THRILLER – A CRUEL PICTURE

1974

Written, Produced and Directed by Bo. A. Vibenius

 

THRILLER is one of a very few films to have been banned in Sweden, it’s country of origin.  And there’s a good reason for that.  It is a film that contains hardcore pornography in it, while not being a pornographic film.  When the film was released in the US it was cut by more than 20 minutes and the title was changed to THEY CALL HER ONE EYE.  THRILLER is a cult favorite that for years has been only available in poor quality bootleg form.  Now Synapse Films has released the original version, uncut, on DVD for the very first time.

 

THRILLER is somewhat of a popular film now that Quentin Tarantino called it one of his biggest influences for the KILL BILL films.  THRILLER is the definition of a revenge film, and in many ways it set the stage for all that followed it.  The story opens as a young girl is raped by an old man.  The incident leaves her mute for the rest of her life.  The film then jumps years later where she is working on her parent’s farm.  The girl is played by cult film starlet Christina Lindberg.

 

One day she misses the bus and gets a ride to town with a mysterious man.  The man takes her out to eat and then back to his place where he drugs her.  The girl is held prisoner and systematically given heroin so that she’s addicted.  By doing this, the man holds her as a hooker, while paying her off with heroin.  He tells her if she goes two days without a fix she will die.  When she rejects her first costumer the man takes her eye out in a graphic scene that rumored to have been shot using a real corpse.  Before too long our hero has had too much.  She learns how to fight and how to use guns, lots of guns.  And when the time is right she goes on a killing spree taking out her costumers and those who have made her a sex slave.

 

The film was a very low budget production, but that didn’t take away from it.  The first have is very slow moving.  The build up seems to take forever, but this works as we are given plenty of time to really care about the girl.  The hardcore sex scenes, which were shot with hookers, not the actors, might be seen as exploitative.  However, I don’t think so.  I think the scenes add to the torture and pain that our hero is going through.  The sex didn’t excite me; if anything it made me sick.  Other films have had hardcore sex while not being a hardcore film.  CALIGULA was produced in 1980 by Penthouse as an attempt at making a “serious” film.  They didn’t really succeed in that, but they did produce an interesting film although the uncut version does seem to cross into the porno world a few times.  Recently films like BAISE MOI and IRREVERSIBLE have pushed the lines on sexual content in mainstream films.  Thinking of these films in the context of THRILLER, produced in 1974, puts it far ahead of its time.

 

The second half of the film is extremely violent.  Nearly all the death scenes are played out in slow motion, which was a popularized during that time period by Sam Peckinpah with films like THE WILD BUNCH.  Like the films of Peckinpah and to a lesser extent John Woo, the scenes are a bizarre mixture of beauty and horror.  Some of the scenes seem to last four or five minutes, giving the viewer plenty of time to really think about what is going on.

 

It also plays out in a very surreal fashion.  The whole film does in a way.  Perhaps it is the low quality of a low budgeted film from the 70s.  But as the end draws near a dream like state takes over.  The final scene could have been taken right out of EL TOPO.  Our hero has her revenge and the bad guys are all dead.  But like all revenge films, we wonder what will happen next.  That film is yet to be made.

 

If you enjoyed the KILL BILL films this might be a good one for you to check out.  The character of Elle is a direct homage to THRILLER’s one-eyed hero.  You might also like it if you are a fan of other revenge films such as DEATH WISH or THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT.  However, this is not a film for everyone.  It is very violent, very graphic and contains hardcore sex.  The film is also challenging on a variety of different levels.  At its core, however, its just another revenge film, albeit on that was “lost” for many years.

 

The DVD release of THRILLER is a limited edition; only 25,000 have been pressed.  You can purchase the film at most e-retailers and possibly at stores like Best Buy.  If you like weird international cult cinema, check it out.

 

GRADE: B