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Released by: Synapse Films
Released on: 8/30/2005
Director: Bo Arne Vibenius
Cast: Christina Lindberg, Heinz Hopf, Despina Tomazani, Per-Axel Arosenius
Year: 1974
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The Movie:
What do you get when you combine a potentially insane director, a gorgeous Swedish sex kitten with an eye patch and a shotgun, eyeball slicing, more slow motion than Sam Peckinpah could ever dream of, and a fun lesbian encounter? Thriller…also known as, They Call Her One Eye… also known as The Hooker's Revenge, that's what!
Lindberg plays Frigga, who at a young age found herself the victim of a sexual assult. The rape damaged her psyche and left her a mute, and a rather antisocial mute at that. Her parents send her into town on a regular basis from her rural home to get treatment to help her with her condition and one day, she misses her bus. Fearing she'll be late, she accepts a ride from Tony, a suave looking and stylish man who turns out to be quite dastardly in his intent.
Tony's a pimp and a drug dealer. Frigga is his latest victim. Once he gets her in his car, he abducts her to take her back to his lair where he'll get her hooked on heroin and force her to work as a hooker in exchange for smack. Tony keeps his bitches seperated from the rest of the world and from their families in order to better control them, and if they should try to make an escape he threatens them with their lives.
As Frigga is introduced the sex trade underworld, she quickly shows her strength by raking her nails down the face of her first john. She makes an escape attempt but it's too late, Tony's got her hooked on heroin and she ends up coming back to him to feed the monkey on her back. She gives up on fighting back and seemingly accepts her fate as whore in Tony's employ. She seems docile enough until she hears that her parents have been killed and it's here that something deep inside her snaps - everything comes flooding back to her, the abuse, the rape, the drug use and the horrors of life. Frigga weans herself off of the dope and in an amazingly unrealistic amount of time trains herself in karate, learns how to drive, becomes an expert with a double barrelled shotgun and decides to get her bloody revenge on Tony and his thugs once and for all.
Expertly directed by Bo Arne Vibenius (second unit director on a pair of Ingmar Bergman films - Persona and Hour Of The Wolf - both quite far removed from Thriller and its follow up, the even nastier Breaking Point), the film does have a few noticeable flaws but benefits from such a fantastic female lead that they're easy to overlook. Yeah, it's slow in spots and yeah it's dated and yeah the slow motion is way too over the top and right, no one could learn how to drive or learn martial arts or shoot or get off of heroin that quickly, but who cares! This is an exploitation/revenge movie. Throw logic out the window because it doesn't apply here and forcing that logic on this film and others of its kind only serves to detract from its enjoyment. This movie is a simple excuse to watch a hot chick in precarious situations stand up to her oppressors and kick their collective ass. Parts of it are dreamlike, parts of it are sexy, parts of it are repulsive and you can read into it what you like but Thriller is what it is and that's a down and dirty movie about a hot chick with a shotgun and I wouldn't want it any other way. The fact that the cinematography and sound design are but the icing on this tasty Swedish cake - this one is all about Lindberg and why not? She carries it off wonderfully. To Hell with Daryl Hannah in Kill Bill, Lindberg is the realy deal one eyed hot chick with a penchant for violence.
So what differientiates this new Vengeance Edition from the earlier Limited Edition? Aside from the yellow background on the cover art versus the red background on the first release, basically it's simply the removal of the hardcore inserts and the trimming of the infamous eyeball sequence to match the cuts AIP made to the film when they released it domestically to theaters. So if you've ever wanted to watch Thriller with your mom but were afraid she might label you a pervert, what with the anal penetration and money shots and all, now you can lay your worries to rest and pick up this considerably safer and more accessible edition at a Best Buy near you.
Whether or not the removal of the much debated hardcore material improves the film or not is completely subjective. Personally, I thought that the hardcore scenes added a sense of mean spiritedness that really drove the point home and didn't find them titilatting at all but further proof of the repulsive conditions to which our heroine is subjected. Plenty of people disagree with me though, and the perfectly valid argument that they take one out of the picture is worth considerining even if it isn't your own personal philosophy as it relates to this particular picture.
Video/Audio/Extras:
This released is sourced from the same restored 1.78.1 anamorphic widescreen transfer that Synapse prepared for the earlier DVD release, so obviously, it looks just as good. Yes, there is some moderate to heavy grain present in a few of the scenes but for the most part, the image is very clean and the colors come through quite nicely for an older, low budget fast and cheap exploitation movie. Contrast levels are set properly, black levels are pretty consistent and strong and there aren't any problems with mpeg compression artifacts at all. Some light line shimmering is evident in a couple of scenes but that's about it as far as compression/transfer issues go. The picture looks nice - much nicer than most of us probably ever thought that it would.
Again, this is sourced from the same elements that the first disc was created from so we're again treated to some clean, clear audio thanks to the disc's Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono sound mix. You've got your pick of watching the film in its Swedish sound mix with optional English subtitles, or dubbed into English. Quality wise, there's not a ton of difference between the two tracks. It is worth noting that Lindberg's character has a different name in the English track than she does in the Swedish one, however. Dialogue comes through clean and clear and while there isn't a lot of power behind this one (the levels are a little low) it sounds as good as any movie of this ilk probably ever should.
Here's why you're going to want to hang onto your first release, even if you prefer the film without the hardcore - the only extras on this release are the film's original theatrical trailer (as They Call Her One Eye) and some new liner notes (well, actually old liner notes - they were initially written way back when Chrome was supposed to put this one out before Synapse became involved) from David Zuzelo. The alternate trailers, TV spot, outtake reel footage, dock showdown alternate take, the In Bed With Christina photo gallery, movie-in-pictures section, Lindberg and Vibenius bios and the original liners from Robert Marcucci are not included on this release (which does carry an MSRP of $10 less than it's predecessor).
The Final Word:
While I'm not a fan of the unannounced double dip, it makes sense for two versions of Thriller to be available, considering how divided people are over the hardcore inserts. Synapse also now have the added bonus of being able to get the film into major retail establishments, which I'm sure factored into the decision to release this one (and rightly so). The image quality is excellent, the sound quality is good, and the addition of the differing liner notes and cover art is a nice touch. The movie rules regardless of which version you go for and hardcore fans and completists will likely opt for both (to keep on hand just in case mom shows up wanting to check this one out).