Thriller - A Cruel Picture
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Movie Reviews of Thriller - A Cruel Picture
Movie Review: Great find. Not sure if a keeper.
Summary: 3 Stars
I have to say that you have to watch a lot of trash to uncover these good movies. When you finally watch movies like this it makes it worthwhile to have watched the garbage you had high hopes with.
This is an exceptional movie in many ways but also highly flawed. One I really enjoyed though I also have a lot of problems with it.
This is about a girl who gets raped as a child and later is kidnapped and given herion while unconscious to get her addicted to do prostitution for the man's clients and to be rewarded with more herion.
It really is far more well-acted and convincing than others of this type (such as the cheezy 'I Spit On Your Grave'). You see her in the despair of the situation all the way to the determination of learning martial arts and to use a gun. I really felt this girl had become skilled in these. I could tell the attress obviously had a lot of real life hard experiences and was putting something real into her performance.
There is X rated material in this. I have to disagree that it is gratuitous. It may be the only non porn movie containing porn that uses the porn non-gratuitously that I am aware of. As opposed to types like "Emanuelle in America" which is entirely gratuitious keeping with context of the movie. And as opposed to types like "Erotic Nights of the Living Dead" which the porn is gratuituously out of place and disconnected to the overal context of the movie.
The X rated material in Thriller really serves the atmosphere of the plot and is not intended to be 'hot' or erotic. It does add to the mood of an intimate act done out of coerced reasons much better than cutting away would have.
The problems I had with the movie is I am undecided if "One Eye" would be allowed to leave the house and go where she wants. The premise to me is that there are no drug rehabilitation services available there unless you have money. I have a hard time buying them believing they have her hooked and submissive enough to the drug addiction not to inform authorities or others about her situation. It seems unrealisticly absurd to me yet at the same time totally plausible.
A real problem this movie had near the end is that "One Eye" is running people off the road and when anything crashes, it explodes. It really took away from how convincing the rest of the movie was.
There were also a lot of extreme slow motion shots at the end which also I don't appreciate.
Overall, it's a great film and well worth watching.
Movie Review: They Call Her One Eye
Summary: 3 Stars
As far as transgression cinema of the 70's is concerned, Thriller: A Cruel Picture (aka They Call Her One Eye) is probably one of the more disturbing if not one of the most influential films of the decade. The film, made purely to cover up the financial failure of the director's fist film, is the quintessential exploitation film featuring stark nudity, prostitution, drug addiction, graphic violence, and unsettling hardcore pornography.
The plot is fairly simple revolving around a young mute girl, Frigga - played by Christina Lindberg, who is abducted, hooked on heroin, mutilated and then prostituted by a pimp, Tony - Heinz Hopf. Frustrated by her dependence on drugs and sickened by the clientele she has to entertain, Frigga seeks people to teach her how to fight, shot, drive and kill. It's pretty obvious where the film goes from there.
What sets this film apart from most exploitative fare is the lengths to which the director went for realism. Between having the star use a real hypodermic on herself filled with saline, using a corpse for the infamous eye gouging scene, to inserting real sex footage, this film becomes far more disturbing than similar films such as The Big Bird Cage or The Street Fighter.
What really surprised me was how influential this film seems to be. The action is all filmed in super slo-mo, which ends up looking very similar to The Matrix, not to mention the star's wardrobe, which is very similar to the garb that Neo and Trinity wear, and is practically stolen by Kurt Russell in Escape From New York. It's also important to note this film's influence on director Quentin Tarantino, who based the Daryl Hannah character (Elle Driver) on this film's star.
Though the film is rough, slow in places and over dramatic in it's five minute slow motion action sequences, it's still very entertaining, especially for those into exploitation or transgressive cinema.
Movie Review: Why do I even bother?
Summary: 3 Stars
This will probably make no difference, but I just have to say it. Some people who review movies on this site should have their cinematic license revoked. Anyone who says that this movie features "terrible acting, even for a 70's movie" is guilty on two counts. Number one...for implying that the acting in '70s movies (the last decade in which great cinema was still fairly common in America) was generally bad. And number two...for rating the performances of actors based on their body language alone. Unless this reviewer is fluent in Swedish (which I'm going to go ahead and doubt), she either:
a) Didn't understand a word the actors were saying (if she watched with subtitles)
or, more likely...
b) Is basing her assessment of the actors' performances on the performances of the VOICE-OVER ACTORS who looped the movie in English (a truly unforgivable crime against cinema)
Either way, it's hard to forgive such a statement, and it simply demonstrates that just because you've seen a movie, that doesn't necessarily mean that you're qualified to review it.
Movie Review: Decent movie, but it gets boring
Summary: 3 Stars
I bought the Limited Edition release of "Thriller: A Cruel Picture" since this version is, supposedly, a limited release. This release came with a decent number of extras. However, the movie is pretty boring.
When I watched it, the first half of the movie was good as it was gradually building toward the climax (where she starts to take revenge).
However, the second half of the movie, where all the action takes place, is actually very boring. Here's why:
-EVERY time she shoots at someone, it is in slow-motion.
-Also, during the car chase, a few cars wreak, drift off to the side of the road, then, after a second or two, explode (in other words, the pyrotechnics are badly timed).
One last note, the hardcore sex scenes are included, like advertised, and the total running time of the hardcore insertions is about 65 to 70 seconds. To be honest, I have no idea why these shots were used at all, but if you really want to see this movie in its complete, uncut form, then by all means, buy it.
Movie Review: Made for Drive-ins
Summary: 3 Stars
Aside from the all the violence and some sex stuff, this movie is somewhat dull. At least there is a decent amount of special features. First under 'Mayhem' is all the audio options including English/Swedish Audio and English Subtitles. Under 'Revenge', you get 'Trailers' which includes a TV Spot(28sec), Theatrical Trailer(1:29), Hooker's Revenge/Photographer's Model double preview(2:51), and a Thriller Trailer(1:21).
Next is 'Alternate Footage' where you get an Outtake Reel(1:07), Alternate Harbor Fight(5:19), and Movie in Pictures(40sec). Also you get 'Still Galaries' which includes: In Bed with Christina(20 photos), Behind the Scenes(34 photos), Advertising Promotion(22 photos), Deleted Fight Scene(26 photos), and Production Photos(29 photos). Lastly you get Filmographies of Vibernius and Linberg.