Thriller - en grym film (1974)

Director:

Bo Arne Vibenius

Writer:

Bo Arne Vibenius (writer)

Release Date:

5 June 1974 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Thriller

Tagline:

The first film, ever, to be banned in Sweden!

Plot:

A young woman, muted after a sexual assault as a child, is trained to seek violent revenge on those who have wronged her after being kidnapped and forced to work as a prostitute.

Plot Keywords:

Revenge | Heroin | Death | Brothel | Martial Arts

Cast

Christina Lindberg	...	Frigga / Madeleine / One Eye
Heinz Hopf	...	Tony
Despina Tomazani	...	Lip-stick lesbian
Per-Axel Arosenius	...	Frigga's Father
Solveig Andersson	...	Sally
Björn Kristiansson
Marie-Louise Mannervall	...	Woman in village
Hildur Lindberg	...	Mother's Friend
Stig Lokrantz
Olle Nordlander
Marshall McDough
Gunnar Palm
Pamela Pethö-Galantai	...	Young Madeleine
Lennart Robertsson
Hans-Eric Stenborg
Stig Ström
Lars Sääv
Bruno Sörwing
Gunnel Wadner	...	Frigga's Mother
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Lars Lundgren	...	(uncredited)
Bo Arne Vibenius	...	Hot Dog vendor (uncredited)

Directed by
Bo Arne Vibenius		(as Alex Fridolinski)

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Bo Arne Vibenius		writer

Produced by
Bo Arne Vibenius	....	producer

Original Music by
Ralph Lundsten

Cinematography by
Andreas Bellis		(as Andrew Bellis)

Film Editing by
Brian Wikström

Costume Design by
Anna Oskarsdotter

Production Management
Bo Lundqvist	....	unit manager

Sound Department
Dennis Hennicks	....	sound
Bengt Kåring	....	sound

Special Effects by
Stig Limér	....	special effects

Stunts
Per Hessman	....	stunts
Jan Kreigsman	....	stunt coordinator
Dan Lindhe	....	stunts
Lars Lundgren	....	stunts
Bo Sunnefeldt	....	stunts

Camera and Electrical Department
Ted Lindahl	....	electrician

Other crew
Sture Åsberg	....	unspecified assistant
Anna Oskarsdotter	....	assistant to producer (as Anna Maria Anefelt)

Production Companies

• BAV Film
• United Producers

Distributors

• BAV Film (1974) (Sweden) (theatrical)
• American International Pictures (AIP) (1974) (USA) (theatrical) (edit) (dubbed)
• Astral Films (1974) (Canada) (theatrical) (heavily cut) (dubbed)
• Brent Walker Film Distributing (1976) (UK) (theatrical)
• Synapse Films (2004) (USA) (DVD)

Also Known As:

Hooker's Revenge (USA) (reissue title)
They Call Her One Eye (USA) (censored version)
Thriller (Sweden) (short title)
Thriller: A Cruel Picture (USA)
Crime à froid (Canada: French title) (video title) [fr]
Desenlace mortal (Spain) (original subtitled version) [es]
Enögd (Finland: Swedish title) (informal title) [sv]
Thriller (Italy) [it]
Thriller - ein unbarmherziger Film (West Germany) [de]
Yksisilmäinen (Finland) (informal title) [fi]

Runtime:

104 min | UK:80 min (heavily cut) | USA:82 min (R-rated version) | Australia:92 min (R-rated cut)

Country:

Sweden

Language:

Swedish

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:(Banned) (cut) (1975) | Sweden:15 (re-rating: 1974) (heavily cut) | Sweden:(Banned) (original rating: 1973) | UK:R (original rating: 1974) | USA:Unrated (uncut) | UK:X (re-rating: 1976) (heavily cut) | Australia:R (cut) (1976) | West Germany:18 | Italy:VM18 | USA:R (heavily cut) | Canada:18+ (Quebec)

Filming Locations:

Drottningholm, Stockholms län, Sweden

Company:

BAV Film

Trivia:

Christina Lindberg had no driver's licence, but does her own driving, with a policeman lying on the car floor, operating the shift.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When the police car runs over a piece of grass between two roads, you can clearly see tire tracks from earlier takes.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Terror (1978/I)

Slow, effective, but probably unrepeatable

Vengeance, or so the saying goes, is a dish best served cold. This film certainly exemplifies this maxim, and in the process comes across as if Bergman had done Deathwish. (Thriller's director had actually worked as on Persona as an assistant, and indeed some of the Nordic glumness here reminds one of the greater director) Its one of those titles which, long unavailable to the interested viewer, provokes a huge amount of curiosity and its arrival on DVD with some useful extras, is to be welcomed. It also has the cool cachet of a recommendation by Quentin Tarantino, who for purposes of reference duly inserted a one-eyed assassin of his own into Kill Bill.

Seen today Thriller remains a striking film, even much of the shock value has evaporated - apart from the hard core sequences as the heroine, by now a unwilling heroine addict, is abused and degraded. These moments were a principal reason for the film's truncation for the States and elsewhere, even though now they seem part and parcel of the message, reinforcing the intimate distress of what is being done. In fact apart from the opening and discreetly filmed child rape, as well as the assault on Madeline's eyeball about a third of the way in, there's hardly much action at all - and which when it does appear, given director Vibenius' infatuation with slow-mo violence (interesting at first, avant garde when continued, a tad tedious when it carries on) tends to slow matters down considerably. Much of the fighting is done in this same manner, and while the drawn out bullet ballets piercing shirts lead to certain fascination, the technique also shows up the cheap special effects on offer, or distractingly emphasises the illogicality of bodies recoiling *into* bullets and actors reacting too slowly to the impact. But whether deliberately or not such trick effects distance the viewer from the emotions of events; instead the mechanics of retaliation and murder are drawn out in almost fetishistic fashion, just as Madeline will savour coldly the extended demise of Tony in the closing scenes.

On the plus side the deliberate nature of it all, and the slow build up to Madeline's revenge, gives the audience ample time to side with the central character and contemplate the stages of her increasing torment. And during the wait, her enforced silence communicates far more than acres of embittered dialogue might have. The result is a degree of audience sympathy that's quite a way from the usual exploitation product, and by virtue of the fact that sometimes less means more, accumulates considerably more dignity for the victim along the way. There's still plenty of 70's cheesy decor on show (Madeline's principal abuser and abductor, Tony, in particular recalls a sleazy Jason King) but the film is distinguished by its refusal to hurry and draws out the angst suffered by the main character with quiet understatement, an effective process which gets under the skin.

Its a film worth seeing for this rather unique flavour; whether or not it will repay repeated viewings is less certain as, apart from Christine Lindberg's stoic performance, non of the other actors make much of an impression. Director Vibernius, who apparently took on this production to pay for the flop of his last, only made one more film after this, the even more exploitative Breaking Point. In Thriller, where perhaps he succeeded for the only time in creating a near art house style for grind house subject matter, he also appears as a hot dog salesman.