Lost Picture Show: Violated! (1974)
Lost Picture Show: Violated! (1974)
History and contextualizing film understanding
This is the eighth in a (hopefully) ten-part series on film preservation. Using Vinegar Syndrome’s Lost Picture Show box set as a guide, each post will focus on a different genre and the importance of preserving film history, regardless of how “good” or “bad” we think the films might be. The seventh in the series on The Rare Blue Apes of Cannibal Isle can be read here.
Search “rape revenge films” and you will find countless books, dissertations, and University journal articles on the subject. It is a subgenre that has long been controversial due to its depiction of violence against women despite showing women taking back their agency by getting revenge for the violation they experienced. Violated! (1974) is one such film that pre-dates the incredibly controversial I Spit On Your Grave (1978) and follows after Wes Craven’s The Last House on the Left (1972). It is a surprisingly nasty film due to the amateurish nature of the filming that simultaneously feels campy and over-the-top. Despite its controversial nature, I believe there is a place for rape and revenge films amongst the rest of film history and preservation.
Violated! was the last directorial film of Albert Zugsmith, the writer-director-producer known for his B movies and Orson Welles’ Touch of Evil (1958). Zugsmith had written a screenplay for a film originally titled The Rapist long before the film was shot and became known as Violated! The trend of rape and revenge films came after the release of Ingmar Bergman’s The Virgin Spring (1960) which depicted a father taking vengeance against some shepherds who raped his daughter. It is difficult to pin down a film that fully solidifies the formula of the genre as most films try their best to provide variations on the core pattern. However, Thriller: A Cruel Picture (1973), directed by Bo Arne Vibenius, is chronologically the first that features a woman taking agency into her own hands after multiple instances of rape in her life.
It is fitting that the rape and revenge film started to gain traction at a time when the world was becoming more vocal about violence against women. In London, Women Against Rape was founded in 1976. Title IX was enacted into law in 1972 in the United States. Women even wanted to form their own pseudo-militias by walking the streets at night to protect women from violence. And therein lies part of the controversy of the rape and revenge film: it has often been accused of glamorizing a serious subject and focusing on the use of violence as a solution to a woman’s rape. They have also been accused of heightening rape and violence as a means of adding shock value.
In Violated!, a serial rapist in a cheap Halloween mask has been raping women all over Hollywood. After being raped and marked with a swastika, Terry (Rene Bond), decides to hunt down her attacker when the police inform her that most rapists get off from their crimes. Terry is assisted by Quentin (Jay Scott), the man who is smitten with Terry but is clearly living in the “friend zone",” and Midge (Susanne Suzan). Quentin and Midge act as opposing forces on Terry’s conscience. Together the three attempt to hunt down the rapist who left Terry feeling humiliated with the swastika etched into her breast. Midge continuously tells Terry she is going too far. Quentin allows himself to get caught up in the moment and wants to go further with Terry with each new man they believe is the rapist.
The film ends when the three vigilantes kidnap Stan (Rick Lutze), a handyman Terry believes raped her. Terry instructs Quentin to build an electric chair for their final victim. It is unclear whether it is a real electric chair or just an elaborate torture device. As the torture escalates, Quentin has a flashback to his youth where it appears his father is dismembering a body in a strangely, gothic basement, while his mother chastises the father for being a bad influence on Quentin. The police burst in thanks to an undercover female cop walking the streets and hearing the commotion. As the group is escorted out of the warehouse, another man in a Halloween mask comes running from behind a corner, chased by other police officers. The film ends on a freeze frame with a line about how the inside of every man is a rapist. What a downer.
Because of this ending line, the film feels somewhat relevant today with the idea within some feminist circles that every man is inherently a rapist thanks to biology. Taken at face value, it feels like a bizarre and cheap “gotcha” moment for the end of the film. Did Quentin rape Terry? We know he was angry that Terry blew him off. Did Quentin rape any of the other girls? We certainly saw him ogling other women besides Terry. We saw other men leering at other women throughout the film as well. Suddenly, we understand the use of multiple Halloween masks. It is a sort of “twist” that recontextualizes the films rather than filling in the blanks. I call this a “good twist.”
The ending is fitting if you understand the anti-rape movement that was occurring during this period of history. During this time there was an increase in rape as serial rapists in a couple of major cities terrorized women. The film is playing off this idea that anyone could be a rapist. Maybe there is more than one.
It is an ending that works on its own but holds a richer context if you are more aware of what was happening in history at the time. I have said multiple times that preserving films is preserving history, and while this film is no different, you almost need history to appreciate what this film is trying to do and say (apart from the usual exploitation tactics of showing tits and blood). Exploitation films, because of how cheaply and quickly they were made, were often able to make culturally relevant films faster than the studio system could. In order to be aware of those things that are culturally relevant, it is important to have some understanding of history. No good film scholar would attempt an understanding of a film without the proper historical and cultural context, right?
Violated! is a film that works best with history in mind. History informs why this film was made when it was made and why the film is about what it is about. At the same time, the concepts in the film (leering men, rape, etc). give attention to those things that were happening in history just before this film came out. It is a shockingly brutal film due to its amateurish nature and style. Because of that, I highly recommend this film from Vinegar Syndrome’s Last Picture Show box set.