El agujero del infierno

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.