Ato de Vingança

This is an interesting movie. On one hand, it is a completely earnest. TV-movie style flick about a group of women who have all been victimized by the "Jingle Bell rapist" and ban together to fight against piggish male behavior in general and eventually take on their hockey-masked, Christmas-caroling assailant. Of course, the women are also sexy as hell, frequently undressed, and ALWAYS under-dressed, which supposedly compromises the feminist message. Why? I'd reckon 100 percent of heterosexual men like to see sexy, undressed women, while maybe 2 percent (a lot of whom are already in prison) really want to see ANY woman violently raped (and I'm not talking about one of those ridiculous Japanese "rape" scenarios here). So for 98 percent of men there is no contradiction here. Many present-day filmmakers feel they need bow down to the altar of man-hating "feminists" like Andrea Dworkin who conflate any expression of male heterosexuality with rape, but I thank god 70's filmmakers didn't. And as for female viewers, are they only allowed to relate to rape victims if they are unattractive, butch lesbians who dress like Lizzie Borden on a cold day?

There are some ridiculous scenes (I know I always meet with MY vigilante gang while sitting naked in a hot tub). The end where the gang goes to a deserted zoo to confront the "Jingle Bell rapist" without the one woman who knows karate is pretty dumb. But this movie is also much more believable than most rape-revenge films in that the women don't immediately and easily turn into remorseless fighting/killing machines. Nothing is less believable than the modern-day "butt-kicking babe" stereotype where a 105lb. fashion model takes on guys three times her size just because she knows karate (and, of course, these big guys never do).

The gang here is led by Joanne Harris, who played the young girl who successfully seduces Clint Eastwood in "The Beguiled". I've seen Filipino actress Jennifer Lee in various films. Perennial cheesecake actresses Connie Strickland and Anneka DiLorenzo were both in the similar (but more misogynistic) "The Centerfold Girls". This movie is basically a much more naked and violent version of "Charlie's Angels". But, hey, there's nothing wrong with that. . .

I thought this movie would be a good movie to watch. It has a couple of my favorite actors in Jo Ann Harris and Peter Brown, and I liked the idea behind the movie - rape victims getting together and trying to capture their rapist. However, I believe the film concentrates too much on the Rape Scenes, showing the Rapes once or twice would have been more than enough. And I absolutely hated them using Jingle Bells during the Rape Scenes.

This movie could have been made as a made for TV movie without the nudity and I think most people would have called it an OK movie. For me, there is way too much nudity and the acting is not very good. You get no idea why this guy is raping these women and that would be fine if the movie did not spend a considerable amount of time with him on the screen committing these attacks. For me this movie was OK, but not great.

How about that. My first movie with the word "Rape" in the title and it's not Japanese! Unfortunately the Japanese are still the winners when it comes down to movies with the "Rape" in the title. But hell, this was still a nice effort.

Story focuses on a group of women who refer to themselves as The Rape Squad. Guess what they all have in common? Wrong! They've all been raped by the same guy! Jeez, how can you be so off? They all love the black guy from the Mod Squad....? Wow, awful guess. Anyways, they've all been raped by the same Hockey Mask, Orange Jumpsuit wearing rapist who loves the song Jingle Bells. Now they've joined forces and they're about to show these pushy men what real women can do! Rape Squad was a decent enough flick. There are many rape and revenge flicks out there that are much better, but this is definitely one to check out if you're a big fan of the genre. Checking out the Rapist alone is reason enough. It's tough to beat a confident, smooth talking rapist who dresses up like Michael Myers and Jason Voorhees combined. And the coolest thing is, this predates both of those movies by a couple years. Oh and he sings Jingle Bells. Whoever was writing this flick had their creative juices flowing big time. The movie suffers from a few lulls when the girls are just chit-chatting....but you gotta admit, it's realistic. And I was hoping for the movie to be a little more graphic, especially the ending, but hell, the movie entertained me enough. So yeah, if you're into rape/revenge films, give this baby a shot. 6.5 outta 10.

After being brutally beaten and raped one night by a mysterious man wearing a hockey mask "Linda" (Jo Ann Harris) learn that there have been four other women who have had to endure the same kind of treatment by this same person. He then rapes another woman named "Karen" (Lisa Moore) not long afterward. Much to their surprise they soon come to the realization that the limited information they can give to the local police is insufficient to identify their assailant--let alone allow law enforcement to make an arrest. So with few other options left to them they decide to form a "rape squad" in an effort to build awareness of this issue. At the same time, they also secretly decide to aggressively pursue and punish those who have committed these vicious acts but have somehow managed to escape conviction. Unfortunately, while they all of this is taking place they soon discover that the lunatic responsible has not only continued his acts of depravity but subsequently kills one of his victims in the process. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was an okay film for the most part which suffers somewhat from the rather dated script and weak acting. It does, however, benefit from the presence of some cute actresses--in particular Connie Strickland (as "Teresa") and the aforementioned Jo Ann Harris. Again, while not exactly a blockbuster by any means, the movie itself wasn't that bad overall and for that reason I have rated it accordingly. Average.

With a totally clueless police force unable to catch a serial rapist, five victims decide on a vigilante solution. Their "rape squad" takes on the hockey masked perpetrator and any other men behaving badly. All the men in "Act of Vengeance" are portrayed as insensitive creeps, including cops, hustlers, pimps, and even boyfriends. While the middle part of the film deals with these various male annoyances, the conclusion in an abandoned zoo, is totally about the "jingle bell rapist". The films greatest weakness, besides some marginal acting, is that very little is revealed about the orange clad hockey man. In the end however, it is what it is, an above average female revenge flick. - MERK