Thriller - A Cruel Picture

[Latte Thunder]

A friend of mine mentioned this movie the other night over beers. I'd never heard of it and he'd never seen it, but the hype on the back of the package quotes Tarantino with "the roughest revenge movie ever made." Love him or hate him, you can't deny it, the man knows what he's talking about. So when I found this in my record store, I didn't hesitate to buy it.

Synapse, once again, delivers a solid DVD. The picture is grainy and dark, but I'm pretty sure that they did the best they could with what they had to work with. It's completely uncut also. Which means that all the porno that was cut out, is back in. If you're not familiar, here's the rundown:

Frigga is raped as a child and the trauma leaves her mute from that day on. Many years later, after missing the bus into town, she accepts a ride from a smooth pimp who wines her, dines her, drugs her and then forces her into a life of heroin addiction and prostitution. At first, she resists, but her pimp fixes her good with a scalpel in the eye (a frighteningly realistic scene). She then finds that the pimp has sent her parents a type written letter supposedly by her, that says she's never coming home and hates them. So when she actually goes home, she's there in time to see the funeral procession after her parents killed themselves. The decision is made to have her revenge. Frigga plays ball with her captor while learning to fight, shoot and drive (rally style) and then the mayhem begins.

It's a really odd movie. There's something poetic about the violence, which always happens in super slow-mo, set to a mindbending echoplex soundtrack. There's a scene where Frigga kicks the crap out of two cops and the way iit goes down is unbelievably beautiful.

While it's certainly a depressing movie, it has a tendency to move a little slow. Aside from the eyeball scene, the violence isn't particularly explicit, either. I think as far as revenge flicks go, I Spit On Your Grave stomps this one into the dirt for the title of Roughest Revenge Movie Ever Made, but it's still very good.

[ROBERT]

[quote="Latte Thunder"]

I Spit On Your Grave stomps this one into the dirt for the title of Roughest Revenge Movie Ever Made[quote]


Latte, have you seen Red To Kill from HK or Baise Moi? I would say those are the roughest rape revenge films ever made. Quite a bit more explicit and nastier than I Spit On Your Grave. Although I Spit is still up there in the top five.


As for Thriller. If my copy ever arrives I'll post what I think. Based on Latte's review it looks like it lives up to it's rep.

[Kimberly]

There's a scene where Frigga kicks the crap out of two cops and the way it goes down is unbelievably beautiful.
While it's certainly a depressing movie, it has a tendency to move a little slow. Aside from the eyeball scene, the violence isn't particularly explicit, either.

This was my favorite part of the movie... The part where she kicks the crap out of the cops was gorgeous... the blood going in slo-mo... the way it was captured... really something. Actually I liked the other scenes that went down in slo-mo too but the one with her and the cops really stood out.

Problems with the movie... well for someone who's strung out on heroin she looked great! Top it off for someone who's strung out she did well in her karate, driving and gun lessons. Did she take the time to do all this on Sundays? That was her designated day off no? And where DID that horse come from? Oh... and the car chase! Don't people in Sweden stop or pull to the side when a cop car comes blaring down the road?

The penetration didn't hurt the movie

It was good, not great... glad I watched it. It's not something I'd watch again... but it was enjoyable for a rainy day movie.

Oh and I heard (dunno if it's true or not) that the scene with the eye was done with an actual cadavar...

[stypees back]

BAISE MOI pissed me off. I guess I had high expectations for it since I heard so many things about it. Yeah it was interesting to meld HARDCORE SEX with what I suppose would be a "convential" revenge flick but it felt as if everything was forced. I sat there thinking "okay, I dare ya', go ahead and offend me". Didn't work. I will say that the French are pretty sick and I like it that they marketed the flick as an "art" flick here in the U.S. (seriously, do you really think Amazon would carry a film like this?) but I felt like I was just watching some porno with a few ideas thrown into the mix.

I have heard great things about the book the flick is based on but I'm assuming it doesn't have an American language print.

I'd like to check out those other movies you all mentioned.

btw.. Without question, after hearing Job Bob Brigg's commentary on I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE, my feelings for that movie totally flipped. I was in awe at the stuff that guy knew about the film and have found a different sort of respect for it. Worth a purchase.

[DylanDog]

Watched this the other night. It was ok, but I don't know what made you guys like the scene of the cop beat down so much. I thought it was too difficult to see. I'm not too sure why they bothered with the original rape scene since it wasn't really all that necessary for the plot later. If making her mute was supposed to make me feel bad for her, it just didn't work, especially since she was so stupid to get into that car with Depeche Mode's Dave Gahan in the first place. I would have thought being raped by a strange man once would have made her just a tad bit suspicious.

Interesting (to me at least) is the fact that the director was also a unit director on Ingmar Bergman's Hour Of The Wolf, which I watched last night. A coincidence I did not know about until I saw his name in the credits.

[Chris Slack]

I like "Thriller", lots of fun but certainly not that rough. I agree with Kimberly that she was prety damned hot for a junkie, motivated as well!

I think "Irreversible" is the roughest rape revenge movie I have seen. "Baise Moi" was nothing more than a juiced up "Thelma and Louise" is you ask me, hell even me woman enjoyed that one

[Kimberly]

I like "Thriller", lots of fun but certainly not that rough. I agree with Kimberly that she was prety damned hot for a junkie, motivated as well!

I think "Irreversible" is the roughest rape revenge movie I have seen. "Baise Moi" was nothing more than a juiced up "Thelma and Louise" is you ask me, hell even me woman enjoyed that one

I thought Baise Moi was a total stinker!!

Irreversible is just insane...

The part with the cops getting beat down... was nice to look at... slow mo... watching the blood drops going all about in slow mo... I thought it was artsy... really liked that part...