Thriller

Vengeance, or so the saying goes, is a dish best served cold. This film certainly exemplifies this maxim, and in the process comes across as if Bergman had done Deathwish. (Thriller's director had actually worked as on Persona as an assistant, and indeed some of the Nordic glumness here reminds one of the greater director) Its one of those titles which, long unavailable to the interested viewer, provokes a huge amount of curiosity and its arrival on DVD with some useful extras, is to be welcomed. It also has the cool cachet of a recommendation by Quentin Tarantino, who for purposes of reference duly inserted a one-eyed assassin of his own into Kill Bill.

Seen today Thriller remains a striking film, even much of the shock value has evaporated - apart from the hard core sequences as the heroine, by now a unwilling heroine addict, is abused and degraded. These moments were a principal reason for the film's truncation for the States and elsewhere, even though now they seem part and parcel of the message, reinforcing the intimate distress of what is being done. In fact apart from the opening and discreetly filmed child rape, as well as the assault on Madeline's eyeball about a third of the way in, there's hardly much action at all - and which when it does appear, given director Vibenius' infatuation with slow-mo violence (interesting at first, avant garde when continued, a tad tedious when it carries on) tends to slow matters down considerably. Much of the fighting is done in this same manner, and while the drawn out bullet ballets piercing shirts lead to certain fascination, the technique also shows up the cheap special effects on offer, or distractingly emphasises the illogicality of bodies recoiling *into* bullets and actors reacting too slowly to the impact. But whether deliberately or not such trick effects distance the viewer from the emotions of events; instead the mechanics of retaliation and murder are drawn out in almost fetishistic fashion, just as Madeline will savour coldly the extended demise of Tony in the closing scenes.

On the plus side the deliberate nature of it all, and the slow build up to Madeline's revenge, gives the audience ample time to side with the central character and contemplate the stages of her increasing torment. And during the wait, her enforced silence communicates far more than acres of embittered dialogue might have. The result is a degree of audience sympathy that's quite a way from the usual exploitation product, and by virtue of the fact that sometimes less means more, accumulates considerably more dignity for the victim along the way. There's still plenty of 70's cheesy decor on show (Madeline's principal abuser and abductor, Tony, in particular recalls a sleazy Jason King) but the film is distinguished by its refusal to hurry and draws out the angst suffered by the main character with quiet understatement, an effective process which gets under the skin.

Its a film worth seeing for this rather unique flavour; whether or not it will repay repeated viewings is less certain as, apart from Christine Lindberg's stoic performance, non of the other actors make much of an impression. Director Vibernius, who apparently took on this production to pay for the flop of his last, only made one more film after this, the even more exploitative Breaking Point. In Thriller, where perhaps he succeeded for the only time in creating a near art house style for grind house subject matter, he also appears as a hot dog salesman.

The 1973 violent Swedish revenge film Thriller: A Cruel Picture, also known as They Call Her One Eye, greatly influenced Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill and you can see why even with only one eye.

The film has rather racy full-on penetration sex scenes, which were apparently popular at the time, done by body doubles, they actually work and match well intercut with the real actors performing simulated sex in something other than the usual dull missionary position movie sex scenes.

It's a quiet film with little or no score, set in a Swedish small town with perhaps the world's most ineffective police force and most unobservant neighbors ever, pay no attention to that shotgun killing across the road.

Gaps in logic galore in the story of an innocent young ginger girl left mute by a childhood rape who becomes addicted to heroin by a vicious pimp and enslaved into prostitution before honing her skills in hand-to-hand combat, guns and stunt driving before at long last taking her bloody revenge.

Ridiculous yet one of the better cult films I've seen.

THRILLER is a very well done rape/revenge film in the same vein as LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT or I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE. The storyline is different but the results are the same...

Girl is raped as a child which causes her to be mute. She is picked up by a slick-talking guy and taken out for dinner and drinks. Back at his house, he drugs her and shoots her up with heroin for several days, so by the time he allows her to wake up out of her heroin-stupor, she is an addict. At that point she is turned-out as a prostitute and given some cash and drugs as "payment". She is given some free time to herself, where she uses the money earned to take karate,shooting, and driving classes. Needless to say, when she becomes proficient enough in these disciplines, she uses her newly honed skills to go after those that did her wrong...

Christina Lindberg is excellent as the beautiful and seemingly innocent looking mute girl. She is a real pleasure to look at, and the fact that she's naked through a good portion of the film doesn't hurt either. There is some "controversy" surrounding this film due to a couple of hardcore sex scenes (obviously not Ms. Lindberg, unfortunately...) that appear to be cut from a bad European porno. The scenes are not necessary for the film but were obviously added to heighten the shock value of the film overall. Other than those few scenes, and the famous scalpel-in-the-eye scene, the violence in THRILLER is relatively tame by exploitation/horror standards. Overall a really good film, if you are into the rape/revenge genre - I think it's always cool to see a strong, sexy, female lead who kicks ass, one of the reasons that I gravitate toward this type of film. The eyeball and sex scenes may be a little much for the casual movie-goer, more "extreme" fans should like this one. Recommended...8.5 out of 10

NOTE: Synapse films now has a "Vengeance" addition in a yellow box (original cover is red) that is the same film minus the XXX scenes.

Complete with gratuitous hardcore insert shots and cadaver eyeball mutilation, 'Thriller–A Cruel Picture' certainly earns its reputation as a true exploitation classic. Unfortunately, a drawn out final third, featuring some clumsy action scenes and the occasional unintentionally funny moment, ultimately drains the movie of some of its power.

Beautiful Swedish star Christina Lindberg plays Madeleine, a young mute woman who is kidnapped, hooked on heroin, and then forced to work as a prostitute. After clawing her first customer in the face, she is punished by Tony, her sadistic captor, who, in a particularly nasty scene, uses a scalpel to blind her in one eye (this realistic moment was reputedly achieved with the use of an actual dead body!).

After her injury has healed, Madeleine returns to work, with an eye-patch to hide her injury, and reluctantly complies with Tony's demands, sexually satisfying a variety of sleazy clients (bonus sleaze points are awarded here for inter-cutting graphic penetration shots with those of Ms. Lindberg, to make it appear as though she took part in the adult action).

As a reward for her good behaviour, Madeleine is given two wraps of heroin a day, a percentage of her takings, and Monday's off (a pension plan is not offered!).

However, after the suspicious disappearance of her friend, fellow 'hooker' Sally (who vanishes, leaving behind a blood-soaked bed), the one-eyed, smack-addicted beauty decides to get even with Tony, her abusers, and anyone else who has given her grief. She spends her free days learning self-defence, extreme driving, and marksmanship, and, once she is proficient at all three, embarks on her mission to exact bloody revenge.

Everything that leads up to Madeleine eventually kicking ass is extremely well done and delightfully sordid, just as an exploitation film should be. The pace is leisurely at the beginning, but never bores, with the sex, drugs and violence all explicitly depicted. Plus, the delightful Lindberg spends a lot of her time naked.

Where Thriller does suffer is in its latter scenes, where a shotgun toting, leather-coat and eye-patch wearing Madeleine blasts her victims to kingdom come. Director Bo Arne Vibenius opts to film most of the shootings in such excruciatingly drawn-out slow motion that it's possible to pop out to the kitchen, fix a sarnie, make a pot of tea, and still get back to your seat before the body hits the floor. Imagine the gun-fights of Peckinpah or Woo at a quarter of the speed, but nowhere near as stylish, and you'll have an idea of what I mean.

A final act of revenge is set in a suitably bleak environment and ends the film as one would expect—with 'one-eye' settling the score with Tony, in a slow and painful manner. Madeleine is seen driving towards the horizon as the credits roll.

The gorgeous nymph Christina Lindberg is a mute woman who is abducted, drugged and forced into sexual servitude by a slick criminal.

Notable for its hardcore sex sequences which, in my humble opinion, lend great gravity to Lindberg's unfortunate personal situation, this revenge drama has a measured, moderate pace and is quite compelling.

Titled THEY CALL HER ONE-EYE in some markets because our heroine does get her eye poked out by her captor, the film has rarely been seen uncut until the advent of Synapse Films' recent DVD.

Some scribes have complained that the hardcore sexual material ruins the film. I don't see any basis for this complaint. The hardcore honestly portrays the level of abuse Lindberg receives.

The revenge section of THRILLER is labored and stylized. There's no clear catharsis and there's no joy for the avenging angel.

Director Bo A Vebenius also wrote and produced.

Though called "the roughest revenge movie ever made" by Quentin Tarantino, it is not particularly rough compared to fare such as FORCED ENTRY, CAPTURED FOR SEX 2 or ZOOM UP: RAPE SITE.

It is an art-house revenge pic that is well worth seeing. I'm not sure I'd want to re-see it regularly, though. It does runs slow.