seeing him in The Idolmaker. With this flick, he should of just walked away. Tasteless crap. Evade this movie at all costs, before it costs you.

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7/10

Ridiculous Exploitation Fun

dperky11 June 2019

With a seasoned cast of b-movie veterans like Judy Landers, Mary Woronov, Marjoe Gotner, and Ray Sharkey, Hellhole proves to be more than your average exploitation flick. This cast is clearly having a ball playing such a ridiculous scenes and inhabiting these wacky characters that it helps some of the film's flaws go down a bit easier.

Hellhole is best enjoyed if you turn off your brain and just go along with the flow. Why is there a mud bath in a mental hospital? Why is every woman in this movie a lesbian? Do women really shower like that? Why does the lead character disappear for large chunks of the run time? So many questions and very few answers, but if you just go along for the ride, you'll still have a good time.

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4/10

What bloody papers?!?

Coventry23 June 2007

Maybe the golden years of sleazy & campy "Women in Prison" were long history by then already; maybe it didn't get properly promoted or announced in trailers (like "Reform School Girls", for example) or maybe it's just not good enough to compete with other & more successful films with a similar theme, but "Hell Hole" is a totally anonymous & overlooked 80's exploitation flick that only a handful of genre fanatics have heard of. The obscure status of this film honestly surprises me, as it has a fairly interesting cast (including Ray Sharkey, Judy Landers, Mary "Eating Raoul" Woronov and even Robert "Maniac Cop" Z'Dar) and a plot outline that certainly appeals to fans of rancid exploitation. Landers stars as a twenty-something and supposedly sexy young woman who witnesses her mother getting killed by cheesy and unconvincing killer Sharkey, because he's looking for "papers" that apparently are very important to him as well as to the people who hired him to kill the woman and to get rid of any other possible witnesses. Just what exactly are these papers? Damned if I know Throughout the entire movie, the value and importance of these papers is continuously emphasized, yet not one character ever reveals anything about their content. Anyway, Sharkey fails to get rid of Landers properly, but instead she falls down a construction site and suffers from amnesia. She's brought to a sanatorium where a she faces a whole new series of issues, like sadistic wardens, lesbian and power-mad inmates and of course the female head doctor who submits patients to grotesque lobotomy experiments. If all that isn't enough, Sharkey shows up in the clinic as well (as a fake doctor) and uses his charms on other patients to get rid of Susan. "Hollhole" is a crazy, incompetent and overall ridiculous film. The screenplay doesn't make any sense and seriously lacks coherence as well as basic logic. There seem to be very few wardens and security personnel in the clinic. Most of the time, the patients who are supposed to be dangerous and severely unstable are left completely unsupervised and whenever a riot or cat-fight breaks out, it literally takes several minutes before someone in a white coat shows up. Dr. Fletcher's experiments in the basement of the asylum are quite stupid & pointless, and don't expect to see much gore or sadistic images here, neither. Admittedly there's a fair amount of sleaze and female nudity to enjoy in "Hellhole", but the same girls exclusively provide it over and over again. In case you're hoping to catch a glimpse at Judy Landers voluptuous curves, don't hold your breath Apparently, her contracted stated that she could keep a robe on at all times. The last half hour of this movie is indescribably retarded and boring at the same time, which certainly isn't the best combination. It's fun to watch Robert Z'Dar playing a crazed sanatorium warden, but he as well as Mary Woronov are given way too few screen time. Only recommended in case you're really, really bored . Or in case you feel the urge to check out every single variant of Women in Prison movies that ever got released.

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6/10

I'm living in a hell hole, Don't want to stay in this hell hole, Don't want to die in this hell hole, Girl, get me out of this hell hole.

BA_Harrison14 June 2020

In Hellhole's pre-credits sequence, the mother of busty blonde Susan (Judy Landers) is insistent that her daughter takes a shower; mother clearly knows what kind of trashy film this is and exactly what the viewer wants, but Susan doesn't seem to understand, her ablutions proceeding without any sign of nudity.

Somehow, Susan remains fully clothed throughout the entirety of this film, even after she is carted off to Ashland Sanitarium for Women, where almost every other patient is good-looking and frequently naked. Susan is taken to the institution suffering from amnesia after a serious fall following the murder of her mother by vicious thug Silk (Ray Sharkey, who looks like he has just sauntered out of the Blue Oyster Bar). Silk is looking for hidden papers that can incriminate his boss Dr. Monroe (Martin Beck), and believing that Susan knows their whereabouts, he takes a job as an orderly at the sanitarium.

But Silk isn't the only danger at Ashland: troublesome patients are sent to the Hellhole, where wicked lesbian Dr. Fletcher (Mary Woronov) uses them for her lobotomy experiments. Will nice-guy orderly Ron Stevens (Richard Cox) be able to prevent Susan from being Silk's next victim or becoming a drooling zombie at the hands of Fletcher?

Judy Landers fans hoping for the actress to show some skin might be disappointed by her reluctance to strip, but anyone into cult/trash films will still find much to enjoy about this sleazy little B-movie, the film including most of the ingredients to be found in similar women-in-prison films: we get catfights, communal showers, drug-taking lesbians, crazed lobotomy patients, and even a gratuitous mud bath scene, lucky Silk slipping into the muddy tub with two naked hotties ("Double the pleasure, double the fun, a mud bath with two broads is better than one"), proving that you shouldn't judge a man by his leather-boy outfit.

The film also introduces us to the inimitable Robert Z'Dar as a vicious guard, stars Marjoe Gortner as Fletcher's partner in crime, and features exploitation favourite Dyanne Thorne (Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS) as a patient who looks like Cruella DeVille. All that's missing is a decent plot, quality acting and a competent director, but since when were they necessary for a good time?

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4/10

A great mess

BandSAboutMovies18 August 2021

Warning: Spoilers

"People always ask me if it's difficult for me at my age to keep up with trends. What they don't understand is that I'm not older today. I was already older before," said Samuel Arkoff, formerly of American-International Pictures and now the head of Arkoff International Pictures. After selling AIP to Filmways and seeing them pretty much immediately screw it up, he started making the kinds of movies he made all along like Q The Winged Serpent, The Final Terror and this film.

Susan's (Judy Landers) mom gets killed and she forgets who she is after the murderer pushes her through a window, which means she gets sent to the Hellhole, which does not sound like the kind of hospital that someone goes to when they're mentally ill, but who are we to place out 2021 values on to an exploitation movie from 1985?

Actually, it's the Ashland Sanitarium for Women and the killer - Silk (Ray Sharkey) - now works there, watching over Susan in case she gets her memory back. He's not the worst maniac in this movie. That would be Dr. Fletcher (Mary Woronov forever!), who loves performing lobotomy experiments.

Talk about a cast! This has Marjoe Gortner, Edy Williams, Robert Z'Dar, Frogs star Lynn Borden, Mighty Joe Young actress Terry Moore, Carol Ita White from Savage Streets and Dyanne Thorne in it and you know, that's way more star power than several movies usually get. Aaron Butler, who was one of the writers of this, also wrote Chained Heat, so that should tell you what you're getting into.

Pierre De Moro only made two other movies, Savannah Smiles and Christmas Mountain, and this feels like the kind of work made by a man who is sick of making children and families happy.

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9/10

This film has everything

PeterBradford21 March 2020

Great 80s grade B cast! Mary Woronov as the head doctor of a psychiatric hospital. Seen-better-days Marjoe Gortner as one of her associates. Ray Sharkey as a sleaze bag. Forty-three year old Edy Williams in a very good performance! Terry Moore in a very good cameo. Dyanne Thorne in a wasted bit part. Robert Z'Dar in his first film role! Judy Landers as a capable lead. Plenty of nudity. Plenty of beaver (back in the day when it was common). 80s sleaze at its best. Would have made a great double bill with Linda Blair's RED HEAT. In fact, I think they did play together on 42nd Street. They were released only a month apart. FUN FACT: When HELLHOLE was originally announced in Variety, Linda Blair was cast as Susan and Britt Ekland as Fletcher. I believe the producers made the right choice with Landers and Woronov respectively.

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7/10

Nudity

btreakle22 June 2020

Nudity galore in this pretty cool flick that didnt fare well at the box office. I liked it and if you like dramatic thrillers then this is one I reccomend

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5/10

Naked Psychos

saint_brett12 April 2023

Warning: Spoilers

The movie starts out with Samantha Stephens washing dishes and sculling wine when she's attacked by Ozone from "Breakin.'" Witnessing her mother being murdered, Tabitha aerobicizes her way to a quick death and plummets to the ground.

But, like most Robert Z'Dar movies, people don't die in them when they get killed.

Just like Tabitha here, who's now in a sanitorium house run by Dr. Fletcher, who has the face of a man.

She's obviously the mother of Angela from "Sleepaway Camp." Is that Mr. Sheffield from "The Nanny?" Tabitha's attacked by a rabid plump woman, has lost her marbles, and can't recall where the warranty deeds are for the house from "Panic Room." (Everyone's after these papers in this movie.) Robert Darcy, I mean Z'Dar, is young in this.

He plays one of those headless policemen from Marilyn Manson's video about liking drugs, or something?

Two sheilas re-enact a Double Dragon brawl, and Z'Dar runs to the scene of the crime and uses vulgar language before dropping a Double Dragon knee himself into one of them and dragging her off to D block, which is run by the one with the man's face.

Tabitha's being attacked by Clark Gable, who's still insistent on finding these warranty deeds.

Well, that's a first. Ever seen a lady with four arms soaping up her naked body before? There she is, nearing the end of the 24-minute mark.

Well, you can tell by the way Dr. Fletcher uses her walk that she's a woman's man.

I'm at the 31-minute mark, but I really have to rewind this back to that shower scene with the lady who has four arms and the ensuing fight that breaks out not long after that.

Blondie takes on this mullet-wearing trucker thing who has the frame of a man as well.

The place is run more like a prison than a medical health facility.

This movie reminds me of Linda Blair's "Dead Sleep" for some reason. Don't ask me why.

"Hellhole" isn't exactly what I had in mind tonight. I was looking more for a karate-themed movie.

Or, something with the Sixth Street Bridge in it.

"Hellhole" makes anything Linda Blair made in a prison look PG-13, though.

There are some disturbing scenes in this movie, and if you hate needles as much as I do, steer clear of this one.

(I must say that the man lady doctor in this has immaculate teeth.) This disturbing scene in D block sees a human guinea pig inoculated twice in the neck in an attempt to exorcise her inner demons, but she's double dosed and dies as a result.

You know, it just occurred to me that in every movie Robert Z'Dar is in, he always plays a bad guy.

Tabitha winds up down in Freddy's basement, and the question that needs asking is when do we get to see her naked? She's got a killer body, and I've seen her in some other movie I can't quite put my finger on.

Surely you get to see her naked in "The Yum Yum Girls?"

Sadly, due to a bad migraine, I was unable to finalize my review of "Hellhole."

It's decent and takes a mega dump on any modern-day movie that's released today.

At least it's sensible, tells a story, and doesn't try to force political correctness down your throat or insert inclusivity or LGBTQ+ garbage onto you.

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80's sex and drugs in the asylum

horrorbargainbin7 August 2004

There is a lot of nudity in this film. There is a mud bath and a girl on girl fight in the asylum showers. As far as the horror goes, the lobotomized victims do act like zombies. The leather and studs killer, named "Silk" leaves something to be desired. After a slow start the film picks up the pace only to have a drawn out ending where far too many characters need to be killed off. Some familiar B-movie stars on this not very common tape. I did not care for the ugly 80's make-up that the main character always wears, even too bed. Still, there is no real reason to pick at the plot details in this kind of film. At least it does not try to be too socially conscious.

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1/10

These writers need to find a new occupation

phuckracistgop22 January 2024

I turned off the movie after watching the very first part where the leather clad moron breaks into the house using a switchblade. First off the switchblade tip would have broken off while attempting to pry the sliding glass door open. After that bit of Bull Excrement, the stupidity gained traction and steamrolled into the dumbest opening of a movie I have ever witnessed. From the mother who is in a kitchen full of weapons who didn't arm herself, and how easily she dropped the knife she did pick up, to the dippy daughter who looked like she was a younger sister standing like she's posing in the shower and not hearing the commotion downstairs. This even after walking from the bathroom to the bedroom. Than you have the leather clad idiot reciting poetry."lodon bridge" while strangling the mother without wrapping the red scarf around her neck. Poor unadulterated Garbage meant for the least intelligent viewer who only come to see it for the T & A.

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5/10

Head For The Mountains...Bush

DYP-gyro18 September 2023

Shower scene. It's a jungle out there. This is a pretty decent lesbian prison flick. Lots of T&A and better than expected acting. Very similar to Reform School Girls but better. (and no dreadful acting from Wendy O. Williams). It's always nice to see Judy Landers too. A young Robert Z'dar looks almost normal in this movie making me wonder if he had work done to make himself look more like an interesting movie character. Can't write a review without mentioning Mary Woronov. Definitely not her best outing but nothing to be ashamed of either. Movies like this make you miss the 80's but there are better offerings in the genre.

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4/10

Twisted Resort Spa for Penthouse Models

BloodTheTelepathicDog19 February 2023

This movie might deserve more stars because it accomplished what it clearly set out to do: make an exploitation movie with an asylum setting. Be that as it may, HELLHOLE is an absolute mess of a movie with a weak "final girl" and a convoluted story that seems to covertly establish one pointless gratuitous nude scene after another.

The flimsy story begins with student Susan (Judy Landers) witnessing the murder of her mother. Her mom cabbaged on to some incriminating documents at work, so her boss hired a sadistic hitman named Silk (Ray Sharkey) to get the papers back. However, Silk kills Susan's mother before she delivers the articles, and when he chases Susan to a construction site, she takes a nasty tumble and he assumes she's dead. But Susie hasn't passed on, bodily that is, for her memory has disappeared and she, now an amnesiac, is sent to an asylum to recuperate. Silk is finagled a job as an orderly at said asylum so he can monitor Susan and hopefully retrieve the documents he was hired to reacquire.

Unfortunately for shapely Susie, her new diggings are run by a mad doctor, Dr. Fletcher (Mary Woronov) who uses the more unstable patients as Guinea pigs in her experiments with chemical lobotomies, keeping her trials secret from the staff, save fellow mad scientist Dr. Dane (Marjoe Gortner) and a handful of black clad security brutes, in the abandoned adjoining structure the residents call " Hellhole."

STORY ($): The script is ridiculous. What serves as the impetus for Susie's despair, the documents her mother absconded with, are hardly mentioned the remainder of the film. Silk's presence at the asylum doesn't raise much of an eyebrow, nor does the employ of a moll (Richard Cox, outfitted by Don Johnson's wardrobe manager) eager to expose wrongdoing at the sanitarium. Apparently the filmmakers just wanted the audience to turn their minds off and enjoy the mayhem and never ending supply of female nudity. Unfortunately, the mayhem is weak but the unadorned women are in ample supply

ACTING ($$): The only reason I gave the acting two dollars instead of one is the work of Mary Woronov. A classic B-movie villainess, Mary steals the show as a morbid scientist who seems to work only to get her jollies off rather than to help people. Likewise, Ray Sharkey was convincingly sinister as Silk. Robert Z'Dar is good as Mary's primary muscle, while Richard Cox is serviceable as the hero. Judy Landers, bless her, sure does give it the good ol' college try, but the airheaded, vacant of deliberation schtick that worked so well for her as Dan Tanna's shiftless bimbo on VEGA$ is pure drudgery here. Exploitation icon Dyanne Thorne pops up briefly and Marjoe Gortner has little to do until the climax.

NUDITY ($$$$$): The supply is neverending! Edy Williams, another veteran of exploitation flicks, is clothed for about 5% of her screen time. Most of the young actresses playing mental patients slip out of their standard patient's garments with little provocation.

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6/10

Entertaining if not great

zomberi6 September 2023

Fans of Judy Landers and Mary Woronov will definitely want to see this film. Although both remain clothed, there is plenty of nudity. It happens in the same settings as as in a women-in-prison movie. Landers is lodged in a mental health facility after she becomes amnesiac, after she gets through a traumatic experience. The mental health facility is engaged in some shady activities. There are lots of villains each with their own different agenda. Contrary to other reviews, this is move is entertaining and has a story. The lobotomy-by-injection is not plausible for the scientifically inclined. The acting is a fine. There is enough action. The woman in the nude shower fight seemed to throw real punches. She fights like a regular brawler with lots of experience. It is easily the most realistic fight between two females you will ever see in such movies.

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8/10

A choice chunk of mid-80's exploitation trash

Woodyanders2 November 2021

Warning: Spoilers

Young lass Susan (vapid, but buxom blonde Judy Landers) gets stricken with amnesia after she's almost killed by raving psycho Silk (robustly overplayed to the slimy hilt by Ray Sharkey). Susan winds up incarcerated in an asylum where the staff is crazier than the patients. Worse yet, Silk infiltrates the place as an orderly so he can finish Susan off.

Boy, does director Pierre De Moro happily wallow in the cinematic sleaze: We've got oodles of bare female flesh, a group shower scene, a fierce cat fight, hot girl on girl action, nasty medical experiments being done on hapless innocent women, and Silk even gets it on with two babes in a mud bath. This film further benefits from a top-rate cast of familiar B-movie faces: Mary Woronov as vicious predatory lesbian Dr. Fletcher, Marjoe Gortner as the geeky Dr. Dane, Richard Cox as nice guy Ron, stuntwoman Marneen Fields, the inescapable (and frequently nude) Edy Williams, and Dyanne "Ilsa" Thorne as various inmates, Robert Z'Dar as hulking brute guard Brad, and Lynn Borden as Susan's ill-fated mother. A total scuzzy grindhouse blast.

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"Can't You Just Shut Up And Die?!"...

azathothpwiggins2 September 2019

HELLHOLE begins with the murder of a woman by a madman named Silk (Ray Sharkey), who is dressed in Rob Halford's pajamas and sports an electrocuted Elvis hairdo. The victim's daughter, Susan, witnesses the crime, and survives an attack herself, while Silk slips away like a studded, leather-clad shadow.

The ordeal puts Susan in the Ashland Sanitarium for Women, where she meets the odious Dr. Fletcher (Cult goddess, Mary Woronov!). Susan soon sees Fletcher's sadistically eeevil side! By some astonishing coincidence, Silk works at the hospital too! Luckily, a wondrous shower scene breaks out, culminating in a miraculous Greco-Roman style, kickboxing catfight!

Uh oh!

There's trouble in the cafeteria! Here comes Fletcher and her goon squad, including the halfhearted Dr. Dane (Schlock god, Marjoe Gortner!) and iron-jawed Brad (Cult, Schlock idol, Robert Z'Dar!)! Soon enough, a patient is whisked away, and we are shown Dr. Fletcher's maniacal view of modern medicine! Meanwhile, pointless nudity erupts, and Brad leers a lot. How will Susan ever survive this loony limbo of the lost?

THIS MOVIE CONTAINS: #1- Mad science! #2- Mind-twisting torture! #3- Drug-induced mutations of madness! #4- Heavenly mud therapy! #5- Unnecessary, uncalled-for, unholy nakedness every few seconds! #6- Nurses in big, paper hats! #7- An actual rubber room! #8- The most epic finale since REFORM SCHOOL GIRLS!

Exploitation film fanatics need look no further! You have reached the promised land! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!...

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8/10

Better Than You Might Think..

ottard29 August 2022

As we walk thru the seventh circle of hell with our "lamb to the slaughter" little miss red riding hood - Judy Landers. Not only was the soft-porn homage to the 70's Euro-trash scene. Did you see the nod to the SS-Nazi exploitation films of the 70's?? And. Of course, I almost forgot, - "women in prison" movies. I haven't seen many of the SS-Nazi movies. But I did see Jess Franco's - Ilsa the Wicked (aka Greta the mad Butcher). Which is a tangential member of that group, and a "girl in prison" movie. Moreover, this movie is moody and atmospheric and evokes such classics as 1932's "Island Of lost Souls" and maybe even "The Snake Pit". I could go on; but I will stop here. You be the judge..!!

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Decent WIP Film

Michael_Elliott20 June 2017

Hellhole (1985)

** (out of 4)

Susan (Judy Landers) witnesses her mom murdered due to her having some papers, which could lead her boss to prison. The young woman takes off running and the killer believes he has finished her off but she survives and in order to cover up the crime she is sent to a mental hospital. Once inside the hospital Susan realizes that the evil Dr. Fletcher (Mary Woronov) is doing bizarre experiments on the women.

Pierre De Moro made three films in his short career and this here was his final credit. Producer Samuel Z. Arkoff wanted to make a WIP movie and the end result is something that isn't nearly as raw as the Jess Franco films of the 1970s like BARBED WIRE DOLLS and ILSA: THE WICKED WARDEN but at the same time it's a tad bit sleazier than the majority of the American films from the genre.

As you'd expect, when one makes a WIP movies there's a checklist that the screenwriter goes down. This includes an innocent hot woman. There's also the nudity. There are the drugs. There are the lesbian scenes as well as the lovely shower scenes. There's also the butch-type warden/leader doing the bad experiments. There's also the sweet guy who tries to save the innocent woman. All of that stuff is included here and for the most part it's mildly entertaining as long as you're not expecting an Orson Welles type of film.

The performances are pretty much what you'd expect from a film like this, although I found Landers to be a bit too bland in the lead. Woronov is certainly the best thing about the picture but there's plenty of nice eye-candy as well. The biggest problem with HELLHOLE is the fact that it runs way too long at 95-minutes. The film certainly could have used some editing and the "plot" tries to do way too many things.

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ACADAMY AWARD WINNER...

evildead19784 October 2004

Warning: Spoilers

...FROM THE ACADAMY OF IDIOTS!

Actually, this movie is so entertaining - if you get a group of the right people, you can honestly make your own episode of Mystery Science Theater! Everything about it is so over-the-top bad there's really no way that you can't enjoy it! (For those of you out there whom have been lobotomized here comes some minor spoilers & points of interest)~ What is the best thing about this movie?? Ray Sharkey's hair? Judy Lander's "acting"? The size of Robert Z'Dar's face? The Rick Springfield 1980's super-cool doctor? The plot (none)? The mental institution that is over-run with Playmate looking patients? The fact that every single actress in this flick has no problem taking their clothes off at the drop of a hat? (Except Judy Landers...now that's a CRIME!) The list is endless...it must be seen to be believed...If these type of movies are your cup of tea, by all means check this one out..

Oh yeah! Listen closely for Ray Sharkey's classic line of dialogue at the beginning: "Where'd you hide the papers...IN THE SAUCE??? HUH?!?!?"

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Wonderful drama everyone must see.

fiuwriter17 May 2001

This is one of the best chick flicks out there. No other film captures the essence of love, drama, and the feminine mystique as hellhole. The drama unfolds in a insane ward of a prison. The lovely ladies light up the screen in romp after romp. The wonderful Dr. Fletcher gives a command performance of a lifetime. This film has to be seen to be believed. Drop everything you are doing this very minute and rent or purchase this film.

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