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.

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 Silkis 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.

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.

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.