Directed by:
Bo Arne VibeniusScreenplay:
Bo Arne VibeniusCinematography:
Andreas BellisComposer:
Ralph LundstenCast:
Christina Lindberg, Heinz Hopf, Solveig Andersson, Despina Tomazani, Hans-Eric Stenborg, Per-Axel Arosenius, Christine Shaw, Sonia Graham, Stuart Nichol (more)Plots(1)
Growing up mute after a childhood sexual assault, a young girl (Christina Lindberg) spends years working on a remote farm. After missing the bus one day, she is picked up by a suave young man who takes her out to dinner, drugs her and forces her into a life of drug addiction and prostitution. Torn away from home, she rebels against her captor only to have one of her eyes gouged out as punishment (in a scene rumored to have been filmed with an actual corpse). After learning of the death of her parents and fed up with the cards life has dealt, she trains herself in the fine arts of fighting, killing and revenge. Transformed into a one-woman killing machine (and armed with a sawed-off shotgun), she uses her new skills to enact bloody revenge on those who have done her wrong. (Synapse Films)
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Reviews (4)
I can't help it, but this is simply an excellent film that shows us human nastiness in its true... well, nastiness. This film will not leave you with good feelings, which was its intention. Additionally, in the second half, it transforms into a fantastic B-movie, featuring a one-eyed mute avenger who shoots, kicks, and drives like a maniac. At this point, it's more about entertainment, but it's very rough and bloody entertainment. Even John Woo would be proud of those slow-motion shots. The story isn't a masterpiece, but the execution works for me.
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A horrible, amateurishly made piece of crap without a shred of humanity and with only one visible message: to shock and to stick in the memory at any cost. I was expecting a stifling atmosphere, more developed psychology and some bold 70s gore, but the film disappointed me terribly in every aspect and it was very painful to watch. Firstly, the complete indifference to the main character's situation, which is not developed in any significant way, even though she’s the basic driving force of the whole story. Secondly, the indiscriminate and disgusting sex scenes, almost bordering on porn, which are meant to disgust the viewer and, judging by the dramatic musical interludes, to arouse complicity with the unfortunate victim, but in the end they are as cold and distant as the rest of the film. And finally, the downright embarrassing script with nothing to surprise. The popularity of such creative concoctions is really a big mystery to me. 30%
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Of all the older exploitation films, I find Thriller: A Cruel Picture to be probably the coolest and most interesting. The beautiful mute female lead is lured into a trap by a conniving pimp who makes her a heroin addict and starts selling her to strangers as a hooker. The premise is so gritty and uncomfortable that it doesn't matter what year the film is from, it still keeps you glued to the screen. On the plus side are the detailed sex scenes, which are breathtaking in their boldness, on the minus side is the final showdown, where the main character only uses a shotgun with the help of very annoying slow motion shots, too bad they didn't have more creativity and come up with something similar to I Spit on Your Grave, that would have got plenty of five star ratings here. 75%
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It’s hard to analyze this too deeply. On one hand, this film is colder than a witch’s tit, but on the other, it also manages to be powerful and painful. The director doesn’t portray the suffering of the protagonist in a natural fashion, as though he didn’t know that we can feel for her already because of what she’s like and what she’s going through. He doesn’t tell us what she’s like; he doesn’t care, so he keeps his distance and remains indifferent. He only depicts her suffering through camera tricks from her point of view, by turning down the sound when she faints, etc. We see all of this hellishness (including the prostitution scenes where penetration is shown in pornographic detail) from the point of view of a person we know nothing about. It’s a disgusting, sadistic and ruthless approach, but the fact remains that the filmmaking is more interesting and unique than in the case of the most similar feminist rape + revenge exploitation depravities (like I Spit on Your Grave) and it’s definitely not boring.
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