I have this obscure movie on VHS and the cover features Linda Blair in a revealing outfit, holding a machine gun. In the actual movie, she does hold (and fire) a machine gun, BUT: A) Her outfit is a formal dress under a fur coat, B) Her part is a 5-minute cameo (plus a few lines of narration). The rest of "Savage Island" consists of copied-and-pasted footage from TWO Italian/Spanish Women-In-Prison films, one of which I've seen ("Escape from Hell") and one I haven't ("Orinoco - Prison of Sex"). The result is, as you might expect, a complete mess. There is no continuity between the scenes, sometimes even between the shots. 2 women start fighting dressed, in the next shot they are naked (because a lesbian scene in-between has been omitted). In one shot it is night, in the next shot it is day. In one shot the prisoners are in a circle, in the next shot they have formed lines. There are TWO different prison wardens, and the SAME female guard gets killed twice. It's all quite laughable and shameless. Rating: 0 out of 4 stars, pushed up to 0.5 because Linda Blair with a machine gun is sexy.
16 Reviews
Escape from THIS hell.
haildevilman13 May 2007
Escape From Hell??? Prison Of Sex??? Which is it???
This movie su-u-u-u-u-u-u-cked!
Take Linda Blair, put her in furs, have her cap a security guy, (A slumming Penn Jillete.) then put her face to face with a sleazy diamond merchant/slave farm owner. It must have sounded cool at one point.
Both of the early films that were ripped off, and had the Blair footage wrapped around, seemed like passable entertainment. But this horrid mess must have been made as a joke.
No coherence. Characters switching on and off at will. Seemingly endless shots of chicks in jungle gear sweating and running before dying. That does get boring when done wrong. And this was WRONG.
And who/where was that sneering voice coming from? (" Come on! You gotta WOOORRRKKK!!!!")
The late Leon Askin (Gen. Burkhalter in "Hogan's Heroes.") was the lone watchable one. His brief scenes seemed like the only serious ones.
Crap!
This movie su-u-u-u-u-u-u-cked!
Take Linda Blair, put her in furs, have her cap a security guy, (A slumming Penn Jillete.) then put her face to face with a sleazy diamond merchant/slave farm owner. It must have sounded cool at one point.
Both of the early films that were ripped off, and had the Blair footage wrapped around, seemed like passable entertainment. But this horrid mess must have been made as a joke.
No coherence. Characters switching on and off at will. Seemingly endless shots of chicks in jungle gear sweating and running before dying. That does get boring when done wrong. And this was WRONG.
And who/where was that sneering voice coming from? (" Come on! You gotta WOOORRRKKK!!!!")
The late Leon Askin (Gen. Burkhalter in "Hogan's Heroes.") was the lone watchable one. His brief scenes seemed like the only serious ones.
Crap!
Pretty Awful
gavin69428 February 2014
Women who have been captured and sold as slave labor to a South American emerald mine hatch a plan for revolution and revenge.
What this film consists of is footage from "Escape from Hell" (1980) and "Hotel Paradise" (also 1980) spliced together with a new wraparound featuring Linda Blair. The new wraparound is directed by Nicholas Beardsley... but who is Nicholas Beardsley?
Of course, the new version makes no sense because the characters do not match up. The fact it is even comprehensible at all is something of a miracle. (Apparently Charles Band had a hand in creating this, but I am not sure the details on that.)
The two films this came from were both directed by Edoardo Mulargia ("Don't Wait, Django... Shoot!") and written by Sergio Chiusi ("SS Experiment Love Camp"), so if any credit is deserved, it should go to them. But why not just watch their real films?
Sadly, the quality is terrible (even on the Shout Factory release) and I suspect there is not much that can be done about that because the footage clearly did not come from original negatives.
What this film consists of is footage from "Escape from Hell" (1980) and "Hotel Paradise" (also 1980) spliced together with a new wraparound featuring Linda Blair. The new wraparound is directed by Nicholas Beardsley... but who is Nicholas Beardsley?
Of course, the new version makes no sense because the characters do not match up. The fact it is even comprehensible at all is something of a miracle. (Apparently Charles Band had a hand in creating this, but I am not sure the details on that.)
The two films this came from were both directed by Edoardo Mulargia ("Don't Wait, Django... Shoot!") and written by Sergio Chiusi ("SS Experiment Love Camp"), so if any credit is deserved, it should go to them. But why not just watch their real films?
Sadly, the quality is terrible (even on the Shout Factory release) and I suspect there is not much that can be done about that because the footage clearly did not come from original negatives.
"Quit your blubbering!"
moonspinner552 June 2001
Rightfully atrocious. "Orinoco-Prison Of Sex" (a.k.a. "Escape From Hell") was an Italian-Spanish women-as-slaves-on-a-South-American-island-who-revolt thing, brought stateside in 1985, christened with a new title and spiced with fresh footage of Linda Blair as a vengeful "ex-employee." Those looking for some hot nude scenes and/or violent confrontations between sexy women in loincloths are bound to be disappointed (the Italian footage is dark, muddy, and un-erotic--not to mention coy, it cuts away at the best parts). As for Blair, she's amusing wrapped in cheap fur, packing heat and ordering her former captor around with a snarl. But, alas, Linda is once again stuck in a turkey. NO STARS from ****
Amusing garbage.
Hey_Sweden15 August 2015
There's no getting around it: this one is trash of the most wretched, yet irresistible, variety. It takes two existing movies - "Orinoco: Prigioniere del Sesso" and "Femmine Infernali" (both 1980) - and tries to combine them into one "story". This story deals with scantily clad female prisoners in South America who are forced into being slave labour, and searching for emeralds. Some mercenaries come to their aid.
About 10 minutes of new framing material was shot featuring Linda Blair, who didn't want to deceive people into thinking she was the star, despite being prominently featured in the promotional materials. Linda plays Daly, out to seek revenge on dastardly businessman Luker (Leon Askin).
As you might imagine, this gets pretty incoherent, and after a while some viewers may just give up trying to make any sense of things and just go with the flow. The archive footage is plenty sleazy, and will very much satisfy the exploitation loving crowd. There is a lot of full frontal female nudity, and a fair bit of violence. Not only do people get shot, but they fall victim to snakes and leeches as well. The poor quality of the picture is certainly appropriate for this kind of material.
Linda and Leon are fun, as are a number of the foreign performers in the original movies. Among those you may recognize are Anthony Steffen, Ajita Wilson, and Luciano Pigozzi. Hell, there's even a cameo role for none other than Penn Jillette, as a not very competent security guard.
The violence, nudity, and frequent action scenes help to ensure that, while this may be dumb, it isn't boring.
Five out of 10.
About 10 minutes of new framing material was shot featuring Linda Blair, who didn't want to deceive people into thinking she was the star, despite being prominently featured in the promotional materials. Linda plays Daly, out to seek revenge on dastardly businessman Luker (Leon Askin).
As you might imagine, this gets pretty incoherent, and after a while some viewers may just give up trying to make any sense of things and just go with the flow. The archive footage is plenty sleazy, and will very much satisfy the exploitation loving crowd. There is a lot of full frontal female nudity, and a fair bit of violence. Not only do people get shot, but they fall victim to snakes and leeches as well. The poor quality of the picture is certainly appropriate for this kind of material.
Linda and Leon are fun, as are a number of the foreign performers in the original movies. Among those you may recognize are Anthony Steffen, Ajita Wilson, and Luciano Pigozzi. Hell, there's even a cameo role for none other than Penn Jillette, as a not very competent security guard.
The violence, nudity, and frequent action scenes help to ensure that, while this may be dumb, it isn't boring.
Five out of 10.
Gives the Women-In-Prison genre a bad name.
BA_Harrison19 September 2020
Gun-toting babe Daly (Linda Blair) seeks revenge for the pain and suffering endured in a prison camp on a tropical island, where the prisoners are forced to dig for emeralds.
Linda Blair gets top billing and is front and centre on the poster for Savage Island, but the actress only appears in the bookend scenes, and provides an occasional voiceover to try and bring some kind of cohesion to the film's sloppy, central women-in-prison narrative, which has been clumsily edited together from footage from two older films - Escape from Hell and Hotel Paradise (both 1980). Penn Jillette, of Penn and teller fame, also appears in the opening scene, but don't expect him to bring any kind of magic to proceedings: he is shot in the head by Blair within the first minute or so.
Daly explains that, while the women of the island dug for precious gems, a gang of rebels planned to free the prisoners, but this plot-line is difficult to keep track of thanks to cruddy editing, diabolical dubbing, night scenes that are virtually pitch black, and because it is impossible to work out who are the good guys and who are the baddies (with at least one guy - the Tom Savini clone - apparently fighting for both sides). The bulk of the film consists of standard women-in-prison nonsense - communal showers, catfights, sadistic guards etc. - but even with frequent nudity from lots of young women (and transexual actress Ajita Wilson), and the occasional spot of violence, the film is still an unbearable dud.
The jungle bound action ends with the women and the rebels making a bid for freedom, pursued by the prison guards, which leads to some bloody bullet hits, and my favourite scene of the whole sorry mess: a girl falls into some water and emerges covered in leeches, so another of the women grabs a shotgun and blasts leech girl in the stomach, apparently to save her from an even worse death. I didn't even know that leeches were fatal.
The film concludes with Linda shooting the owner of the island with a machine gun and taking his fortune in jewels. How she smuggled an automatic firearm past the man's bodyguard is never explained (the idiot pays for his incompetence with his life - serves him right).
2/10. One of the worst WIP films I have seen.
Linda Blair gets top billing and is front and centre on the poster for Savage Island, but the actress only appears in the bookend scenes, and provides an occasional voiceover to try and bring some kind of cohesion to the film's sloppy, central women-in-prison narrative, which has been clumsily edited together from footage from two older films - Escape from Hell and Hotel Paradise (both 1980). Penn Jillette, of Penn and teller fame, also appears in the opening scene, but don't expect him to bring any kind of magic to proceedings: he is shot in the head by Blair within the first minute or so.
Daly explains that, while the women of the island dug for precious gems, a gang of rebels planned to free the prisoners, but this plot-line is difficult to keep track of thanks to cruddy editing, diabolical dubbing, night scenes that are virtually pitch black, and because it is impossible to work out who are the good guys and who are the baddies (with at least one guy - the Tom Savini clone - apparently fighting for both sides). The bulk of the film consists of standard women-in-prison nonsense - communal showers, catfights, sadistic guards etc. - but even with frequent nudity from lots of young women (and transexual actress Ajita Wilson), and the occasional spot of violence, the film is still an unbearable dud.
The jungle bound action ends with the women and the rebels making a bid for freedom, pursued by the prison guards, which leads to some bloody bullet hits, and my favourite scene of the whole sorry mess: a girl falls into some water and emerges covered in leeches, so another of the women grabs a shotgun and blasts leech girl in the stomach, apparently to save her from an even worse death. I didn't even know that leeches were fatal.
The film concludes with Linda shooting the owner of the island with a machine gun and taking his fortune in jewels. How she smuggled an automatic firearm past the man's bodyguard is never explained (the idiot pays for his incompetence with his life - serves him right).
2/10. One of the worst WIP films I have seen.
Rip-off on "Escape from Hell", to avoid at all cost!
Artemis-911 December 1998
If you are into women-in-prison films, "Escape from Hell" in any good copy near the 89 minute Italian/Spanish original, would entitle you to watch the most erotic, and violent, nude lesbian fight - for possession of the third girl in a cell, between black Ajita Wilson and queen-bee Cintia Lodetti; and a gun duel between the same black fugitive and a Nazi female warden (Christina Lay?) to a mutual gory death. Both fights are at close quarters, and filmed in crude detail, which explains so many "director's cuts" of this film, for different markets.
"Smooth as silk..."
mobius-622 July 1999
"...You're going to remember this for a long time." And I have! Going back a few years, when I must have been so bored as to rent the most ridiculous, low budget films, this gem was etched in my mind. It's full of poorly done over-dubs. Hilarious! "I have some lovely letters and postcards from the outside world. How they ever found their way here is beyond me." Savage beach! A must not rent!
-GG
-GG
Total scum.
BandSAboutMovies9 June 2019
Warning: Spoilers
Savage Island is less of a movie and more a remix of two other women in prison films directed by Edoardo Mulargia, Hotel Paradise and Escape from Hell. The result is a near-incoherent mess of a film that has the same actors playing different roles and appearing and reappearing randomly through the redubbed story. It's mind numbing to say the least.
The real draw, for American VHS and grindhouse audiences, is Linda Blair. To her credit, she didn't want to deceive her fans with this movie, as she's basically only in it for ten minutes. She told the Los Angeles Times that she had it stipulated in her contract that her name could not be above the movie title, nor in bigger print than anybody else's.
That didn't happen. She's on the poster art in high heels, tearing her way out of the poster - and her clothes - clutching a machine gun.
The plot - such as it is - involves women prisoners jailed on a remote island (some would say a Savage Islane) being forced to mine emeralds when they're not engaging in catfights and taking showers.
Meanwhile, Daly (Blair) tells their sordid tale when she's not shooting Penn Jillette in the head or menacing the fat man (Leon Askin, General Burkhalter from Hogan's Heroes) behind it all with her Uzi. These new sequences are directed by Ted Nicolaou (Bad Channels, TerrorVision).
You may think I'm talking down on this scuzzy, grubby, shoddy and scummy affair. Quite the contrary. I watched the whole thing, amazed at the audacity of producer Charles Band and shocked that anyone could release this as an actual film that played in theaters. So to be honest, I kind of loved it. That said, if anyone else was strutting around an LA office with an Uzi other than Linda Blair, the results may have been different.
The real draw, for American VHS and grindhouse audiences, is Linda Blair. To her credit, she didn't want to deceive her fans with this movie, as she's basically only in it for ten minutes. She told the Los Angeles Times that she had it stipulated in her contract that her name could not be above the movie title, nor in bigger print than anybody else's.
That didn't happen. She's on the poster art in high heels, tearing her way out of the poster - and her clothes - clutching a machine gun.
The plot - such as it is - involves women prisoners jailed on a remote island (some would say a Savage Islane) being forced to mine emeralds when they're not engaging in catfights and taking showers.
Meanwhile, Daly (Blair) tells their sordid tale when she's not shooting Penn Jillette in the head or menacing the fat man (Leon Askin, General Burkhalter from Hogan's Heroes) behind it all with her Uzi. These new sequences are directed by Ted Nicolaou (Bad Channels, TerrorVision).
You may think I'm talking down on this scuzzy, grubby, shoddy and scummy affair. Quite the contrary. I watched the whole thing, amazed at the audacity of producer Charles Band and shocked that anyone could release this as an actual film that played in theaters. So to be honest, I kind of loved it. That said, if anyone else was strutting around an LA office with an Uzi other than Linda Blair, the results may have been different.
Its takes the best and sleaziest moments of two unrelated women in jungle prison films and combines them
dbborroughs5 January 2010
Warning: Spoilers
Patchwork women in prison film was made from combining two Euro shockers with some new unrelated footage. The new footage has Linda Blair (who shoots security guard Penn Jillette in an blink and you'll miss it role) going to confront the man who runs a mine in the jungles of South America where women are abused and forced to dig for gems. Blair says she was one of the girls in the camp and once we get the confrontation the film flashes back to a group of women going to the island and being abused.
This is an okay film with some stand out moments. Its very much of its type with all sorts of abuse heaped upon women who eventually revolt and then make a made dash into the jungle, however there are a few moments where the film creates some genuine tension and creepiness that lift it a bit above the typical voyeuristic level that these films normally operate on. Of course its not high enough to make this something you'd want to watch with your mom (unless she liked these sort of films) but if you're in a mood for this sort of thing you could do worse.
This is an okay film with some stand out moments. Its very much of its type with all sorts of abuse heaped upon women who eventually revolt and then make a made dash into the jungle, however there are a few moments where the film creates some genuine tension and creepiness that lift it a bit above the typical voyeuristic level that these films normally operate on. Of course its not high enough to make this something you'd want to watch with your mom (unless she liked these sort of films) but if you're in a mood for this sort of thing you could do worse.
THE OTHER LINDA BLAIR PRISON MOVIE WITH NO LINDA BLAIR
nogodnomasters31 May 2019
Warning: Spoilers
Based on her success in CHAINED HEAT, Linda Blair does another prison girl film without being a prison girl. She does a cameo scene at the beginning and end of the "film" claiming she was part of the girls. The main film was a combination of two foreign films spliced together (much of the same cast) to make one film with some of the rape scenes removed. HOTEL PARADISE and ESCAPE FROM HELL, were the two original films and I would recommend watching them instead.
Guide: Plenty of FF nudity, shower scene (Cristina Lay, trans-sexual Ajita Wilson, Plus many others), break away smocks.
Guide: Plenty of FF nudity, shower scene (Cristina Lay, trans-sexual Ajita Wilson, Plus many others), break away smocks.
A choice squalid chunk of sizzling Eurosleaze
Woodyanders2 January 2014
Warning: Spoilers
A group of women are incarcerated at a brutal prison farm located on a remote island where they are forced to work as slave labor for a South American mining operation. Assisted by a band of jewel thieves, the much mistreated ladies decide to fight back against their cruel captors. This decidedly grim and unpleasant entry in the ever-popular chicks-in-chains exploitation sub-genre certainly covers all the essential seedy bases: Plentiful gratuitous female nudity, a group shower sequence (of course), ferocious catfights, scummy rapist guards, and the unavoidable climactic exciting revolt and subsequent break out. The harsh downbeat tone, an unremittingly sordid atmosphere, the complete dearth of campy humor, and a marked emphasis on sadism all give this perfectly putrid pip an extra foul and unnerving edge. This flick further benefits from a solid cast of familiar European exploitation cinema faces, with especially sturdy contributions from Anthony Steffen as the gallant leader of the jewel thieves, Cristina Lay and Ajita Wilson as a couple of tough and determined inmates, Luciano Rossi as a vicious slimeball, and Luciano Pigozzi as the supremely evil and callous warden. Moreover, it's always a hoot to see Linda Blair act tough while brandishing an Uzi and spitting out a few vile expletives. Leon Askin positively oozes as slimy crime kingpin Luker. Penn Jillette pops up in a fleeting bit role as an ill-fated security guard. The grubby cinematography provides an appropriately washed-out look. The droning redundant synthesizer score by Mark Ryder and Phil Davies likewise possesses a certain cheesy charm. Good scroungy fun.
This is a worthwhile grindhouse style picture
kevin_robbins1 November 2022
Savage Island (1985) is a movie that I recently watched on Amazon Prime. The storyline follows a group of ladies who have been kidnapped and sold into slavery in Africa. They decide to band together and plan an escape, but it won't be easy.
This movie is directed by Ted Nicolaou (Vampire Journals) and stars Linda Blair (The Exorcist), Ajita Wilson (Blue Passion), Anthony Steffen (Django the Bastard), Leon Askin (Hogan's Heroes) and Luciano Rossi (Hotel Paradise).
This is a pretty fun movie. The cinematography is bad, but the settings and cast are pretty solid. There's a snake opening that's fun and a ton of 80's nudity. There's cliche shower scenes, naked swimming, nude fighting and a legendary topless knife fight. The buildup is slow with limited action and mediocre shootouts, but the entire last 25-30 minutes is entertaining and well done. I enjoyed the last shootout and everything about the final escape.
Overall, this is a worthwhile grindhouse picture that is worth seeing once. I would score this a 6/10.
This movie is directed by Ted Nicolaou (Vampire Journals) and stars Linda Blair (The Exorcist), Ajita Wilson (Blue Passion), Anthony Steffen (Django the Bastard), Leon Askin (Hogan's Heroes) and Luciano Rossi (Hotel Paradise).
This is a pretty fun movie. The cinematography is bad, but the settings and cast are pretty solid. There's a snake opening that's fun and a ton of 80's nudity. There's cliche shower scenes, naked swimming, nude fighting and a legendary topless knife fight. The buildup is slow with limited action and mediocre shootouts, but the entire last 25-30 minutes is entertaining and well done. I enjoyed the last shootout and everything about the final escape.
Overall, this is a worthwhile grindhouse picture that is worth seeing once. I would score this a 6/10.
"I Can Tell You're A Woman Who Drives A Hard Bargain!"...
azathothpwiggins28 September 2021
Daly (Linda Blair) walks into a high-rise, pulls a gun, and shoots a security guard (Penn Jillette!) in the forehead. Daly's there to tell her former employer about her mistreatment at the hands of his jungle thugs. This is done through flashbacks of events having nothing to do with Daly.
The "plot" has to do with emeralds and those profiting from them. However, it's mostly scenes of sweaty women fighting, sweaty men murdering each other, and sweaty women losing their clothes while fighting. This is punctuated by voiceover narration from Daly, to remind us that this monotonous mess is supposed to make some sort of sense.
Not even the perpetual parade of full frontal female nudity can ease the agony of this cinematic dog barf!...
The "plot" has to do with emeralds and those profiting from them. However, it's mostly scenes of sweaty women fighting, sweaty men murdering each other, and sweaty women losing their clothes while fighting. This is punctuated by voiceover narration from Daly, to remind us that this monotonous mess is supposed to make some sort of sense.
Not even the perpetual parade of full frontal female nudity can ease the agony of this cinematic dog barf!...
Hatchet Exploitation
Michael_Elliott11 May 2014
Savage Island (1985)
** (out of 4)
An escaped convict (Linda Blair) who was tortured manages to find the man (Leon Askin) who ran the operation. She then holds him at gunpoint while she explains the ordeal that she had to go through. This butcher job from Charles Band and Empire Pictures is actually two EuroTrash films, ESCAPE FROM HELL and HOTEL PARADISE, which were originally shot back-to-back with the same cast. Those two films are edited down in one 79-minute movie, which features newly shot stuff with Blair at the start and end. Why Band decided to shoot the new scenes is anyone's guess but he must have thought Blair on the poster would get more ticket sales. Overall this film is hard to fully judge because on one hand you're basically watching a chopped down version of ESCAPE FROM HELL and why do that when the full thing is available? You might as well watch that and if you must see the new scenes with Blair you can just fast forward through everything else here. As far as the new footage goes, it's all done pretty cheaply and doesn't feature anything that you must see. As for the two films that are edited into this, they both seem a lot better as there's all sorts of nudity, sex and of course silly violence. Ajita Wilson plays the lead prisoner who starts up a fight as the women are being killed and beaten in order to dig up diamonds for their evil owner. As for SAVAGE ISLAND, it's an ultra cheap film but with all the naughtiness going on, it's worth watching for exploitation fans.
** (out of 4)
An escaped convict (Linda Blair) who was tortured manages to find the man (Leon Askin) who ran the operation. She then holds him at gunpoint while she explains the ordeal that she had to go through. This butcher job from Charles Band and Empire Pictures is actually two EuroTrash films, ESCAPE FROM HELL and HOTEL PARADISE, which were originally shot back-to-back with the same cast. Those two films are edited down in one 79-minute movie, which features newly shot stuff with Blair at the start and end. Why Band decided to shoot the new scenes is anyone's guess but he must have thought Blair on the poster would get more ticket sales. Overall this film is hard to fully judge because on one hand you're basically watching a chopped down version of ESCAPE FROM HELL and why do that when the full thing is available? You might as well watch that and if you must see the new scenes with Blair you can just fast forward through everything else here. As far as the new footage goes, it's all done pretty cheaply and doesn't feature anything that you must see. As for the two films that are edited into this, they both seem a lot better as there's all sorts of nudity, sex and of course silly violence. Ajita Wilson plays the lead prisoner who starts up a fight as the women are being killed and beaten in order to dig up diamonds for their evil owner. As for SAVAGE ISLAND, it's an ultra cheap film but with all the naughtiness going on, it's worth watching for exploitation fans.
Junky example of the WIP genre
Wizard-814 February 2015
Warning: Spoilers
I have to make a confession: though I am a big fan of B movies, I have never found the "women in prison" B movie genre all that appealing. Despite what the genre promises, I have only found to date one such film to be worth my time ("Fugitive Girls", if you must know.) As you've probably guessed, I didn't care much for "Savage Island". For the most part, it's a really dull and dreary movie, with long sections where little to no plot is being executed. It's also a cheap exercise, with minimum production values, sometimes even less than that. The movie does boast a decent amount of nudity, often being the full frontal kind, but other attempts at exploitation - action, sex, etc. - pretty much fall completely flat. Oh, and if you are a Linda Blair fan, be warned that her appearance consists of just a few minutes of the total running time, so she doesn't get to do much. How anyone thought this deserved a DVD release, I cannot say.
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