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Scrubbers

  • 1982
  • R
  • 1h 33m
IMDb RATING
5.6/10
638
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
    638
    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

    Edit
    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

    5.6638
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    Featured reviews

    8preppy-3

    Not your run of the mill WIP flick

    Caught this years ago at a Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. They showed it along with "Scum" which dealt with the horrors of teenage male prisoners in England. This deals with women in prison.

    The film focuses on two women who escape--one (Annetta) wants to visit her baby daughter who is being raised in a convent. The other (Carol) wants to be recaptured and sent to a prison where her girlfriend is. They're both recaptured but Annetta wrongly assumes that Carol ratted on her. Then they're both sent to the same prison and Annetta seeks revenge. It all leads to a depressing ending.

    Grim and brutal. There's no humor and no letup in the tension. All the actresses are (pretty obviously) too old to be playing 20 year olds but their acting is so good I was able to ignore it. Worth catching. Trying seeing it with "Scum" which is even more disturbing.
    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.
    7bletcherstonerson

    Sadly, not an exploitation flick.

    I saw this expecting the typical WIP exploitation. Unfortunately it is a story told with a bleak reality and stark setting. I also hate to say this, but the girl whose child is in a convent , is so obnoxious that all we wish for is to have ill fall upon her. Yes she is also included in the worst slow motion sequence ever filmed. It looks like the girls were moving slow while filming at normal speed to get the action right then it was going to be sped up to look a vicious beating in real time. Someone forgot yo speed up the sequence and it looks like my kids playing super heroes in the back yard moving in super slo-mo. Actually my kids have better " mad skills". Yet I digress, on with the positive... This is a pretty good movie with solid performances with a few interesting story lines. The most exploitive part is that all the girls are attractive and obviously haggled up for their roles. I gave this a 7 because it was earnest and interesting...it is not " Prison a go go, or reform school girls, but if you want to watch women's OZ, then this is your flick.
    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.
    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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    Related interests

    Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins in The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
    Prison Drama
    Mahershala Ali and Alex R. Hibbert in Moonlight (2016)
    Drama

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      A few of the crew worked on both "Scrubbers" and the earlier penitentiary picture Scum (1979). Roy Minton worked as a writer on both whilst Don Boyd was a producer on both too.
    • 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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    Details

    Edit
    • 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

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

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