Escape from Hell (1980)

Highly Overrated But Still Good

From my favorite movies..

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Everyone giving this a good review is just running their mouths about the horrible sex scenes. Go buy a porno. REALLY, just go buy a porno. How dumb. A bunch of sex-crazed sickos lusting over these dumb sex scenes with dirty ugly women with 70's bushes writing pathetic excuses for reviews.Most likely fat losers who can't get laid, so they sit around getting excited over this worthless garbage.Get a life. This movie sucks. I've seen 100's of horror and thriller flicks, and this just really blows.

A film so good they made it twice (they shot the equally lurid `Hotel Paradise' at the same time), and even released a scratch mix version called `Savage Island' with Linda Blair which wasn't so good. We all know by now that the plot involves a couple of dozen half naked women being terrorised by the brutal guards in a jungle prison camp. It also has a host of titillating titles which translate as `The Torture Camp of the Dear Witches', `The Dear Witches of the Rio Cannibale' `Escapees from the Love Camp' and `Infernal Women', although that was the original. In Britain it was called `Hell Prison' and back in 1980 when I saw it the cover was enough to get me interested, probably a bit too interested. I've seen it twice since and might even buy the DVD one day.On the cast, everyone seems to know about the late Ajita Wilson, but have you noticed that Christina Lai (Vivien) appears in Moonraker for all of two seconds (credited there as Christina Hui)? So 1979 was a big year for her. All of which set me to thinking who she really was, and what was her real name. Well, she was Miss Italy 1978 (then known as Loren Cristina Mai). Further `research' reveals that Zaira Zoccheddu, who plays `Lucy' was a Miss World contestant in 1974, but she finished nowhere. Don't you just love the internet?Also Anna Maria Panaro (aka Annamaria Pace) appeared in a couple of `Sword and Sandal' epics in the 60s and then seems to have disappeared until she turned up in an episode of Sex and the City. Here she plays `Marie Antoinette' who pretends to be mad and has an affair with a dog to keep the guards off her case, smart move.Handsome Serafino Profumo (`Martinez') has a scary list of film credits, though I think the IMDB has missed at least one of those icky Italian Nazi-sex epics of the 70s. And Brazilian born Anthony Steffen did a lot of spaghetti westerns before landing his greatest role here as the alcoholic doctor.Wow, there's certainly more to this skin-fest than meets the eye. I'm going to write a thesis on this movie. Or maybe start a fan club which is long overdue. Help me out and I guarantee a million hits.Whoever has the rights should be informed that some of us are crying out for the director's cut. Or maybe we could arrange a 25th anniversary reunion somewhere in Italy.

Great family entertainment! OK, maybe not.... But, man, what an excellent piece of sleaze. Great sex scenes (in the first sex scene you can see that the girl is actually performing REAL oral sex on the male guard),the stand-out being the sweaty lesbian scene in the jail cell... very steamy. The rape scenes are a little too rough and suprisingly realistic (one guard holds the lead actress while the other gropes and performs REAL oral sex her) but my guess is that the cast is probably of the hardcore background due to the scenes they perform in this film. It may not have the wit of Caged Heat or the originality of The Big Bird Cage but it sure does know the right parts to imitate. While this may not be the "watch with the girlfriend" type movie it's a great guilty pleasure... and one hell of a Sleazy/Trashy/Morally devoid piece of filth!!! GOD, I LOVE IT! 9/10.

OK,I've seen over 100 Troma films, and some of them are pretty bad. "Sizzle Beach U.S.A." was horrible, and "I Was A Teenage TV Terrorist" was unwatchable, but this is THE WORST FILM IN THE TROMA LIBRARY!A bunch of women are kept in a prison and tortured as they try to escape.This is really terrible. Even as exploitation films go. Doris Wishman and Hershall Gordon Lewis would probably kill the director if they saw this poor excuse for an cult film. Avoid this movie at all costs.