hellhole 1985, aka "we're not actually gonna show hole but we might as well have"

[miscellanium]

in my hellsing server we were discussing the possibility of watching the polish film "hellhole" (2022) together so i checked to see if it was available anywhere or whether it'd need torrenting, and learned that there was a 1985 film with the exact same title but a wildly different plot summary. my partner and i decided to watch it because we were both intrigued by the outrageous premise and also the fact that one of the characters was played by a famous ex-evangelist preacher (i want to see the documentary about him, "marjoe" from 1972) and boy oh boy what a ride.

i've watched a couple exploitation films before but i feel like i'm never prepared for the reality of them, lol. the true star of the movie imo was ray sharkey playing an Evil Leather Punk who went by the nom de guerre of silk - he was so fucking funny and over-the-top he made even the relatively boring parts of the movie worth it. (i'm sorry, as somebody who's mostly interested in men i'm very particular about the type of woman i find attractive..... if you like seeing lots of conventionally attractive women get in fights, naked or otherwise, and have erotic drug-taking scenes together then this is the movie for you by a mile.) i say "relatively" because tbh i found the whole thing fascinating in an anthropological way, but idk if it's a movie i'd recommend unless you also enjoy watching exploitation movies for what they say about the people involved in the production. it also has vibes of re-animator and i was amused to realize they came out the same year. it'd be interesting to read an argument connecting movies about medical malpractice vis-a-vis innovation to the visibility of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s.

i want to see the other things sharkey was in now because he was incredible. marjoe was good too, though his performance was more restrained than sharkey's (which isn't saying a lot tbh but he played it more normal). every time they said his character's name, dr. dane, i had to do a mental double take haha. i also liked mary woronov - she has a very striking face and she owned the role she was given. it was fun discovering i'd seen her before in "the house of the devil", though she would've been much older in that one. i'd like to see more of her movies some time when i have the chance.

speaking of movies, though, i want to do another danepost soon. i think it'll be bear island, since that was on the last poll, unless people would prefer to read about the national lampoon movie.... or i might do the "control of inmates" short since i might already have all the screenshots necessary for that. if you have a preference for some reason, let me know in the comments!

Comments

[shadowbliss]

Nice

[pendulumscale]

this brooklyn bitch made the movie worth it lol. i loved this weird punk dude!




im still internally cringing at him referring to himself as "daddy" lmao. and the weird nursery rhymes he'd sing while giving DA CHOKE.

when image searching for this dude, i noticed that dr. fletcher's robe has a red trim on it, and i don't know if i should give this movie enough credit to say that was a symbol to connect her and silk's motivations more directly:


very interesting movie. i also found it interesting that the hospital ladies also had gay relationships that were more normal. i was worried that dr. fletcher would be the icky, older woman lesbian preying on all of these innocent straight ladies, but i was pleasantly surprised. im glad we stumbled across this hellhole :)

[miscellanium]

thanks for the images - didn't want to risk trying to find ones while composing this at work, lol. love that weirdo and his unique fashion taste when it comes to sunglasses!!

that's a nice catch with the red trim, though i agree that it's hard to say whether it was intentional. the movie did a lot of surprisingly nice things with color throughout so it might just be a happy coincidence, or have a different symbolism intended.

[ichthyocentaurs]

Out of curiosity I looked up Sharkey in my punks in movies book (they seemed to miss this one though) and his performances are praised in du-beat-e-o and scenes from the class struggle in beverly hills (where his character is described as a sex-crazed bisexual butler). Obviously I can't personally vouch for either of these but they might be interesting if you wanna see more of this guy.

[miscellanium]

i'm simultaneously surprised at the news they missed this one and not shocked at all that this movie would be left off the list since it's not particularly notable in any regard, at least not the way either of those movies seem to be. "sex-crazed bisexual butler" sounds like quite the character, and the movie sounds interesting too. def gong on my list, thanks for the heads up!

[tempural]

Oooh both Hellhole AND Marjoe are good movie recs to keep in mind. I looked up Ray Sharkey's look in this movie, and that hair AND stache are to die for. I'd never thought about the theme of "medical malpractice vis-a-vis innovation to the visibility of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s" til you mentioned it in this post, but that IS certainly a theme I'd love to read more about now!

And now I gotta think about the fact that this child preacher was a millionaire and ended up doing cheesy acting... love the world we live in!

[miscellanium]

i'd have to watch more movies on that theme before attempting a proper essay and i don't know if that's a project i want to tackle right now, but there's a lot of food for thought there!

if you end up watching marjoe before i do, feel free to lmk what you think :D