Oh boy! It’s the controversial film that keeps on giving controversy! Synapse gives us (or at least some of us who were able to get it before it was pulled from sale) a blu-ray release of the shocking Swedish grindhouse “classic” Thriller: A Cruel Picture (also known as They Call Her One Eye). How did this one turn out? Let’s load both barrels and fire away!
Thriller tells the story of a young woman (the captivating Christina Lindberg) who has grown up mute after a bizarre sexual assault as a girl with a creepy guy spewing black ooze from his mouth. She makes the mistake one day of getting in the car with a seemingly normal guy who ends up kidnapping her, getting her addicting to heroin, pimping her out and eventually gouging out one of her eyes. In response, she escapes, buys a shotgun and learns martial arts in order to act her inevitable revenge.
It’s been nearly 20 years since I’ve seen this grimy, almost avant garde exploitation flick, and returning to it after all these years, I’m reminded of just how unpleasant and unsettling it really is. This isn’t a simple case of rape and revenge like I Spit on Your Grave or Last House on the Left. This sleazebag Tony basically enslaves this poor girl, body and soul, tearing her down in ways that mere sexual exploitation couldn’t do alone. The whole thing is rendered even more disturbing by the film’s almost total lack of score. The silence is at times deafening. Of course this is the uncut version and as such we are treated to a handful of random hardcore inserts that really don’t flow very well in the context of the film (if you want to watch a milder version, it also includes the previously released “Vengeance Edition” under the title They Call Her One Eye as a bonus DVD). The revenge scenes, while fairly satisfying in places, also comes up a little short for me personally. Part of it is how they really take up a relatively small part of the overall runtime as well as how they are filmed in incredibly slow slo-mo (watching this again after having seen Ms. 45, Abel Ferrara owes this film a LOT).
As for the disc itself, the transfer appears to be the same one Synapse used for its old DVD just with some upscaling to bring out more details at times. Overall, the source used is a little rough in places but the transfer itself is solid if not mind-blowing. The audio is fine but given that the film uses so little of it, your surround sound system isn’t going to be getting much of a workout here. It is nice that they included both the original Swedish with English subtitles as well as the English dub, also with English close caption subtitles. The extras are pretty skimpy, and it’s pretty obvious this release was rushed out the door when Synapse discovered Vinegar Syndrome was releasing this in UHD. We have a handful of trailers including a neat “double feature” trailer where Thriller (under the title Hooker’s Revenge) was paired with the sexploitation film The Photographer’s Model. There’s also a really short outtake reel where we get a nice goopy eye-gouging outtake as well as an alternate ending that really doesn’t offer much of interest beyond what the film already shows. There’s also a fairly pointless extra called The Story in Pictures that just has the entire film summarized through a series of frames in 40 seconds.
So as of the posting of this review, it doesn’t seem like there’s a way to actually purchase this blu-ray through regular retail means (methinks a cease & desist letter was perhaps involved). Having said that, if you did happen to come across this release somewhere affordably and aren’t interested in Vinegar Syndrome’s deluxe treatment of it coming in May, this would probably suit your needs just fine. If you already have the existing DVD though, there really is little point in upgrading to this. As for the film itself, Thriller certainly earns it’s “Cruel Picture” subtitle, being just relentlessly bleak and uncompromising for much of its runtime. I definitely think it has some real artistry behind it despite the grindhouse trappings. Having said that, it’s a deeply unpleasant film to watch that I have no plans to revisit again any time soon.