The film begins with a ragged overhead shot in a Casino with the theme music from Daivd Lynch's film of "Dune" sounding as if it might be playing on a jukebox in the casino (though this is probably due to the dicey nature of the original sound elements Mondo Macabro were stuck using), and before the night is over some unlucky fellow is going to get shot in the balls. This is, I guess, a typical Indonesian night in the world of "Virgins From Hell" an eastern import from 1987 that reveals just how much of the day-glo colors and big hair of Western pop imagery had seeped across Asia by that time.

An all-woman biker gang, the group that gives the film its title, attacks the Casino and end up being captured and interred in a prison/experimental laboratory where all kinds of experiments in hedonism seem to be going on. Shake all these disparate elements and you have an interesting little cocktail -- part gangster film, biker movie, women in prison flick and even a little science fiction thrown in for good measure.

Inside the prison, you see, there's a drug being developed that will serve as the ultimate aphrodisiac, and there are a number of attempts to get this drug to work on the women and they all prove to be somewhat futile. These gals are not about to give in to the louts that run this prison, and drug or not drug, they will not be moved to change their minds (at least most of the girls don't anyway -- there are a couple of turncoats in the bunch). The leaders of the gang are too bent on revenge, since it was the cads who run the prison that slaughtered their parents, oh so many years ago.

Will the girls escape? Will there be a big gunfight? Will there be a gratuitous cranial meltdown onscreen? Well, you'll just have to watch and see.

Strictly on the basis of its audacity in mixing generic elements and the crazed color and design elements screaming through its visuals, the film is worth checking out. This is in spite of some flat, even lackadaisical direction from Ackyl Anwari, garish dubbing that makes every single one of the characters sound like a cartoon, and some baffling musical cues (the bit from Dune is not the only note sharp eared film fans will notice is cribbed from other films) that constantly threaten to run this off the rails.

If I were reviewing strictly the movie, I'd have to recommend this strictly as a rental-only item, but the good folks at Mondo Macabro have included a second disc that makes this title definitely worth some shelf space. Destination: Jakarta is an assortment of trailers from Rapi films, the studio behind Virgins From Hell, that just might make you want to seek out some more of these films. I myself am making it a point to find the films "Snake Queen" and "The Warrior" on dvd. In fact, judging from the trailers, Virgins From Hell might be the tamest of the studio's productions. Put this on for an hour or so of great entertainment. There's also a documentary, "Indonesian Exploitation" that further whets the appetite for exploration into the genre films of Indonesia. Interviews with personalities such as director Tjut Dhalil, who directed "Mystics In Bali", probably the best-known Indonesian horror film, and actor Barry Prima, who played a number of seemingly invincible heroes in action films of the day. provide a good overview of the film industry as it was. In celebrating yet another corner of the film world that may be unknown to most viewers, Mondo Macabro prove themselves once again to be real ambassadors of world cinema.

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