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Without a shadow of a doubt one of the most morally dubious and widely reviled off-shoots of exploitation filmmaking would have to be the Rape and Revenge cycle of the seventies and eighties. As the moniker suggests the Rape and Revenge cycle largely consists of films in which an attractive woman is brutally violated by either a solitary male predator or a group of males and following the ordeal either the woman herself or her family or loved ones hunt down and partake of a violent revenge upon her rapist(s). Cinematically speaking the rape/revenge cycle can arguably be traced back to Ingmar Bergman's classic Swedish picture The Virgin Spring (1960). However, the template for such pictures was arguably laid out in the early years of the seventies by a trio of successful pictures which each had a varying level of influence, namely Sam Peckinpah's classic Straw Dogs (1971) starring Dustin Hoffman and Susan George, Wes Craven's infamous exploitation debut The Last House On The Left (1972) and Michael Winner's classic vigilante movie prototype Death Wish (1974) starring the late Charles Bronson.
The mixture of high profile controversy and significant commercial success which greeted the release of Peckinpah, Craven and Winner's respective efforts did not go unnoticed by other filmmaker's and as a result a steady stream of similarly plotted shockers followed, focusing upon the violation of women and their subsequent acts of vengeance. While it can be argued that some of these films such as William Fruet's underrated, gripping and surprisingly restrained Death Weekend (aka - The House By The Lake) (1976) and Abel Ferrara's stunning Ms. 45 (aka - Angel Of Vengeance) (1981) had somewhat loftier and more visionary ambitions, the majority were luridly exploitative fare which played both the rape itself and the subsequent violent retribution purely for shock value and in some cases titillation. Even to this day the rape and revenge subgenre tends to divide opinion as many exploitation aficionado's readily embrace such films, while others are all too eager to lambaste them for being what they perceive as nasty, misogynistic trash.
By far the most famous of all rape/revenge pictures would have to be Meir Zarchi's now legendary shocker I Spit On Your Grave (aka - Day Of The Woman) (1978), which due to its harrowing, protracted scenes of violent gang rape remains one of the most infamous exploitation pictures ever made. However, other notable rape-revenge exploiter's include Ray William's luridly explicit British no-budgeter Wrong Way (1972), Bo Arne Vibenius's jaw-droppingly nasty Swedish exploitation effort Thriller: A Cruel Picture (aka - They Call Her One Eye) (1973), Lamont Johnson's star-studded major studio production Lipstick (1976), Peter S. Traynor's offbeat Death Game (1976) starring Sondra Locke, Harry Kerwin's Getting Even (aka - Deadbeat) (1977), Bob Blizz's brutal Scream For Vengeance! (aka - Vengeance) (1980), Arthur Jeffreys and Alex Rebar's woeful Demented (1980), Paul Grau's crazed exploiter Mad Foxes (1982), Danny Steinmann's cult favourite Savage Streets (1984) starring Linda Blair, Cirio H. Santiago's trashy Naked Vengeance (1985) and Joey Romero's Savage Justice (1988) starring the lovely Julia Montgomery of Revenge Of The Nerds fame. The popularity of the rape and revenge cycle didn't go unnoticed in the horror and exploitation filmmaking hotbed of Italy either where the likes of Aldo Lado's Night Train Murders (1975), Ferdinando Baldi's Terror Express (1979) (both of which, curiously enough, were set predominantly onboard trains), Mondo godfather Franco Prosperi's The Last House On The Beach (1978) and Ruggero Deodato's infamously unpleasant The House On The Edge Of The Park (1980), all arguably took their exploitative cue's from The Last House On The Left, with Deodato's film even featuring the star of Craven's picture, the charismatic David Hess.
Originally released in 1974 by American International Pictures, the exploitation obscurity Act Of Vengeance probably qualifies as one of the earliest additions to the whole rape and revenge subgenre. Also known by the somewhat more provocative titles of Rape Squad and The Violator, this nasty effort was directed by the late Bob Kelljan. Born in 1930 in Union City, New Jersey, Kelljan began his career in film and television and as an actor, nabbing bit parts in Hells Angels On Wheels (1967) and Psych-Out (1968) both of which were directed by Oscar nominee Richard Rush and a number of high profile television series'. However, Kelljan would ultimately enjoy greater success, albeit briefly, behind the camera where he directed the horror hit Count Yorga, Vampire (1970), its hasty follow-up The Return Of Count Yorga (1971), the blaxploitation horror sequel Scream Blacula Scream (1973) then Act Of Vengeance before settling down into helming a steady stream of television projects prior to his premature, cancer related death in 1982.
As it turned out Act Of Vengeance, while comparatively obscure compared with the notorious likes of The Last House On The Left and I Spit On Your Grave, would prove to be no stranger to controversy in its own right. Indeed, while the films UK pre-certification video release on the Orion label, according to that indispensable font of all knowledge Marc Morris, apparently snuck out fully uncut in late 1983, for its 18 certificated UK VHS re-release in 1987 the BBFC demanded almost five minutes of cuts to the films rape content before agreeing to pass it for release. Then in the late nineties Act Of Vengeance was once again the subject of minor controversy here in Britain when terrestrial broadcaster Channel 5 scheduled the film for a late night airing, only to then quietly replace it with a different film after deciding that the film was unsuitable for broadcast on UK television. Meanwhile in Australia the films eighties VHS release under its alternative Rape Squad title would be banned outright.
Act Of Vengeance begins with pretty young Linda being pounced on whilst tending to her horses by an imposing male attacker who disguises his identity with a hockey mask. Overpowered by her attacker, Linda is subjected to a brutal and harrowing rape. Following her ordeal Linda plucks up the courage to report the crime to the police. However, far from helping her the authorities only add to her sense of humiliation as she is subjected to snide, chauvinistic comment and the apologetic detective investigating the case admits that although the same man seems to be responsible for a series of rapes, identifying him and bringing him to justice will be a near impossible task due to the manner in which he disguises his identity behind a mask. The baffled police dub nickname the masked rapist Jingle Bells, due to his twisted penchant for making his female victims sing that particular yuletide favourite while he assaults them.
Shortly after her ordeal Linda meets four other young women, Karen, Theresa, Nancy and Angie all of whom have also been raped by the deranged Jingle Bells. Feeling let down by the authorities the women decide to form their own Rape Squad, a vigilante task force who encourage other women to bypass the police and report encounters with sexual predators to them so that they can dispense their own brand of justice. Using a combination of their sex appeal and martial arts training the five women set to work entrapping a series of pimps, wife beaters, rapists and general sleazes in order to give them a violent taste of their own medicine. However, the Rape Squad do not realise that the psychotic Jingle Bells is still slyly monitoring their activities, and is intent upon engineering another horrifying collective encounter with his newly empowered victims.
Act Of Vengeance, initially at least, looks set to be the kind of exploitation picture that wears its sleazy intentions proudly upon its sleeve. Indeed, Bob Kelljan's picture goes off at the deep end right from the outset when it comes to grotesque scenes of female violation. Indeed, Act Of Vengeance before its first five minutes have elapsed assaults the viewer with a particularly nasty rape sequence as the films central protagonist Linda is tauntingly pursued then violated by an odious slime ball who disguises his identity with a hockey mask. Even by the standards of the rape and revenge subgenre this uncomfortably protracted scene, whilst shying away from explicit nudity, is still decidedly nasty, twisted stuff as Linda's masked assailant forces Linda to thank him and even sing Jingle Bells while he rapes her, enthusiastically exclaiming that "music is always good with ballin". It becomes clear even at this early juncture that director Bob Kelljan has no qualms about playing the films rape content for optimum exploitation value, and for those who view the rape and revenge subgenre as nasty, misogynistic trash the opening scene of Act Of Vengeance will probably only reaffirm their opinion.
Nevertheless, following this rather grotty curtain raiser the films script, penned by H.R. Christian and David Kidd, the former of whom previously wrote the screenplay for Eddie Romero's blaxploitation classic Black Mama, White Mama (1973) starring Pam Grier, actually does a serviceable job during the films opening third of polarising viewer sympathy in Linda's favour as their script plays up to the belief that for the woman who chooses to report her rape to the authorities, the rape itself represents only the beginning of her humiliation. The rather simplistic All Men Are Bastards mantra that the film initially seems to tout may be simplistic, but it does prove effective in this context as inept, tactless police officers and unsympathetic doctors only add to Linda's plight, whilst her insecure boyfriend accuses her of infidelity. Predictably Act Of Vengeance also wastes little time in dishing up further unpleasantness in the shape of yet another protracted rape scene in which an attractive black woman named Karen is also graphically assaulted by the Jingle Bells obsessed violator. As seedy and uncomfortable as this scene is, it also takes on a guilty, unintentionally comic edge thanks to the presence of some hilariously cheesy dialogue as the masked rapist proclaims himself to be the "Honcho of the Hump" and enthusiastically informs his pleading victim that he's "rung more bells than a goddamn cathedral and now he's going to ring yours". As a brief aside it also has to be said that just on the strength of these two aforementioned rape scenes alone, it is probably surprising that the uncut UK pre-certificate VHS release of Act Of Vengeance managed to slip under the radar during the UK's "Video Nasty" hysteria of the early eighties, while other comparatively mild horror pictures wound up on the banned list.
Unfortunately after delivering a shocking and genuinely unpleasant opening half hour, Act Of Vengeance sadly begins to lapse into risible absurdity. Indeed, having established a quintet of attractive, vengeful young women who have all fell victim to the elusive Jingle Bells, Act Of Vengeance quickly and inexplicably veers away from the salacious, gritty nastiness of its opening act and begins to embark on a very different path. Indeed, Act Of Vengeance essentially transforms into an extreme feminist revenge fantasy filtered through a sleazoid, male-orientated exploitation sensibility as the group of debased women form their own "Rape Squad" intent upon dishing out their own brand of rough justice to various sexual predators.
While the film certainly retains an appropriately slimy veneer, once this quest for revenge begins Act Of Vengeance unfortunately loses its initial troubling, exploitative edge. At times the film seems to almost lapse into unintentional comedy, a good example being the laughable scenes in which Linda and company attend so-called karate classes which seem to consist exclusively of leaning how to whack a man in the testicles as hard as possible with the aid of a wooden baton. It also has to be said that the transformation of these women from simpering victims into feminist ass-kickers is too drastic and rapid to be at all believable. Suspension of disbelief is all well and good but the idea that these ladies would be able to effortlessly beat the proverbial living shit out of street savvy pimps and rapists literally twice their size following some brief, perfunctory martial arts training and a spot of right on feminist bonding is all a bit much to swallow. Matters are not helped either by the fact that the women who form the so-called Rape Squad, with the sole exception of the vivacious, likeable Linda, are both one dimensionally written and portrayed. Indeed, initial sympathy for their cause soon becomes eroded as the Rape Squad, intentionally or otherwise, eventually begin to come across as vindictive feminist militants who are unable to differentiate between genuinely dangerous scumbag's such as rapists and pimps, and sociopathic perverts who pass their time in the park with a camera, taking cheeky snapshots of pert bottoms.
After awhile Act Of Vengeance gets stuck in an increasingly tedious rut as it lurches from one repetitive scene to the next of the Rape Squad hunting down then dishing out violent just desserts to various slime balls ranging from rapists and pimps to woman beaters and obscene phone callers. While these scenes could potentially have provided some exploitative entertainment value, unfortunately they are disappointing mild stuff and disproportionately tame given the severe unpleasantness of the rape scenes the viewer has witnessed earlier in the film. Indeed, the Rape Squad's attacks struggle to achieve the requisite impact, mainly consisting of the girls smashing up apartments, busting out a few unconvincing karate moves and stripping off their male "victims" in order to mock their manhood. In addition to becoming repetitive and monotonous, these scenes also distract and ultimately detract from the films main narrative as the women's quest to identify and get even with the elusive Jingle Bells seems to get all but forgotten about until the films eventual conclusion. Meanwhile it also has to be said that while Bob Kelljan proved himself to be an efficient horror director with Count Yorga, Vampire, his work here is adequate at best and as a result of his rather flat, workmanlike direction Act Of Vengeance moves at a pedestrian pace.
On the bright side however, while Kelljan's direction may be largely uninspired I'm sure much of the target audience for this kind of exploitative fare will be pleased to learn that he rarely passes up an opportunity for a display of cheap skin as he enthusiastically serves up gratuitous, pointless scenes of the Rape Squad either lounging around in a Jacuzzi or parading around in a variety of skimpy outfits. To his credit Kelljan does also eventually succeed in recapturing just a fraction of the films lost momentum via a decently staged conclusion in which the Rape Squad inevitably get even with the conniving Jingle Bells. Meanwhile Act Of Vengeance also benefits from a few decent if rather one note performances, the standout being top-billed Jo Ann Harris as the spunky Linda. Exploitation buffs may also wish to keep an eye out for Jennifer Lee who was twice married to the late, great comedian Richard Pryor, and Connie Strickland who previously appeared in The Centrefold Girls and the blaxploitation favourite Black Samson the same year, as two of the other rape victims turned feminist avengers, while former dancer Lada Edmunds Jr gives an amusing turn as the Rape Squad's no-nonsense karate instructor. In addition Peter Brown, one of the stars of the television western series Lawman who had also appeared in the blaxploitation classic Foxy Brown (1974) alongside Pam Grier, exudes an appropriately slimy presence as the masked rapist Jingle Bells, whose true identity is inexplicably revealed completely out of the blue just after the hour mark.
In conclusion it has to be said that what initially looks set to be an uncompromising, vicious, genuinely grim shocker, eventually turns out to be forgettable trash. While Act Of Vengeance is undoubtedly a decidedly scuzzy effort, judged purely as an exploitation picture, it ultimately proves to be something of a letdown on the whole. Indeed, while the two uncomfortably protracted and leering rape scenes which take place during the films opening stages make for undeniably nasty, unpleasant viewing, Act Of Vengeance soon squanders their considerable shock value as it subsequently degenerates into a half-baked and laughably absurd tale of indiscriminate feminist vengeance. Despite a healthy injection of gratuitous sleaze Act Of Vengeance soon descends into tedium as it settles into a repetitive and risible repeat ad nauseam cycle of silly sequences in which its one dimensional, unsympathetic female protagonists dish out their disappointingly tame brand of rough justice to various scumbag's. Of course the nastiness of the aforementioned rape scenes is still probably enough in itself to qualify Act Of Vengeance as one of the sleaziest pictures ever to be handled by a major distribution company, which will no doubt serve as recommendation enough to many of you who happen to be reading this. However, when all is said and done it is hard to view Act Of Vengeance as anything more than a silly and rather tepid female revenge saga, which ultimately fails to live up to the brutally exploitative promise evoked by the unabashed gloating unpleasantness of its opening scenes.
Not Recommended.
To date Act Of Vengeance is yet to be officially released on DVD. However, those who do wish to see it can always try to track down either the old UK pre-certificate VHS tape from Rank/Orion or the American NTSC format VHS from Thorn EMI, both of which were reportedly uncut. Of the two the American Thorn EMI tape is perhaps the easier to source, although both are rare, long out of print and tend to command inflated prices online. Buyers should however avoid the later 18 certificated UK VHS re-issue from Rank, which as I already alluded to earlier in this review, suffered almost five minutes of censorship cuts courtesy of those spoilsports at the BBFC.
I could use a new VHS of this and if a sound panning is what it takes to get the price down in the collectors market then I thank you for writing this. But a MGM double feature DVD with this and Savage Sisters would sure be nice. Admit it, you'd buy one.
As in Savage Sisters the Eddie Romero film? Yes I probably would buy it, purely because I've not seen Savage Sisters.
In fairness to myself I don't think I really gave Act Of Vengeance that bad a panning. The opening half hour with the rapes of Linda and the black girl Karen is nasty, supremely grimy stuff, but unfortunately I personally felt that once the women formed their Rape Squad and started taking down rapists, pimps, dirty old men, etc the film quite frankly just lost it. The revenge stuff was too lightweight for me when what the film really needed was the women evening the score Death Wish style.
Some exploitation aficionado's may get a kick out of it though, purely due to the nastiness of its opening half hour.
I agree with most of what you're saying, but I find the beginning (yeah it's vicious, but "sing jingle bells", that undercuts everything in this movie) just as absurd as the middle and end, so I wasn't let down. If anyone reading wants a seriously good rape/revenge exploitation flick see Ms. 45, if you want an evening of totally tasteless trash this is the one. By the way, the list in the third paragraph is nice (it's obvious you put some TLC into the whole even though you're not a fan of the flick), Jack, a couple I haven't seen and will look out for.
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