Escape From Hellhole: Limited Slipcover Edition – Terror Vision (Blu-ray)

Theatrical Release Date: Indonesia/Philippines, 1983
Director: Maman Firmansyah
Writer: Pitradjaya Burnama
Cast: Gudi Sintara, Dicky Zulkarnaen, Siska Widowati, Ramli Ivar, Leily Sagita, Youstine Rais

Release Date: November 14th, 2023
Approximate Running Time: 103 Minutes 33 Seconds
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Widescreen / 1080 Progressive / MPEG-4 AVC
Rating: NR
Sound: LPCM Mono Indonesian
Subtitles: English
Region Coding: Region A
Retail Price: $24.99

"Indri (Gudi Sintara) thinks she has found her ticket out of rural life when friend Kartina (Siska Widowaty) shares an opportunity to relocate to the city and start life anew. What Indri doesn’t know is that Kartina has sold her to wealthy businessman M.G. (Dicky Zulkarnaen), a sadist who delights in brutalizing virgins for his own pleasure. Indri has no intent of surrendering herself to the madman, but ends up thrown into a makeshift prison where she joins a group of women being abused by carnage-hungry guards. Now it is up to Indri to lead her fellow captives in the fight for freedom and to Escape From Hell Hole." - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 4.5/5

Here’s the information provided about this release's transfer, "a new 2k HD transfer from the original camera negative."

Escape From Hellhole comes on a 50 GB dual layer Blu-ray.

Disc Size: 36.2 GB

Feature: 28.1 GB

The source used for this transfer is in great shape. Flesh tones and colors look correct, image clarity and compression are solid, and black levels are strong throughout. That said, this is one of the best-looking transfers for an Indonesian film that I have seen to date.

Audio: 4.25/5

This release comes with one audio option, a LPCM mono mix in Indonesian with removable English subtitles. This audio sounds clean, clear, and balanced. Range-wise, this track sounds very good; the action sequences sound robust.

Extras:

Extras for this release include an interview with producer Gope Samtani titled It Came From Rapi Films (5 minutes 18 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an interview with actress Leily Sagita titled My Name is Helga (23 minutes 23 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Indonesian with removable English subtitles), an interview with actress Youstine Rais titled The She-Wolf of MG (19 minutes 30 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Indonesian with removable English subtitles), and a limited-edition slipcover.

Other extras include promos for Parasites, Killer, and Srigala.

Summary:

A woman is tricked into living with a man who abducts virgins and forces them to be his wife or suffer a hellish fate in his prison camp for women.

Escape From Hellhole has all the core elements of a WIP (Women in Prison) film. And yet it is so much more; it is also an action film and a down-and-dirty exploitation film. That said, despite nudity often being a staple of exploitation cinema, there is no nudity in Escape From Hellhole. The closest that this film comes to nudity is a baby bath scene where a woman is obviously wearing underwear, and the foam from the bubble bath strategically covers up her naughty parts.

Based solely on the premise, you know that Escape From Hellhole is going to be a wild ride. That main bad guy, a pimp named MG, who's always on the lookout for virgins And though most of these women spurn his advances, he refuses to move on to another victim. Also, a lot of women would rather die than have sex with MG and his henchmen. From there, they use various means of torture in the hope of breaking the women.

Though a lot of foreign films, even those from Indonesia, were released in other parts of the world, including English-dubbed versions for English-speaking countries, more often than not, English-dubbed tracks do not match the quality of an original-language track. Having seen an English-dubbed version of Escape From Hellhole and now being able to see it in Indonesian, I can definitely say that it plays better in Indonesian than it does in English.

There is an ample amount of violence, with a wide variety of torture devices used on the female prisoners. The narrative is filled with absurd moments, which ensure there is never a dull moment. And an explosive finale where the women finally get their chance to turn the table on their captors. Another strength of Escape From Hellhole is its delirious dialog, which is unintentionally funny. Ultimately, despite its lack of nudity, Escape From Hellhole is actually a solid WIP film that fans of this genre are sure to enjoy.

Escape From Hellhole gets a definitive release from Terror Vision, highly recommended.

Written by Michael Den Boer