Exploitation cinema in all its glory, or not, depending on your own personal peccadilloes! Directed, written and produced by Bo Arne Vibenius, Thriller - en grym film (AKA: They Call Her One Eye) is an infamous picture for a number of reasons, reasons that would take a whole page to write about. So use your mouse and google it because this review isn't interested in dabbling in such fare.Plot sees a young Madeline raped by a paedophile and rendered mute by the experience. Into early adulthood and Madeline (played superbly by soft core porn starlet Christinia Lindberg) unwisely takes up the offer of a lift from the odious Tony (Heinz Hopf). Pretty soon she's addicted to heroin and working as a prostitute. However, Madeline is biding her time, for she has plans, plans that spell doom for all her abusers.Does this film have artistic merit? Absolutely! In fact if you take out the inserted pornographic close-ups, which are pointless since we already know what Madeline is going through (a supposed marketing tool of the era apparently...) then this is a kick-ass film. It's a two parter, where the first half shows all of Madeline's misery, with sexual disturbance and body horror, then we switch to Madeline's fight back, where we get one of the coolest anti-heroines of 70s exploitation. She's sporting an eye patch, a glorious black trench coat, and weapons, oh yes! There are weapons, hands, guns and cars, oh my! It's here where Vibenius asks the question about justifiable revenge, whilst the super slow-mo approach to the violence will either be viewed as indulgent or classy (I'm with the latter camp).It is what it is, grungy and grimy, operating in a specialist niche of cinema, but worthy in that it didn't conform, and it has proved influential. It's just not a date movie or something to watch with you mom! Right, I'm off for a bath. 7/10

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

Frigga was raped in a park by a filthy old man when she was a little girl and after that she became mute. 15 years later she is accepting a ride into town with a very evil man who puts her on drugs and keeps her as a prostitute in his brothel. All cruel things they do to her is remembered and she starts on planning a revenge...First of all, don't let the title fool you. This is not a thriller. It is exploitation/rape/revenge. Made in 1973, the film is famous for being the first film entirely banned in Sweden. (However other sources say that Victor Sjöström (The Phantom Carriage etc.) managed that already in 1912) The film had to be cut down 25 minutes before it could be re-released in 1974. Only a couple of years ago the uncut version was released and now we can see the entire film as it was intended by Bo Vibenius.It may also be of interest to some that this film is Tarantino's favorite and that it inspired the characters in the Kill Bill films. Tarantino calls it "the roughest revenge movie ever made!"· The film has lots of nudity, including several sex and rape scenes. You may like the fact that it is Playboy pin-up Christina Lindberg who plays the lead. Her appearance is quite special and this film exemplifies perfectly that sometimes silence speaks more than words: Christina Lindberg doesn't utter one single word in the entire film.The film has some really disturbing scenes. There is an eye being punctured in the film and it has been confirmed later that this is a freaking real eye from a dead girl that recently took suicide at that time! The film is surprisingly well-made. The soundtrack with its use of effects creates a nice tone to the film and it is balanced very well with silence. The film has nice colors too and an excellent flow in the first half. Maybe I felt there was too many slow motion scenes in the second half and some of the editing could have been done better, but I end up positive.8/10

This movie does only partly lives up to its reputation. It's certainly a quite brutal movie with also some real explicit nudity and sex in it but at the same time the movie isn't really an uplifting or entertaining enough one. Bo Arne Vibenius' previous movie was a financial failure and to cover up for the losses he thought he should make the biggest commercial exploitation flick ever. Sex, lesbians, violence, it is all here in this movie, as well as a main premise in which a young woman violently takes revenge upon those who did her wrong and exploited her. Yet still as an exploitation flick the movie falls sort of short. It's because the storytelling just is a bit off at times and the movie has lots of slow moments in it, especially during its first halve. It really doesn't make the movie as fun to watch as its premise make it sound.Still it's a movie that constantly tries to shock, with either its very explicit sex or its violent plot. I still love the movie for this, also since it all got done in a quite unique style. This movie is a Swedish one so of course you are going to get something different from an Hollywood exploitation flick.It overall is still a good movie in parts but yet not as great or even as entertaining as it all could had turned out to.7/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/