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Thriller – A Cruel Picture

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Thriller – A Cruel Picture
Original Swedish poster
SwedishThriller – en grym film
LiterallyThriller – a cruel film
Directed byAlex Fridolinski
Screenplay byAlex Fridolinski
Produced byBo Arne Vibenius
Starring
CinematographyAndreas Bellis
Edited byBrian Wikström
Music byRalph Lundsten
Production
company
BAV Film
Distributed by
  • Europa Film
  • Stockholm Film
Release dates
  • May 1973 (1973-05) (Cannes)[1]
  • June 5, 1974 (1974-06-05) (US)
  • October 30, 1974 (1974-10-30) (Sweden)
Running time
107 minutes[a]
CountrySweden
LanguageSwedish

Thriller – A Cruel Picture (Swedish: Thriller – en grym film) is a 1973 Swedish rape-and-revenge exploitation film written and directed by Bo Arne Vibenius under the pseudonym Alex Fridolinski, and starring Christina Lindberg and Heinz Hopf. It tells the story of a mute young woman who is forced into heroin addiction and prostitution, and her subsequent revenge on the men responsible.

The film was released in the United States in a truncated version by American International Pictures under several alternative titles, such as They Call Her One Eye, Hooker's Revenge and The Swedish Vice-Girl.

Plot

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A quiet girl, Madeleine, is sexually abused as a child, and the trauma makes her mute. Years later, while living on her parents' farm as a teenager, Madeleine misses the bus into town, and accepts a ride from a pimp named Tony. Tony takes the naive Madeleine out for lunch before bringing her back to his home, where he incapacitates her and repeatedly injects her with heroin, causing her to become addicted as a means of forcing her into prostitution.

To hide the fact that Madeleine was kidnapped, Tony writes hateful letters to her parents, signing them with Madeleine's name. Her parents become so distraught over their daughter's apparent betrayal that they commit suicide. When Madeleine initially refuses to have sex with a client, Tony beats her before cutting out her eyeball with a scalpel. Donning an eyepatch over her extracted eye, Madeleine is subjected to a never-ending series of demoralizing sexual encounters with both male and female clients. Defeated by the state of her life, Madeleine is inspired by one of Tony's other prostitutes, Sally, to create an escape plan for herself.

Madeleine begins covertly stashing some of her earnings, and takes lessons in driving, shooting, and martial arts, all unbeknownst to Tony. Using the money she has stashed away, Madeleine purchases a car, as well as a variety of weapons—including a sawed-off shotgun—that she stores in a shed she has rented in the countryside. One night, she discovers that Tony has murdered Sally, and finds Sally's bed soaked with blood.

Finally at her breaking point, Madeleine begins to dispatch the clients who have abused her, first stalking one of the men, and shooting him to death with her shotgun on his front doorstep. Next, Madeleine locates another john dining at a restaurant with one of Madeleine's female clients, who regularly physically abused her, and shoots them both to death. She next travels to a warehouse on an ocean dock where she finds two other male abusers, and kills them as well. Police arrive at the warehouse and find Madeleine seated with her shotgun. When they attempt to arrest her, she uses her martial arts training to incapacitate both officers and break free.

Madeleine absconds with the police car, and flees to a rural fishing village, causing a series of reckless and fatal car accidents in her wake. She is pursued by both Tony and police, and engages in a shootout in the village before fleeing back into the countryside, where she waits along a stone wall. Tony arrives and feigns sympathy, pretending he will reason with her. At his insistence, Madeleine puts down her shotgun, after which Tony threatens to shoot her with a pistol; before he can, however, she triggers a booby trap to distract him, and shoots him in both knees, incapacitating him. She proceeds to bind him with rope, and drags him to a meadow using a horse. There, she buries his body with stones, leaving only his head above ground, and ties a rope around his neck, which she tethers to the horse. Madeliene sits calmly and watches as Tony is strangled to death. Once he dies, she drives away in the police car.

Cast

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  • Christina Lindberg as Madeleine / Frigga
    • Pamela Pethö-Galantai as young Madeline
  • Heinz Hopf as Tony
  • Despina Tomazani as The Lesbian Girl
  • Per-Axel Arosenius as Madeleine's Father
  • Solveig Andersson as Sally
  • Björn Kristiansson as The Addict
  • Marie-Louise Mannervall as Woman in Village
  • Hildur Lindberg as Woman in Village
  • Marshall McDonagh as Karate Teacher
  • Hans-Eric Stenborg as Sex Buyer
  • Stig Ström as Sex Buyer
  • Gunnel Wadner as Madeleine's Mother
  • Bo Arne Vibenius as Food Vendor

Production

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Director Bo Arne Vibenius sought to make "the most commercial film ever made",[4] as he had lost money on an earlier film, and needed to recoup his loss. Lindberg confirmed in interviews that the filmmakers used the actual corpse of a woman who had committed suicide< during the film's eye gouging scene,[5][6] a revelation that sparked controversy.[4] Hardcore pornographic sequences, in particular shots of unsimulated sex, were edited into the scenes in which the protagonist is raped, in order to capitalize on the trend of pornography in Denmark and Sweden, which was being liberalized at the time.[4]

In Daniel Ekeroth's book on Swedish exploitation movies, Swedish Sensationsfilms: A Clandestine History of Sex, Thrillers, and Kicker Cinema, it is revealed that the producers took out a huge life insurance policy on star Christina Lindberg, as real ammunition was used in the action sequences, and that she was asked to inject saline solution during the heroin-use scenes.[7]

Release

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Censorship and distribution

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The original running time was 107 minutes. After being banned by the Swedish film censorship board, the film was truncated to 104 minutes and then 86 minutes, but still banned. It was finally released after being cut down to 82 minutes. In the United States, the film was distributed by American International Pictures, also in a truncated cut running 82 minutes.[8] American International Pictures released the film in mid-1974 under the alternate titles Thriller and They Call Her One Eye, and, in 1975, as Hooker's Revenge.[9]

Critical response

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TV Guide rated the film three out of four stars, writing, "Not for the fainthearted, or the easily bored, this brutal and depressing film nevertheless is not easily forgotten."[10]

Time Out gave the film a negative review, criticizing the film's overuse of slow motion, hardcore scenes, and soundtrack, stating that it fails to leave the lingering emotional impact of its convictions.[11] A.H. Weiler from The New York Times offered the film similar criticism, calling it "dreary", and cited Lindberg as the film's only notable aspect.[12]

Home media

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Synapse Films released Thriller – A Cruel Picture on DVD in October 2004 in a limited edition featuring the extended 107-minute cut.[13] In 2005, Synapse released the shorter U.S. version as a standalone DVD, deeming it the "Vengeance Edition".[14] On May 31, 2022, Vinegar Syndrome released the film in a 4-disc 4K UHD and Blu-ray combination set limited to 10,000 units.[15] This edition features the original 108-minute cut, as well as an exclusive UHD of the 90-minute English-language version entitled They Call Her One Eye.[15][16] After the limited edition set sold out in late-May 2022, Vinegar Syndrome made a standard edition 4K UHD and Blu-ray set available (also featuring the They Call Her One Eye cut, but only on Blu-ray).[17]

Legacy

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Thriller – A Cruel Picture was marketed as the first film ever to be completely banned in Sweden, although the first one actually was Victor Sjöström's The Gardener from 1912.[18] It has developed a cult following and was the basis behind Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill character Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah).[7][19]

Notes

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  1. ^ The original cut of Thriller – A Cruel Picture which screened at the Cannes Film Festival (colloquially referred to as the "Festival Version") ran approximately 107 minutes in length.[2] At the insistence of the Swedish film board, the film was truncated, first to 104 minutes, and later, to 86 minutes.[3] The English-dubbed U.S. cuts of the film released by American International Pictures vary in length: one 82 minutes, and the other—titled They Called Her One Eye—90 minutes.[3]

References

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  1. ^ Thriller – a cruel picture – Visningar at the Swedish Film Institute (in Swedish)
  2. ^ "Thriller: A Cruel Picture - 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray". Hi-Def Digest. Archived from the original on May 31, 2022. Retrieved May 31, 2022.
  3. ^ a b Craig 2019, p. 371.
  4. ^ a b c Heller-Nicholas 2021, p. 41.
  5. ^ Lumholdt, Jan (January 21, 2012). "Christina Lindberg Interview". Archived from the original on February 16, 2012.
  6. ^ Gilvear, Kevin (2013). "Looking for Mushrooms with Christian Lindberg". The Digital Fix. Archived from the original on July 5, 2017.
  7. ^ a b Ekeroth 2011, p. 258.
  8. ^ Craig 2019, pp. 371–372.
  9. ^ Craig 2019, p. 372.
  10. ^ Li Chow Li. "Thriller: A Cruel Picture - Movie Reviews and Movie Ratings". TVGuide.com. TV Guide. Retrieved 4 February 2020.
  11. ^ "They Call Her One-Eye". Time Out. September 12, 2012. Archived from the original on February 4, 2020.
  12. ^ A. H. Weiler (June 6, 1974). "' One Eye' and 'O'Neil' Partners in Crime". The New York Times. Archived from the original on October 6, 2020.
  13. ^ Erickson, Glenn (October 27, 2004). "DVD Savant Review: Thriller - a cruel picture". DVD Talk. Archived from the original on May 31, 2022. Retrieved May 31, 2022.
  14. ^ Erickson, Glenn (September 3, 2005). "Thriller: They Call Her One Eye - Vengeance Edition". DVD Talk. Archived from the original on May 31, 2022. Retrieved May 31, 2022.
  15. ^ a b "Thriller - A Cruel Picture". Vinegar Syndrome. Archived from the original on May 27, 2022.
  16. ^ Squires, John (March 25, 2022). "Vinegar Syndrome Brings 'Thriller: A Cruel Picture' to 4K UHD Plus More New Arrivals!". Bloody Disgusting. Archived from the original on May 31, 2022. Retrieved May 31, 2022.
  17. ^ "Thriller – A Cruel Picture (Slipcover)". Vinegar Syndrome. Archived from the original on May 28, 2022.
  18. ^ Trädgårdsmästaren – Kommentar at the Swedish Film Institute (in Swedish)
  19. ^ Tarantino & Peary 2013, p. 120.

Sources

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  • Craig, Rob (2019). American International Pictures: A Comprehensive Filmography. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland. ISBN 978-1-476-66631-0.
  • Ekeroth, Daniel (2011). Swedish Sensationsfilms: A Clandestine History of Sex, Thrillers, and Kicker Cinema. Translated by Magnus Henriksson. Brooklyn, New York: Bazillion Points. ISBN 978-0-9796163-6-5.
  • Heller-Nicholas, Alexandra (2021) [2011]. Rape-Revenge Films: A Critical Study (2nd ed.). Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland. ISBN 978-0-786-44961-3.
  • Tarantino, Quentin; Peary, Gerald (2013). Quentin Tarantino: Interviews, Revised and Updated. Jackson, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 978-1-617-03875-4.
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