| Thriller : A Cruel Picture |
| aka. They Call Her One Eye (1974) |
| Directed by Eugenio Martin.Starring Christine Lindberg, Heinz Hopf, and Solveig Anderson. |
| At the time it was released, this film had the dubious honour of being the only film ever to be banned in Sweden. This Swedish revenge flick begins with Christine Lindberg being molested as a child. Naturally this messes her up for life, and she becomes a mute. |
| Years later, an all grown up Christine is hitchhiking when she's picked up by the incredibly shifty looking Tony. Tony wines and dines the young woman, and dopes her up on heroin. Soon Christine is hooked, and Tony tells her she'll have to work for him if she wants him to keep supplying her with drugs. And Tony doesn't run a respectable Swedish massage parlour ..... he runs a very different kind of massage parlour. |
| Tony puts the hopelessly addicted Christina to work as a callgirl for rich and cruel clients. She gets on Tony's wrong side when she rakes her fingernails down her first clients face. Tony is no novice in the pimping business, and knows he has to keep his girls in line. So he takes a scalpel and pops poor Christine's eye out in the most disgustingly real eye-poking ever committed to celluloid (yes, even better than the one in Zombie). |
| I thought at this point that our heroine would be considered damaged goods, but Tony buys her a pretty eyepatch and gets her back to work before you can say 'Heidi Fliess'. Surprisingly some of her sexual encounters with her clients are shown hardcore. I'm not talking Russ Meyer style softcore hyjinx here.... I'm talking swapped bodily fluids XXX action. I haven't exactly led that sheltered a life, but it was a bit of a shock to see this in a movie with an actual plot, decent acting, etc. |
| The eye poking was the last straw, and the not-so happy hooker saves the money she makes from the Johns and invests it in shooting , unarmed combat, and rally driving lessons. She then goes after Tony, and her cruel clients as a means of testing her new skills out. Some of the highlights include a slow-motion shotgun murder, and a death by donkey! It took a while to track down a subtitled copy of Thriller, but it was well worth it. Take half a cup of Taxi Driver, and half a cup of I Spit On Your Grave, a teaspoon of Deep Throat, and you've got a pretty good idea of what you'll be in for with this one. |
| Entertainment : 3 out of 4 |
| Watchability : 3 out of 4 |
| Overall : 3 out of 4 |
| Reviewed by Blake. |
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