Scrubbers (1982) (Movie Review)

Scrubbers (1982) If you found this film boring as hell, I suggest you do just two years in prison and then we’ll talk. The brutal reality of life in a women’s prison where violence is omnipresent.

Here’s the story: Two young girls escape from an open reformatory, but for different reasons: Annetta wants to visit her daughter, who is being educated in a women’s convent, and Carol hopes to be recaptured and sent to a closed reformatory. That’s where her friend Doreen is. Carol’s plan works, but she has to face the fact that Doreen has made a new friend in the meantime. When Annetta is arrested at the women’s convent and sent to the same closed reformatory, she suspects Carol of betraying her and seeks revenge.

In French, they called the film ‘Dangereuse Humiliation’! Which means Dangerous Humiliation. And in German, it’s ‘Blackout im Höllenparadies’, which means: Blackout in the paradise of hell!

A film with a feminist interpretation of the vulgar ‘women’s prison film’ genre, which tells the story of violence between women and their relationships with each other without voyeurism, which is relatively and slightly less violent than its male predecessor ‘Scum’ from 1979. This female version is also a little lighter, a lot more punk and with humour, despite the tragic, totally dramatic side. That’s why I really liked it, even more than its predecessor.

It goes without saying that those who adored Scum and consider it a masterpiece will theoretically hate this female version and find it pathetic, pointless, laughable and horrifying. To each his own, once again!

My Rating