Thriller

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.

I have by accident found this movie, and I saw Tarantino was inspired by this movie. I have to say for the most part, the movie was pretty fun. I was looking for something goofy and fun as HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN, MACHETE, and PLANET TERROR, and this movie fits into that boat easily.

However, i got one negative for this movie; and that's the pacing. My God, the killing scenes (except the last one), are for whatever reason so prolonged it's really annoying. It completely pulls you out of an interesting movie. They really didn't need to add the slow mode effect so many times. :P

What makes this movie so awesome is the fact that our main hero, she's a mute. So everything seems way more awesome cuz you do not hear a single word from her, and she's a badass. I was NEVER really bored during the movie, except for the killing scenes, which is a huge plus.

If you are into goofy movies like Planet Terror and Hobo With A Shotgun, you must add this to your collection.

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.

After being sexually molested as a small child, Frigga (the beautiful Christina Lindberg) becomes mute. Fast forward about 15 years, and after missing a bus to go to her therapy she accepts a ride from a shady character. Before long she's reduced to being a heroin addict with one eye (courtesy of her new pimp when she claws the face of her first trick). After a montage of her getting trained in guns, karate and driving as well as some ill-advised hardcore porn shots, she gets her revenge.

Let's start with what I liked about this film. Christina Linberg is very appealing, the ending is pretty damn good and i DID enjoy the film overall. What I din't like about the movie is those hard-core porn inserts which detract from the flow of the film and were NOT needed, the fact that EVERY fight was in sllllllllllllllloooooooooooooooooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwww motion bored me to no end, Despina Tomazani looked like a post-op transvestite as the lesbian trick, that upset me. But as I said all in all a solid exploitation film.

My Grade: B-

Synapse DVD Extras: TV spot; Theatrical trailer; "Thriller" trailer; double-bill trailer for "Hooker's Revenge (the reissue title for this film) and "Photographer's Models" ( the nonsensical reissue title of "House of Whipcord"); some outtakes; a few photo montages; a "story in pictures" segment that runs by at lightning speed; and cast and crew filmographies

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.