An unlucky woman’s mother is murdered by a scarf-wielding killer named Silk, leaving the woman injured, traumatised and suffering from amnesia. She’s committed to a mental institution, where Silk follows her, looking for the papers he was trying to get from her mother. And Silk’s only the beginning of her problems, since the asylum is run by a mad doctor, performing experiments in chemical lobotomies!
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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.
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.
...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?!?!?"
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.