Hellhole is a 1985 American exploitation/horror movie directed by Pierre de Moro.
Susan (Judy Landers) watches her mother die at the hands of an eccentric killer named Silk (Ray Sharkey). Silk fails to kill Susan, who develops amnesia in response and is committed to a mental hospital. Silk doesn't give up and disguises himself as an orderly to try and get her, but he's not Susan's only problem, as she also has to contend with the hospital's deranged director, Dr. Fletcher (Mary Woronov), who performs dangerous experiments on her patients in secret.
No relation to Hellhole (2022).
Tropes:
- Big Bad Ensemble: Dr. Fletcher with her inhumane experiments and the people trying to assassinate Susan are unrelated to each other.
- Cat Fight: During the communal shower scene, the audience is treated to two topless women wrestling.
- Cloth Fu: Silk kills his victims by strangling them with a scarf.
- Girls Behind Bars: It takes place in a mental hospital instead of a prison, but it still has a lot of the same beats and cliches as a "women in prison" film; you've got multiple women stuck in a place they can't leave of their own volition, fanservicey communal showers, lesbianism of questionable consent, cafeteria riots...
- He Knows Too Much: Why Susan is being targeted for assassination; she's in possession of some papers that contain compromising information regarding a Dr. Monroe. The audience is never privy as to what's in those papers or what Dr. Monroe's crimes are, and they seem to have nothing to do with Dr. Fletcher. Regardless, Susan is in constant danger because of it.
- I Don't Like the Sound of That Place: The titular "Hellhole" is a nickname for the place where unruly patients are dragged into to become subjects for Dr. Fletcher's experimentation. While the other patients don't know exactly what goes down there, they know it can't be good since the patients sent there never return.
- Ironic Nursery Tune: Silk is fond of creepily singing nursery tunes (specifically "London Bridge Is Falling Down" with altered lyrics and "Three Blind Mice") while stalking and murdering his victims.
- Mad Doctor: Dr. Fletcher is trying to create a drug for chemical lobotomy; unfortunately this involves experimenting on her patients, with deadly results. Her colleague further suggests that her true motives may not be all that noble and that she gets sexually excited by the whole procedure.
- Shower Scene: There's a communal shower scene full of topless and fully naked women, with Silk's girlfriend Vera sensually scrubbing another woman in an attempt to get information out of her.
- Strapped to an Operating Table: Dr. Fletcher has her test subjects strapped to tables, rendering them helpless to her cruel and deadly experiments.
- Trauma-Induced Amnesia: Silk's successful murder of Susan's mother and failed attempt on her life causes her to develop amnesia regarding what happened, which is why she's committed to the mental hospital.
