The banned 1973 movie that left Quentin Tarantino “ruined” by the end: “It’s rough”

Quentin Tarantino has said that Alex Fridolinski’s 1973 revenge thriller *Thriller – A Cruel Picture* was so bleak that he needed several attempts to finish it. Despite describing the experience as rough and deeply depressing, he later called the film a favourite and praised its star, Christina Lindberg.

The film follows a mute woman kidnapped by a pimp and forced into prostitution and heroin addiction; an attempt to resist leads to a client removing her eye with a scalpel. It was banned in Sweden and faced bans, classification refusals or heavy cuts elsewhere: its original 107-minute version was reduced to 86 minutes, then 82, before approval in Sweden. Tarantino also said the film influenced *Kill Bill* and *Death Proof*, and it went on to become a cult classic.