Act of Vengeance  ★★★

MICHAEL Winner’s Death Wish is rightly one of the first films considered in any debate over the origins of vigilante story-telling.

Released in July of 1974 it starred Charles Bronson as an architect who takes the law into his own hands after his wife and daughter are sexually assaulted.

The film was highly controversial because it didn’t denounce the similarly criminal actions of its main character.

But Death Wish wasn’t the only film examining this issue at the time; it was just one of the best made and therefore watched.

Act of Vengeance was released a month later, in August ’74, under the original title of Rape Squad which had to be quickly changed by the studio after outcry from some quarters.

It’s an odd film. It’s heart and mind might be in the right place, but sometimes you are really not sure due to its exploitative and low-budget approach.

The first act of the film is its strongest. A young woman, Linda, is attacked and raped by a man wearing a hockey mask. While the sequence isn’t as traumatic as many depicted on film before or since, it’s the attacker’s attitude and the aftermath that are the most horrifying.

Linda reports the attack to the police and, in scenes that probably might not have been portrayed in cinema before, is further humiliated by both the process, including the questioning and examination, and the sneering, misogynist attitudes of the police.

Dismayed by the lack of progress, after she finds out that she is the fifth recent victim of the same attacker, she forms a group with other victims.

While they do support each other mentally and emotionally, the main aim is to learn how to physically exact revenge on not just their attacker but any rapist or abuser of women.

At the same time, in scenes that should be more frightening than they comes across, their attacker starts to stalk them as a group, eerily recording what he intends to do to them.

The first act of the film is very commendable, but there are other moments that undercut its good intentions.

For example, there is a scene with all the women in the group semi-naked in the spa which just seems unnecessary considering the theme of the film.

Jo-Ann Harris is quite good as Linda and Peter Brown impresses in moments as the attacker, but the film descends in the final act to a typical exploitation actioner.

It’s an oddity for sure.