Back home

Thriller: A Cruel Picture

201 votes

Producing House

Madeleine, rendered mute after being sexually assaulted as a youth, accepts a lift from a wealthy and sadistic pimp who soon enslaves her into his prostitution racket. Despite her limited means, Madeleine embarks on a bloody road to revenge against her captors.

movie

Status: Released

Released Date: 1973-05-01

Runtime: 108 mins

Director: Bo Arne Vibenius

Writer: Bo Arne Vibenius

Spoken language: svenska

Genres: Action, Thriller, Crime, Horror

Original title: Thriller: A Cruel Picture

Production Companies: BAV Film, United Producers

Production Countries: Sweden

Reviews

J

JPV852
Okay rape-revenge thriller has a fine performance from Christina Lindberg even though she has zero lines and there are scenes tough to watch. The revenge portion is the best part however the slow-motion fight between Madeliene and the cops went on far too long. The final scene was satisfying though. **3.5/5**
2022-07-03

J

John Chard
Madeline Marauds! 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
2016-03-13

Recommendations

Virgin Sniper
0.5

Virgin Sniper

1997-10-10

Toranaga is a good-for-nothing loser. However, he also happens to be the last remaining direct desce

House of Strangers
3.5

House of Strangers

1949-07-01

Gino Monetti is a ruthless Italian-American banker who is engaged in a number of criminal activities

Girl with a Gun
2

Girl with a Gun

1982-12-10

An attempted rape of a deaf mute girl causes her to take revenge. Soon the killings begin.

Law Abiding Citizen
3.7

Law Abiding Citizen

2009-10-15

A frustrated man decides to take justice into his own hands after a plea bargain sets one of his fam

The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day
3

The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day

2009-11-24

Skillfully framed by an unknown enemy for the murder of a priest, wanted vigilante MacManus brothers

Ninja Assassin
3.3

Ninja Assassin

2009-09-29

Ninja Assassin follows Raizo, one of the deadliest assassins in the world. Taken from the streets as

Safehouse
2.3

Safehouse

2008-01-01

Ex-FBI agent Cooper O'Neil thinks the dangerous times in his life are in the past; that is, until hi

The Big Bird Cage
2.8

The Big Bird Cage

1972-07-01

Women rebel against slave labor in a filthy jungle prison where they feed sugar cane to a mechanical

Soul
0

Soul

2016-04-16

Chase, a frustrated artist, lives a bohemian life with lover, Alexis, an enchanting dancer, in their

Maniac
1.9

Maniac

1934-09-11

An ex-vaudeville actor is working as the assistant to a doctor who has Frankenstein aspirations. The

The Garden of Sinners: Remaining Sense of Pain
3.5

The Garden of Sinners: Remaining Sense of Pain

2008-02-09

July 1998 - After a group of delinquents is found dead in their hangout place with all their limbs t

Tormented
2.5

Tormented

2009-05-22

Darren Mullet, a bullied asthmatic, is driven to suicide by his tormented life - ignored by his pare

John Wick
3.7

John Wick

2014-10-22

Ex-hitman John Wick comes out of retirement to track down the gangsters that took everything from hi

Boy Golden: Shoot-To-Kill
3

Boy Golden: Shoot-To-Kill

2013-12-25

The film is very, very loosely based on the life of Arturo Porcuna (Jeorge Estregan). Once upon a ti

Thriller
2.1

Thriller

2018-09-23

Years after a childhood prank goes horribly wrong, a clique of South Central LA teens find themselve

The Cask of Amontillado
0

The Cask of Amontillado

1998-10-25

Set in an unnamed Italian city at carnival time in an unspecified year is about a man taking fatal r

Code of Silence
2.9

Code of Silence

1985-05-03

A Chicago cop is caught in the middle of a gang war while his own comrades shun him because he wants

Chandni Bar
3.4

Chandni Bar

2001-09-28

The gritty life of the Mumbai underworld, including prostitution, dance bars and gun crime.

Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS
3

Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS

1975-10-01

Ilsa, a warden at a Nazi death camp that conducts experiments on prisoners, strives to prove that wo

Blown Away
3.1

Blown Away

1993-04-01

After her mother is killed by a car bomb, a 17-year-old girl lives a reckless and decadent lifestyle