L'ange de la vengeance

In Manhattaan, the mute seamstress Thana (Zoë Tamerlis) is a timid woman that works in the fashion industry and spends most of her idle time at home. One night, she is raped in an alley while going back home after hours and when she arrives at home, she is raped again by another criminal. However, she reacts and kills the assaulter with a flatiron. The disturbed Thana loses her sanity and uses the rapist pistol to kill men on the streets of New York.

"Angel of Vengeance" is a cult-movie by Abel Ferrara with elements of "Death Wish" when a simple woman goes insane after being raped twice in one day and she uses the criminal's gun to kill every man that makes a pass on her. I have just watched this film for the fourth or fifth time on VHS and it has not aged. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Sedução e Vingança" ("Seduction and Revenge")

Note: On 12 May 2017, I saw this film again.

After leaving work, a lonely mute New Yorker is raped twice in one afternoon. She manages to fight back against the second rapist and kills him with his own gun. She is traumatized and chops up his body and sticks it in the fridge. She tells no one, and is unable to cope with what happened. Soon, she's finding empowerment by using the gun to dispose of any man that may potentially take advantage of her or other women.

I am not a fan of the rape/revenge genre, but this compelling film miraculously manages to avoid exploitation on nearly every level. The rape scenes are disturbing but fortunately not as explicit as in many genre movies. While the content of "Ms. 45" is obviously over-the-top and exaggerated, it manages to retain a sense of dignity that rises above tacky movies like "Baise Moi" and "I Spit on Your Grave." Zoe Lund is incredible as the lead actress, depending on her versatile facial expressions to portray what mental state the character is in.

My Rating: 7.5/10.

A rape revenge film that earns the "exploitation" tag that often accompanies the genre. While the theme was already pretty low hanging fruit at the time of it's release, this movie opts to set itself apart by focusing on the declining mental state post trauma. The resulting downward spiral is as captivating as it is gratuitous.

...was the musician who was able to make saxophone sounds come out of a trumpet.

A shy and mute seamstress (Zoe Lund) goes insane after being attacked and raped twice in one day, in which she takes to the streets of New York after dark and randomly kills men with a .45 caliber gun.

The director, Abel Ferrara, who would go on to make other genre films, with this one featuring a cast of people you likely never heard of performing just as well as "real" stars would. Ferrara himself appears under another name as a rapist, and Steve Dash also appears under another name, though Dash is hardly a notable figure.

The eerie music is reminiscent of Italian horror, which struck me as beautiful and perfect for such a film. Really, this is a very slick production and a much more enjoyable film than "I Spit on Your Grave". While "Grave" is the best known of the revenge films, and the one that really started the subgenre, this one just looks better. With all due respect to Meir Zarchi and Camille Keaton, this one should get more praise than it does.

I love that the insult "get bent" is used... its employment is not nearly often enough these days. I also appreciated the free advertising for the P. Chimento trucking company of Patchogue, New York. This, more than anything else, really shows that the film was made in New York City, as anyone from outside the area will have no idea what it is.

The name of Zoë Lund's character, Thana, is reminiscent of the Greek god of death, "Thanatos". Sigmund Freud used the word to refer to the human "death instinct", which leads people to take risks, seek thrills or behave destructively in ways that could lead to death. Was this intentional? I have no idea. But it is fitting.