8 Female Action Films You Probably Haven't Seen

If Christina Lindberg’s character looks familiar, that’s because Quentin Tarantino took inspiration from it to create Kill Bill’s Elle Driver, even suggesting Darryl Hannah watch the movie, which prompted the actress to complain she’d been set a porno for homework.

You can see why Thriller would appeal to Tarantino. It’s avant-garde exploitation, a one-of-a-kind picture whose mixture of Sam Peckinpah-ish violence, graphic sex scenes and arty minimalism displays a greater intent than to appeal to the lowest common denominator. It’s a draining experience, to be sure, but it’s also an unforgettable one, to which the words “bleak” and “uncompromising” do not do justice.

Portraying a mute, one-eyed young woman forced into prostitution, Lindberg spends much of the film running around wearing nothing more than an eyepatch, but Vibenius went one better and cut in actual porn scenes. Whenever Lindberg’s character is shown with a client, the filmmaker doesn’t flinch or cut away, he shows everything in close-up and leaves nothing to the imagination.

Lindberg doesn’t participate in the hardcore footage – it was shot using real-life porn stars and seamlessly edited together. The filmmaker’s efforts failed to impress the Swedish film censorship board, who banned the original 107 minute cut of the film, only passing it for release after it had been shortened to 82 minutes. Both versions are available on DVD.