Frigga lives on the country side with her parents and is mute because of that she was raped by an elderly man when she was young. One day she misses the bus but catches a ride with a man named Tony. Tony thought is one shitty guy indeed who takes the poor girl back to his place, pumps her full of heroin and makes her his prostitute. Tony then sends a fake letter to her parents, announcing that she has run away and will never come back home. Will she manage to escape her cruel fate?
What the hell are you doing giving this movie 10 out of 10 you say? Well, I could say that it is truly a great revenge flick but that would obviously not be enough, Thriller is so much more and you're gonna find out all about what makes this obscure little Swedish monster so darn sweet. First off, Thriller was the first movie to be banned by the Swedish movie censorship board and that alone actually says quite a lot. Furthermore, when it was first released in the US, it had been cut down to only last for 82 minutes when the original film itself lasted for a whole 107 minutes, and that also says a lot of what terror we're dealing with here. But these are just documented facts and even though it says something, it does not say what the movie itself is like. So let me put it like this, the title nails exactly what it is, and that is one cruel picture.
First time I saw this movie I was about 15 years old and was treated to this piece of film in the form of a copied VHS tape with lousy image quality, but things like that didn't matter back then; the important thing was to get your hands on these hard-to-find films and when you every once in a while did, you couldn't care less about that it looked like shit, at least you got to see the very film itself. I must add that at that time you had to put in some effort to get those obscure films you to see and it was nothing like today when you can simply just order whatever you want online and a few days later get a shiny new DVD in your mailbox with perfect image quality and such. No, you had to check magazines, write letters (not emails) to people all over the world in hope that they would make a copy for you. It may sound like a lot of hassle but the fact is that when you actually got to see the movies, it was just so worth it since you had fought to get them, today there's no challenge at all so it's easier to be much more picky.
 
But back to the movie now that tells the story of Madeleine who's nickname is Frigga, and this is a girl who was sexually assaulted during her childhood and the trauma it brought made the innocent little girl go mute. She lives in the country side outside Stockholm and one day when she's supposed to catch a bus but misses it, she's offered a ride by a man named Tony. She accepts the ride and so also opens the door to her own little hell. The man is a sleazebag deluxe and he takes her back to his apartment where he makes Frigga a heroin addict and also becomes her pimp. So she stays there at his place because she needs her drugs, and every once in a while some dirty old man pops in to bang her. You can see where this is going right? Eventually the girl wants revenge and does everything in her power to get it.
While we're used to watching people do drugs on film, it's quite hard watching some old perv having hardcore sex with a 15-year old girl and that is exactly what you get to see here, hardcore sex scenes.. no wonder this film was banned. Thing about this movie is that everything in it has this very realistic feel to it which at times makes you forget that you're just watching another film. Thriller also goes by the name of They Call Her One Eye and that is because during the sex act with one of her John’s, she scratches him and it ends with that she has one of her eyes gouged out as punishment. Through it all, you're just sitting there really hoping that she will be able to escape her cruel fate, because it is truly cruel and it is at times very painful to watch. But it gets better though so no worries.
Now, this is a film that was made on a very low budget and while that really shows, it is also something that I believe works as an advantage. By looking the way it does, it gives it a very raw feel just like that and is overall a very rough movie. Towards the end when the violence hits a high note, the filmmakers may have overdone it with its slow motion sequences as it makes it drag quite a bit. But it's such a little thing and is quite easy to ignore and forgive since the film offers so many other excellent things. In the end, what makes this movie such a fantastic piece of cinema is that it carries things that no other films have. People today talk about horrific cinema a la Saw, Hostel and what else, but while those are just movies that may gross you out, this has that and more importantly, it has a true feel to it. It's raw, bloody, cruel, perverted, completely insane, and last but not least, it's wonderful and a definite must see.
Thriller: A Cruel Picture is truly a cruel picture, even by today's standards and is a cult film that you should most definitely check out. Imagine what people thought back when this film first was made since there was really nothing to compare it to. Do yourself a favor and get it, and if the film does not affect you on any level, it's recommended to go see a shrink.
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ALTERNATIVE TITLE: Thriller - en grym film, Hooker's Revenge, They Call Her One Eye
MOVIE YEAR: 1974
DIRECTOR: Bo Arne Vibenius
WRITING CREDITS: Bo Arne Vibenius
GENRE: Action, Drama, Thriller, Horror
CAST: Christina Lindberg, Per-Axel Arosenius, Heinz Hopfs
COUNTRY: Sweden
RUNTIME: 107 min
RATING: 10/10
Thriller: A Cruel Picture Website/IMDB Click here
Thriller: A Cruel Picture Trailer
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