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Scrubbers

  • 1982
  • R
  • 1h 33m
IMDb RATING
5.6/10
633
YOUR RATING
Kathy Burke and Chrissie Cotterill in Scrubbers (1982)
Trailer For Scrubbers
Play trailer1:16
1 Video
25 Photos
Prison DramaDrama

A film in feminist reading of the vulgar genre of the 'women's prison film', which without voyeurism tells of violence among women and their relationships with each other.A film in feminist reading of the vulgar genre of the 'women's prison film', which without voyeurism tells of violence among women and their relationships with each other.A film in feminist reading of the vulgar genre of the 'women's prison film', which without voyeurism tells of violence among women and their relationships with each other.

  • Director
    • Mai Zetterling
  • Writers
    • Roy Minton
    • Jeremy Watt
    • Mai Zetterling
  • Stars
    • Amanda York
    • Chrissie Cotterill
    • Elizabeth Edmonds
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    5.6/10
    633
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Mai Zetterling
    • Writers
      • Roy Minton
      • Jeremy Watt
      • Mai Zetterling
    • Stars
      • Amanda York
      • Chrissie Cotterill
      • Elizabeth Edmonds
    • 11User reviews
    • 3Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • Videos1

    Scrubbers
    Trailer 1:16
    Scrubbers

    Photos24

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    Top cast38

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    Amanda York
    • Carol Howden
    Chrissie Cotterill
    • Annetta Brady
    Elizabeth Edmonds
    Elizabeth Edmonds
    • Kathleen
    Kate Ingram
    • Eddie
    Mandi Symonds
    Mandi Symonds
    • Mac
    • (as Amanda Symonds)
    Kathy Burke
    Kathy Burke
    • Glennis
    Debby Bishop
    • Doreen
    • (as Debbie Bishop)
    Eva Mottley
    • Pam
    Imogen Bain
    • Sandy
    Honey Bane
    • Molly
    Camille Davis
    • Sharon
    Rachel Weaver
    Rachel Weaver
    • Gwen
    • (as Rachael Weaver)
    Dawn Archibald
    • Mary
    Faith Tingle
    • Hilary
    Lilian Rostkowska
    • Phyllis
    Anna Mackeown
    • Eva
    Dana Gillespie
    Dana Gillespie
    • Budd
    Pauline Melville
    • Crow
    • Director
      • Mai Zetterling
    • Writers
      • Roy Minton
      • Jeremy Watt
      • Mai Zetterling
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews11

    5.6633
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    Featured reviews

    7videorama-759-859391

    Prison film needs better scrubbing

    You may be expecting this to be Scum, but for women. You've rented the wrong movie. I had a few hangups with this one. For most of the part I was really trying to make sense of the film. I really expected this to be heavy, scary, full on, but No. Even the top dog, who ends up leaving the joint, isn't really bad, probably a little bad in the discreet way. The plot has two girls escaping, one, a bi mother who wants to collect her baby who's been taken from her, and the other girl, Carol, her lesbian lover just wants to get caught. When the two end back in the clink, the bi mother later, the story kind of becomes like in Bad Boys, where the bi mother is p..ed off at Carol, who thinks she dobbed her in, but it's Carol who then becomes pi..ed off because her returned cellmate has shacked up with a new bird. Funny as it's gonna sound, the high point of this film, is that prisoner's singing where she just won't shut up. You hear her a few times, through the film. Scrubbers is depressing, yes, but it just falls short on a lot of things. It's a too ordinary film, a big problem here, where it's plot has started from anywhere, and has left off at the end, as if half story, if you can relate to what I'm finished. It just didn't have a solid discipline of story. Scum stayed with you. This is more forgettable. A scrubber is a term for a low class of English woman.
    6dfsqvgnwx

    Reminds me of badgirls

    Just reminds me a bit of bad girls but squashed into a film so it doesn't really make sense.

    Passed about of time so I can't complain as I've saw worse and am subjected to worse on a nightly basis with soaps.

    Probably wouldn't watch it again.
    4Theo Robertson

    An Inferior Role Reversal Of SCUM

    As everyone seems to have noted SCRUBBERS seems to be nothing more than SCUM made for a female audience . The structures are very similar ( Hardly surprising since SCUM author Roy Minton co-wrote this ) with a relatively thread bare plot getting in the road of episodic incidents . Even the fact that we see British TV stars like Robbie Coltrane ( More or less unrecognisable in a small role ) , Kathy Burke ( As Waynetta Slob ! )and Pat Wicks from EASTENDERS ( Before she met Frank Butcher ) make comparisions with SCUM inevitable

    But when all is said and done this a very poor follow up to SCUM mainly because of three reasons

    1 ) The poor acting . Despite being a low budget movie the cast of SCUM at least played their parts with intensity especially Ray Winstone . There`s no such acting tour de force here and if memory serves me right much of the acting is plain awful

    2 ) There`s no real stand out scene as in SCUM that people discuss like the scene in the greenhouse . There are slightly sickening scenes like the puppet show but they`re unconvincing and seem written in to shock a blase audience . Mind you could say the same with the greenhouse scene in scum so I don`t know if it`s a valid criticism

    3 ) What is a valid criticism is that there`s no great lines to qoute in SCRUBBERS . Try discussing SCUM without saying " Where`s yer tool ? " or " I`m the daddy now " or " You want f***in` stripping ? "

    A needless and inferior follow up to SCUM probably made to cash in on the success of the 1979 film which became a massive hit on video round about the same time
    claudio_carvalho

    A Common Story With Good Performance, Horrible Pronunciation and Characters not Well Developed

    The lesbian Carol Howden (Amanda York) and the troublemaker Annetta Brady (Chrissie Cotterill) escape from a reformatory for different reasons: Carol wants be arrested again and to go to Borstal, where her girlfriend is imprisoned, and Anneta wants to see her daughter in a foster house. They both are sent to Borstal, a prison for young women, where the whole story takes place. Annetta blames Carol for their new arresting. This English movie has a good performance of the cast. However, the characters are so badly developed that we, viewers, do not know the reasons and the motives why the women are confined in such a place. Their accents are horrible and the story has nothing different or special comparing with other movies of this theme. Watchable and forgettable. My vote is six.

    Title (Brazil): 'Aonde Nasce o Crime' ('Where The Crime is Born')
    1danielgrantwalsh

    Rubbish and boring

    Couldn't bear to watch the end of it as got seriously bored with 28 mins to go and couldn't bear to sit through the rest of this drivel.

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    Storyline

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    Did you know

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    • Trivia
      The movie was inspired by the success of the earlier prison picture Scum (1979) made and released years about three years earlier. Whereas that gaol film had male inmates this film instead featured female jailbirds. The two movies are considered companion pieces, this film even being referred to as a sequel of sorts; the two films share a number of same and similar story elements common to both movies.
    • Quotes

      Mac: [Mac's final song] A Borstal girl came home one day / To find her love had gone away / She asked him why he went astray / He turned to her, and he did say / "Once, you could have been my wife / If you had led a decent life / But you preferred a life of crime / So, back in side, and do your time."

    • Connections
      Featured in The Eleventh Hour: Sex and Violence in Women's Prisons (1984)

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    FAQ15

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    Details

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    • Release date
      • February 1, 1984 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United Kingdom
    • Official site
      • HandMade Films (United Kingdom)
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Black-Out im Höllen-Paradies
    • Filming locations
      • Virginia Water, Surrey, England, UK
    • Production company
      • HandMade Films
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Tech specs

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    • Runtime
      • 1h 33m(93 min)
    • Sound mix
      • Mono
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.85 : 1

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