THRILLER: A CRUEL PICTURE is a notorious exploitation film from Sweden which has been championed by none other than Quentin Tarantino. It's a rape-revenge thriller that sees an innocent young girl forced into becoming a heroin addict before being sold into prostitution. However, she trains in the martial arts and also learns how to use various weapons, which allows her to take revenge on the men (and women) who previously abused her.
I have to admit that rape revenge films aren't really my cup of tea as I find them far too sleazy to enjoy and THRILLER is certainly one of the sleaziest. It's a grim and slow-paced exercise in fear and humiliation that seems to reveal in violence meted out towards women in much the same way as LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT, for example. As a film, it's not particularly proficient, with the drawn-out pace making it tough to sit through and plenty of dumb dialogue to drag it down further.
Christina Lindberg makes something of an iconic impression as the lead character although she plays it subdued for the most part, which I think works. The supporting cast are nothing to write home about. The violence, when it eventually arrives, is played out in extreme slow motion, which I thought was an effective way to do it. Unfortunately there's far too much in the way of depravity to get through first, including hardcore sex scenes and a scene involving a scalpel and an eyeball which I understand was performed on a real corpse. Yeah, it's not really the sort of film you can say you enjoyed, although you will want to take a cold shower afterwards.
I have to admit that rape revenge films aren't really my cup of tea as I find them far too sleazy to enjoy and THRILLER is certainly one of the sleaziest. It's a grim and slow-paced exercise in fear and humiliation that seems to reveal in violence meted out towards women in much the same way as LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT, for example. As a film, it's not particularly proficient, with the drawn-out pace making it tough to sit through and plenty of dumb dialogue to drag it down further.
Christina Lindberg makes something of an iconic impression as the lead character although she plays it subdued for the most part, which I think works. The supporting cast are nothing to write home about. The violence, when it eventually arrives, is played out in extreme slow motion, which I thought was an effective way to do it. Unfortunately there's far too much in the way of depravity to get through first, including hardcore sex scenes and a scene involving a scalpel and an eyeball which I understand was performed on a real corpse. Yeah, it's not really the sort of film you can say you enjoyed, although you will want to take a cold shower afterwards.