THRILLER: A CRUEL PICTURE (1974)
Label: Synapse Films
Region Code: Region-Free
Duration: 107 Minutes
Audio: Swedish PCM Original 2.0 Mono, English Dubbed PCM 2.0 Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.66:1)
Director: Bo A. Vibenius
Cast: Christina Lindberg, Heinz Hopf, Despina Tomazani, Per-Axel Arosenius, Solveig Andersson, Björn Kristiansson
In the rape-revenger Thriller - A Cruel Picture (1974) AKA They Call Her One Eye AKA Thriller AKA Hooker's Revenge a young girl playing at the park is raped by a stranger, the ensuing trauma causes her to become mute. Now a teen working on her parent's dairy farm (former model Christina Lindberg) and is being treated by a doctor in hopes of regaining her speech. One day after missing the bus to her appointment she is picked-up by a smug douche named Tony (Heinz Hopf, Anne & Eve) who offers her a lift, afterward treating her to dinner, getting her drunk and then taking her back to his place. There he drugs her and then shoots her up with heroin over course of a two weeks to get her addicted, before pimping her out to clients. She initially refuses to go along with it, viciously clawing a her first customer's face, but Tony retaliated by taking a scalpel to her eye, and then advertising her as "One Eye" to his clients. Tony also sends a letter in her name to her parents house that says she is ashamed of them and their rural life, their pity, and that she has left for the city and is never coming back. Later Frigga learns that her parents have killed themselves because of the letter and swears she will have her revenge on Tony and the sickos who pay him to have sex with her.
In a strange logic-challenged arrangement sleazy Tony allows Frigga to have one day off a week, apparently he is so confident in their addiction to his high-grade heroin that she is free to leave for an entire day. During these days off Frigga makes the most of it; and we see her attending classes to learn how to stunt drive cars, learn martial arts, and shooting a variety of guns. Weaning herself off the dope she sets about enacting her revenge after she saves up enough tip money from clients to buy a car. Wearing her eye-patch and donning a cool black leather trench coat the double-barrel shotgun wielding Frigga starts to kick some serious ass. First eliminating the customers who routinely raped her, and then getting after Tony himself, culminating in a very memorable showdown.
Interestingly directed by Bo Arne Vibenius (Breaking Point) the film has one foot firmly in the grindhouse and the other in the arthouse, it's shot with artful leaning and then punctuated frequently by extremely slow-motion action scenes that are accompanied by psychotronic music that definitely gives it a weird vibe - these scenes seem to go on forever, yet somehow I am drawn in by it, the wiring in my brain is preprogrammed to dig this sort of stuff. There's not an overabundance of graphic gore but lots of bloody shotguns blasts throughout the film, plus an implied decapitation. The most wince-inducing scene would have to be the eyeball slicing, which is rumored to have been filmed with a real cadavers eyeball, which if true is mighty unsettling stuff. Viewers beware the uncut version contains several hardcore sex inserts including anal penetration and more, the sex scenes are shot super tight and don't match the style and atmosphere of the flick and feel pretty forced, which were probably added to cash-in on the porno-chic early 70's.
A thoroughly engrossing film with a super-seedy set-up, but it's the performance from Eckberg as the one-eyed revenger that holds it together. Though she says not a single dang thing throughout the film her wordless performance is powerful stuff. Now don't get me wrong, the flick has plenty of flaws and gaps in logic (a bunch) but whose watching Thriller - A Cruel Picture and sweating the logic of it? C'mon, this is an exploitation classic for good reason, and it holds up quite nicely, the set-up and Linberg's enigmatic force-of-nature performance will make you a believer!
Audio/Video: The uncut version of Thriller: A Cruel Picture (1973) debuts on region-free Blu-ray from Synapse Films in 1080p HD framed in 1.66:1 widescreen, there's no verbage about this being a new scan so I will assume this is utilizing the same master used for the previous 2005 DVD release from Synapse, upscaled. It's a bit rough looking, shot on 16mm the film grain is chunky and while the Blu-ray at least resolves the grain more finely with less compression it is still plenty grainy. Colors look quite strong throughout, much better than the DVD, with deeper blacks and improved depth and clarity. That said, there's still plenty of room for improvement. The biggest issue is the image stability and flickering, it looks like a raw scan without a ton of restoration having been applied to it. Interestingly, there's a bit of controversy about this release, as its in competition with Vinegar Syndrome's upcoming 4K UHD release which is said to be sourced 4K scan of the OCN. I'll will be interested to check that release out and see how it stacks up.
Audio comes by way of Swedish or English-dubbed LPCM 2.0 mono, both with newly translated optional English subtitles. Both tracks show some age-related hiss in the background, but it's not awful by any means, and both tracks are quite strong. The biggest difference in content in that in the English dub her name is Frigga versus the Swedish version's Madeleine.
Sadly, we get no new extras for the film's debut on Blu-ray, though Synapse do carry over the previously existing extras. This includes 1-min of Outtakes, the 6-min Alternate Harbor Fight Sequence, the Thriller - A Cruel Lab Mistake – which are rare photos from an unused fight sequence that were ruined by a film lab during the production, the 1-min
Thriller - The Story In Pictures which about 40 seconds of still images, several Still Galleries, plus the
TV Spot and Trailer for the film under the title 'They Call her One Eye', an alternate 'Thriller' titled, trailer, and a double-bill trailer for the film under the alternate title 'Hooker's Revenge' paired with 'The Photographer’s Model'.
We also get a bonus DVD, which is actually the exact same DVD that Synapse released in 2005 as the "Vengeance Edition", running slightly shorter at 103-min it removes the hardcore inserts and eye-gouging scenes. This is actually the version of the film I prefer, too bad it's not in 1080p.
The 2-disc DVD/BD arrives in a black dual-hubbed Elite keepcase with a reversible sleeve of artwork featuring the original illustrated artwork plus the art Wes Benscoter did for the 2005 DVD release from synapse, the discs inside also featuring the same artworks.
Special Features:
- Uncut and uncensored high definition 1080p (1.66:1) presentation
- Original Swedish language version with newly translated removable English subtitles
- Alternate English dub soundtrack with newly translated removable English subtitles
- Multiple still galleries including rare behind-the-scenes images and nude photos of Christina Lindberg on set
- Theatrical Trailer: They Call Her One Eye (1 min) - TV Spot: They Call Her One Eye (28 sec)
- Double Feature Trailer: Hookers Revenge & The Photographer’s Model (3 min)
- Trailer: Thriller (1 min)
- TV spot (28 sec)
- Outtakes (1 min)
- Alternate Harbor Fight Sequence (6 min)
- Thriller: A Cruel Lab Mistake – Rare photos from an unused fight sequence that was ruined by the film lab during production
- Thriller: The Story In Pictures (1 min)
- Reversible Sleeve of Artwork from Wes Benscoter
Thriller - A Cruel Picture (1974) is my second favorite rape-revenger after Ms. 45, and Synapse Films do good (not great) work bringing it Blu-ray. While I am pleased to have it on Blu-ray I am truly disappointed we don't get any new extras or the alternate cut in HD. Personally, I am pretty keen to see the upcoming Vinegar Syndrome UHD restored in 4K from the OCN, which will have new and archival extras, including a brand new making-of doc, but till I have that on my shelf this Blu-ray will tide me over nicely.
Screenshots from the Synapse Films Blu-ray:
