ZoŽ Tamerlis is a mute woman who, one day when on her way home from work, gets raped i an alley. She makes it back home, but in her apartment is a robber who also rapes her. But this time she manages to fight back and end up killing the robber. After that her life changes, and she's no longer the innocent girl she once used to be. She starts roaming the streets of New York at night and extract vengeance on men with her 45 caliber gun.
This is an exploitation movie by Abel Ferrara (Body Snatchers, The Driller Killer), and even if it was made in 1981, it still feels extremely 70's. It's a movie about vengeance and it's somewhat similar to I Spit on Your Grave, Baise Moi and Death Wish combined.
It's a pretty simple story, a woman gets raped not once but twice, and seeks revenge. Thing though is that you think she wanted to seek revenge on the people who actually raped her, and even if her first victim is the second rapist, we never get to see her deal with the first one. Instead she seeks revenge on men in general. Some that she end up killing are sleazy and are coming on to her, but others she just kill for the simple reason that they are men. And that's when you stop feeling sympathetic for the girl.
I mean, it's totally understandable that she wants revenge and that of course makes for a good story. But the fact that she's just killing innocent random men makes it become too much, and makes you no longer feel sorry for her. You can tell that she's a pretty innocent girl at first sight but we never really get to know that character as she changes to the revengefull girl within the first 15 minutes of the movie. It of course gets worse and worse the further the movie goes, but since we never get to know the innocent girl very well, it's hard to feel sorry for her, except for her being raped of course.
The fact that she's mute adds a lot to the movie as well. We kinda find out during the second rape scene when the rapist put his hand over her mouth and tells her not to scream, and seconds after realizes that she actually can't scream, even if she wanted to.
The actual rape scenes are not graphical at all, we don't get to see anything, and they last for maybe 15 seconds all together. Take I Spit on Your Grave or Irreversible were the rape scenes are really drawn out, and even if it's horrible to watch, it still adds more to the whole outcome. Unfortunately it's too "nice and quick" here. If it would've been more to it, then we might have felt even more for the girl if you know what I'm saying.
She becomes more and more demented the further the movie goes, and it all ends at a party where she goes berzerk. The acting by the lead is very good and believable and same with the rest of the characters in the movie. Only exception is ZoŽ Tamerlis landlady (Editta Sherman), who's a quite terrible actress.
There are no really slow moments in the movie and it goes by pretty quickly. The story is pretty good but becomes a bit too much for one to being able to relate to. It's kinda entertaining and we get some violence of course, but nothing very graphical. If you're into exploitation movies you should definitely give it a try. In the end it's an ok movie, but nothing spectacular.
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ALTERNATIVE TITLE: Angel of Vengeance
Rape Squad
MOVIE YEAR: 1981
DIRECTOR: Abel Ferrara
WRITING CREDITS: Nicholas St. John
GENRE: Exploitation, Crime
CAST: ZoŽ Lund, Albert Sinkys, Darlene Stuto
COUNTRY: USA
RUNTIME: 80 min
RATING: 6/10
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