Thana, a beautiful and mild-mannered young lady, is brutally raped twice in one day. But not even just twice in one day- twice in about 20 minutes by two different men (the first, a cameo from director Ferrara). Although the first one gets away, she kills her second attacker with an iron, chops him up and slowly disposes of the body. The situation is complicated by the fact that she is mute, and doesn't seem to have any friends or confidants. I would assume this is by choice, as the people that she does know seem to just patronize her. Probably amazed at the ease with which she was able to kill that man, she snaps and prowls the streets for any man who creeps on her. All things considered, she quickly begins to go insane, hunting and shooting down any man that crosses her path.
I love female revenge movies, and this is probably the best one I have ever seen. The film is very dark and gritty, infused with NYC life and locations- an excellent example of Ferrara's style. Zoe Lund's acting was incredible. She made the transition from nerdy seamstress to batshit insane serial killer without uttering even one word. (Well, okay, she did whisper one word.) The ending of the film was perfect, I felt as though there was a lot of symbolism in that last scene. I don't want to give it away, we can discuss in private if you'd like.
As for comparisons, a few films come to mind: mostly Madame O, but also Polanski's Repulsion, Vibenus' Thriller, and Scorsese's Taxi Driver. I think Taxi Driver is probably Ferrara's inspiration for a lot of his work. I remember watching The Driller Killer and being reminded many times of Travis Bickle. There is one scene in Ms. 45 where I was just waiting for her to say, "You talkin' to me?"
This movie is fantastic, but in order to get an uncut version you would have to track down a VHS copy, or download a VHS rip. I am curious as to why Synapse hasn't hopped on this yet?
Grade: A+
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