Virgins from Hell – Mondo Macabro (DVD)

Theatrical Release Date: Indonesia, 1987
Director: Ackyl Anwari
Cast: Enny Beatrice, Yenny Farida, Leily Sagita, Nina Anwar, Ratna Debby, Yetty Laurens, Harry Capri, Uckie Kartolo

Release Date: January 31st, 2005
Approximate Running Time: 92 Minutes 35 Seconds
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Anamorphic Widescreen
Rating: NR
Sound: Dolby Digital Stereo English
Subtitles: N/A
Region Coding: Region 0 NTSC
Retail Price: OOP

"The gang is led by two girls who were forced to watch as the leader of the drug syndicate murdered their parents and stole their land. To take revenge they train a gang of hot biker babes to take on Mr Tiger, the bad guy. Unfortunately, they lose the battle and are taken prisoner. Incarcerated in a women's prison camp they find themselves playthings of the camps vicious lesbian wardress. But worse - they are to be used as guinea pigs in an experiment aimed at producing an aphrodisiac drug that will turn all women into helpless sex slaves!" - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 3/5

Here’s the information provided about this release's transfer, "Digitally Remastered in high definition".

Virgins from Hell comes of a dual layer DVD.

Disc Size: 5.2 GB

Outside of some minor instances of print defects and a few scratches, the bulk of this transfer source is in very good shape. Flesh tones look correct, colors look very good, the image generally looks crisp, black levels are not always convincing, and any compression-related issues are not a deal-breaker.

Audio: 2.75/5

This release comes with one audio option, a Dolby Digital stereo mix in English. Range-wise, things tend to sound limited as time passes, dialog does come through clearly enough to follow, and action sequences generally sound very good. That said, there are a few instances where the music sounds distorted.

Extras:

Extras on the DVD with the feature film include a theatrical trailer for Virgins from Hell (2 minutes 56 seconds, Dolby Digital mono English, no subtitles), a text essay titled Women in Chains - An Overview of the W.I.P. Movie written by Pete Tombs, and a Mondo Macabro preview reel.

Extras on a second DVD include an archival documentary titled Fantasy Films from Indonesia (24 minutes 55 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English and Indonesian with burnt in English subtitles for Indonesian), and a collection of Indonesian exploitation trailers titled Destination Jakarta (69 minutes 31 seconds, Dolby Digital mono English and Indonesian, no English subtitles).

The titles of the trailers included are The Snake Queen, The Devil’s Sword, The Warrior, The Warrior And The Ninja, The Warrior Against The Blind Swordsman, The Blind Warrior, Virgins From Hell, Escape From Hell Hole, Blazing Battle, Hell Raiders, Tiger Commandos, Freedom Force, Daredevil Commandos, The Terrorists, Final Score, Violent Killer, Bloody Vengeance, Revenge Of Ninja, Primitives, Slave of Satan, and Mystics in Bali.

All of the trailers are in English except Slave of Satan, which is in Indonesian; there are no English subtitles.

Summary:

A girl biker gang led by two sisters, Shelia and Karen, infiltrates and robs a casino owned by the sadistic Mr. Tiger. After the heist, Shelia convinces the other girls that they should help Karen and her take down the diabolical Mr. Tiger, who killed their parents in cold blood. The girls all agree, and they launch an all-out assault on Mr. Tiger’s compound. It soon becomes apparent that Mr. Tiger knew they were coming all along, and he sets a trap for them. Once the girls are in his custody, he tortures them and uses them as guinea pigs for the drug he manufactures. This drug is the ultimate sexual aphrodisiac, and no woman will be safe if it is unleashed on the world market for men to buy.

Virgins from Hell is a down-and-dirty melting pot of genres. It is part action film, part W.I.P. film, and an ample amount of sleaze is thrown in for good measure. The narrative is driven by two sisters revenge against Mr. Tiger, the man who killed their parents. The narrative does a great job of building momentum as it goes from one outlandish moment to the next.

Though it is clear that Virgins from Hell is a film working on a very limited budget, the result is a film that often exceeds the sum of its parts. Notably, when it comes to the well-executed action sequences, they never disappoint, as do the stylish visuals like the crane shot that opens the film.

The customs wore by the lovely biker ladies are a product of 1980’s fashion and look like something one would expect a groupie of a hair metal band to wear. These women may sometimes play the victim, but that doesn’t mean that when it comes time to lay it all on the line, they don’t kick some serious asses.

Outside of spending part of the film in a cell, there is not that much that makes Virgins from Hell your typical woman in prison film. That said, the ladies' look and their tough exterior reminded me of Toei’s Pinky Violence films.

The most memorable performance is Dicky Zulkarnaen’s (Escape from Hellhole) delirious portrayal of Mr. Tiger, a sadistic villain who has a strong fashion sense. If the score gives you a feeling of deja vu, that is because it uses music cues from David Lynch’s Dune, and there is another music cue that sounds a lot like The Moody Blues Nights in White Satin. Ultimately, Virgins from Hell is a film that makes little or no sense at all, yet despite or may be of its flaws, it makes for a highly entertaining film.

In recent years, there has been a renewed interest in Indonesian cinema, with Severin Films and Terror Vision releasing several films on Blu-ray. There has even been some talk that Mondo Macabro might be releasing some Indonesian films on Blu-ray. It has been 18 years since Mondo Macabro released Virgins from Hell on DVD. Hopefully it is a film that they might upgrade to Blu-ray, or maybe another boutique label will give it a much-needed updated audio/video presentation.

Written by Michael Den Boer