Thriller: A Cruel Picture (1974)

Very disappointing...

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

I found this movie to be difficult to review mainly due to the fact that I am watching it in 2011. I am watching it 37years after it came out.So the "shocking scenes of violence" is no longer shocking. The "shocking story" is also no longer shocking. hence i will review the movie on how much/little I enjoyed the movie.I watched the uncut version of the movie which featured unsimulated sex scenes. There is actual penetration shown. However apart from the purpose of titillation the scenes were actually unneeded as they were just cut scenes. There are parts of the movie that also serves little to no purpose other then to showcase the "shocking violence" (circa 1974). These scenes made the movie disjointed. The ending and the vengeance was also so so (circa 2011 violence).The pacing of the movie is slow until about partway. I don't know, while I thought the movie was not bad, its not what you call enjoyable. I think thats the problem with genre movies like this. It relies on the "shocking" but time has move on and the shock effect isn't there (probably not a good commentary on present society). However I would say its watchable slightly entertaining.

As part of the 'rape and revenge' exploitation sub-genre that cropped up in the glory days of 70's grindhouse, Thriller - A Cruel Picture (aka They Call Her One-Eye), stands out amongst the rest due to the fact that it's actually bloody good. Frigga (played by exploitation regular and occasional porn-star Christina Lindberg) is mute due to being sexually assaulted as a little girl. On her way to the doctor she is offered a life by sleazy rich-boy Tony, (Heniz Hopf) and wined and dined before being drugged in his apartment. She wakes up to be told she's been hooked to heroin, and is forced into prostitution as Tony becomes her pimp.When Frigga begins to show resistance, Tony reacts badly and stabs her in the eye, causing her to wear an eye-patch. After months of being forced into sex by her strange and abusive clients, Frigga uses her savings to plot a deadly and bloody revenge against the people that caused the misery in her new life. The film was banned in Sweden, and only received a heavily-censored release in the U.S.A., mainly due to the notorious eye-popping scene in which director Bo Arne Vibenius used an actual dead body for a close up of the eye being stabbed.Quentin Tarantino frequently refers to this as one of his all-time favourites, and although hardly a masterpiece, you can kind of see why. Also, Frigga is an obvious inspiration for Daryl Hannah's sadistic assassin Elle Driver in Kill Bill, and possibly for Kurt Russell's Snake Plissken in Escape From New York. Frigga is a very interesting character. One half an innocent, shy girl that seems to accept her new situation with sad resignation. The other, a silent, patient killer-in- waiting. Lindberg pulls it off admirably, even though never speaking a word during the whole film.When the film threatens to become monotonous with the scenes constantly drifting from a scene of heroin abuse to a scene of sex, the second act kicks in as Frigga begins weapons training, drag racing lessons and martial arts. And when the revenge comes, it's as stylish as a film of this budget could possibly be. Frigga mows down her victims in super slow motion, as bullet shells fly gracefully through the air, and objects explode into pieces in vivid detail. It's a style mirrored in Guy Ritchie's Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels, although it's much more effective in this film. It is, however, also one of the films negatives as it highlights how low the budget actually was, as fake, brown-looking blood erupts on the victims' torso's. It is also way overplayed in a scene where she uses her martial arts skills to fend off two policemen.It clearly benefits from a director who had the honour of working with Ingmar Bergman earlier in his career as the film transcends similar films to the genre (such as Wes Craven's Last House On The Left). I would possibly urge you to watch the censored version if you can, as the unnecessary hardcore sex scenes bring the film down a level. A virtual classic in it's genre and compulsive viewing for exploitation film fans.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com

A young girl (Christina Lindberg) is kidnapped by Tony (Heinz Hopf) who converts her in an addict to heroin and in a prostitute. She, of course, decides to take bloody revenge.Even if it's not the first film banned in Swedeen, this sexlpoitation film is as graphic as can you get, but is tastefully done in it's own distasteful images. Vibenus, sure can get a mood, that either you will love or hate. In it's original version, more than the blood and it's murders (The gore is not restrained but acceptable) is the sex scenes that take the controversy cake. The close-up of genitalia can make a mood if it's arguments are consequent, but here to be sincere, is only exploitative as porn.Still, the movie gets you. Lindberg and Hopf are right in the tone. It's moody, violent and hypnotic. Still this is really on tastes. The American cut, "They called her One Eye" restrain most of sex.

The director allegedly stated that he intended to create "a commercial-as-hell crap-film" and as far as I'm concerned this describes it well, even if it could have been made a MUCH more satisfying viewing experience. Elle Driver, or whatever her name is, shoots down her tormentors way too easily. I guess that's what the extensive super-super-slow-mo is for, to cover up how uninspired the killing scenes are. Unfortunately seeing a 3-second sequence of a guy getting hit in the stomach and dropping to the floor stretched out to a full minute just gets boring after 20 seconds; yes, he will hit the floor and stop moving, we get it, move on. And to me it sounded like they used the exact same goofy scream for every kill.Another thing that hinders the fylm from being all too satisfying is that the ending fails to look beyond the successful revenge. Her kidnapper pimp gets her hooked on heroin so she is depending on him to receive her shots twice a day or else she will undoubtedly die (or so the fylm is trying to tell us). But what happens after the picture is over, she's running out of heroin and is short on money for a rehab? Will she die? The fylm did its best to establish the plot's necessary heroin device this way to make us believe that she will, or least it leaves open how she will overcome this obstacle. (The ambiguity excuse doesn't count here.) But even without this problem, what is Elle Driver going to do with her life? Did she learn anything from this adventure, or is the moral here that once a strong person gets victimized for too long (s)he will become a victimizer on her/his own (on her rampage she kills anonymous, innocent people, absolutely without any necessity, just for the heck of it, apparently). We learn little about her personality even though the camera occasionally even takes her position.If the fylm can't explain a plot point it just cuts to the next scene and it's full of obviously convenient turns, revelations and expositions. The prostituted girl gets unlimited freedom from her KIDNAPPER, as well as loads of money. Breaking out? Escaping? She didn't even have to do that. And why anyone would learn how to drive a car like a rally driver for the purpose of getting revenge by shooting people I will probably never understand. Does this skill prove useful to her in the course of the picture? No. But even if it would have proved useful it would have been just as silly and the setup would have looked very obvious. She also learns martial arts, which she uses ONCE in the film, and that is against two police men that are trying to arrest her. Police men that she WAITED for after killing two of the pimp's henchmen. Police men that MAGICALLY know that a crime was committed in some godforsaken warehouse at a godforsaken port.Of course none of the henchmen can even aim their mouths to a baby bottle, let alone aim guns to hit an unsuspecting target. And of course Elle Driver can't aim any better either when it comes to shooting the final enemy at the fylm's 75-minute mark. The running time is at stake here. Eventually she kills him in a slightly more original way, but even this is rather mild and anticlimactic. In general this certainly is no 'I Spit On Your Grave' in regards to vicious revenge. Elle Driver has little interest in making her tormentors suffer. Not the best thing for an exploitation flick. The things it does right are the simple plot (during the first half we witness the torment, and in the second the revenge), the one-dimensional characters, the female nudity and it even has hardcore sex scenes (although with somebody else's bare ass standing in for the main lady's).All this criticism aside, I found it to be an entertaining enough fylm, if it just wasn't so frustrating. The material could have been a winner in the hands of a better filmmaker.