Ms. 45 (1981) (aka Angel of Vengeance)

One of director Abel Ferrara's earliest films (his second) was this low-budget, grindhouse, exploitational cult classic of female vengeance, rape-and-revenge. However, unusual for this type of film, there was no full nudity on display, but it was full of sexual violence toward a meek and mute young female (named Thana). There were 20 deaths in the film - one was self-inflicted, and one was the death of the main protagonist in the finale (the only female death). 18 deaths were caused by Thana (17 from her .45 caliber gun).

The urban thriller, shot on location in NYC, was similar to other '70s films with the same theme of angry and violent feminist retaliation (grindhouse rape revenge), including: The Last House on the Left (1972), Thriller - A Cruel Picture (1973, Swed.), Death Wish (1974), and I Spit On Your Grave (1978). A more respectable example of the genre would be Ridley Scott's Thelma & Louise (1991), and there were similarities between this film and Roman Polanski's Repulsion (1965). The film's taglines were: "It will never happen again!" and "It's no longer a man's world."

The low-budget film about a vigilante heroine was made for $62,000 dollars. After being re-released (uncut) on VHS home video in 1983, it achieved cult status. It was re-edited and cut for its 2000 DVD release, but then later released uncut in 2014 by Drafthouse Films. Other memorable films by the uncompromising, non-mainstream director Abel Ferrara included Fear City (1984), King of New York (1990), Bad Lieutenant (1992), Body Snatchers (1993), and New Rose Hotel (1998).

• in the early 1980s, Thana (17 year-old Zoe Lund (aka Zoe Tamerlis) in her film debut) - a waifish, shy and deaf-mute seamstress, was introduced as a worker in NYC's garment district, working for her boss - designer Albert (Albert Sinkys); she lived by herself in a small low-rent apartment in Clinton Gardens [Note: Her name was an oblique reference to Thanatos, meaning 'goddess of death'.]
• the often-victimized, oppressed, exploited main character was raped twice in the same evening as she returned home from work in the predatory city; after visiting a supermarket, she was attacked by a cheap, plastic cellophane-masked assailant (director Ferrara) with a gun, who dragged her into an alley and raped her from behind while draped over some garbage cans; the mugger also stole her purse
• and then, after she returned home to her apartment, she discovered it was in the midst of being robbed and ransacked by a burglar (Peter Yellen) with a .45 revolver who had entered through a kitchen window; he also raped her; afterwards, she bludgeoned, knocked unconscious, and killed the second rapist with two blows to the head from a crystal glass apple-shaped paperweight and from a heavy sewing iron - and then she kept his discarded weapon - the .45 revolver
• she gained a thirst for vengeance after the bloody and grisly scene; she dragged his body to her bathtub; over the next few days, she dismembered his body by sawing off limbs with a long serrated knife; each bloody body part was wrapped in newspaper and placed in black garbage bags that were then stuffed into her refrigerator and freezer
• at the same time, she was experiencing frightening hallucinatory visions and nightmares of being attacked - in one instance when she began undressing to take a shower, she saw her first rapist in her mirror-reflection

Thana's Frightening and Hallucinatory Visions - A Replay of Her First Rape

• then over a long period of time, she methodically dumped and distributed the plastic garbage bags (of the dismembered second rapist) throughout the city into trash containers on her way to work; she also would deposit some of the bags with unsuspecting individuals; suddenly frightened by a street-corner heckler (Vincent Gruppi) while disposing one of the bags when he thought she had left behind her bag and he followed after her, she impulsively shot the suspicious bystander dead in the head with the .45 when he ran after her into a dead-end alleyway
• after returning home, she threw up in her bathroom in reaction; her snoopy landlady Mrs. Nasone (Editta Sherman) (with her incessantly-barking and curious runt-dog named Phil (Bogey)) insisted that Thana call a doctor
• meanwhile, Thana's work was judged as negligent and inadequate, and was not up to par according to her condescending, demeaning, creepy and patronizing boss Albert; he urged: "Be like the other girls," and claimed she wasn't concentrating or keeping up
• Thana was further disturbed when she saw a New York Post headline report about a mysterious .45 caliber murder the previous day ("NO CLUES IN BIZARRE .45 KILLING")
• after lunch with her friend Laurie (Darlene Stuto) and other co-workers, Thana was left alone in the restaurant; as she left, she was followed and persistently approached on the street by a flirtatious, sleazy and boorish guy (who earlier was making out with his girlfriend in the restaurant); he claimed he was a famous fashion Photographer named Rich Volk (Stephen Singer); he flattered her: ("You are much too beautiful to be a model"), and invited her to share drugs and pose in his studio-loft that afternoon; she obliged and as she entered his cheap studio-apartment from the elevator, she pulled out her gun and impulsively shot the sleazy male to death with multiple bloody gunblasts, before the elevator door closed

Thana Dressed as a Red-Lipsticked Hooker

• she was soon dressing provocatively, wearing dark blue apparel and appearing as a red-lipsticked hooker to seductively lure predatory males into being victims; she set herself up during nocturnal wanderings to frequently have the opportunity to calmly shoot and mercilessly murder potential assailants, so she would never be exploited again; as the empowered female became more mentally unstable and misanthropic, the lethal shootings piled up, including three particular situations
  • she murdered a black Pimp (Stanley Timms) who was arguing with and beating up one of his black prostitutes (Faith Peters) while accusing her of cheating him of $50 dollars: ("Never f--k with my money")
  • she eliminated five unnamed male gang members in Central Park who encircled and surrounded her and threatened: "We want everything you got, baby"
  • she killed an Arab sheik (Lawrence Zavaglia) (and his bodyguard/driver Hunter (Alex Jachno)) in a chauffeured limousine who offered her $100 cash for her services: ("Perhaps you'd like to come with me tonight"); she entered the limousine, and murdered the sheik and the driver - in tune to the rhythm of the windshield wipers; she shot the sheik in the groin and the driver in the head

Thana's Murder of Black Pimp Who Was Harrassing a Prostitute

Thana Surrounded and Threatened by Five Gang Members in Central Park

Thana With Arab Sheik in Back Seat of Limousine Before Murdering Him and the Driver

• the next morning, she listened to a radio report that described the massacres: "Police are still mystified by two apparently unconnected multiple murders that took place in midtown Manhattan last night in the largest mass killing in New York City in eight years. In Bethesda Fountain in Central Park, all the victims had been shot by a .45 caliber pistol. Meanwhile, at 48th Street and Park Avenue, a wealthy Saudi Arabian businessman Sheikh Mohammed al Faisal was shot to death along with his chauffeur."
• in her continuing effort to dispose of bags of body parts, she placed a bag in the trunk of a car licensed in Georgia by the driver (Eddie Eisele), and in the bottom of a bag lady's (Evelyn Smith) cart
• another evening, Thana went on another excursion looking for potential male targets; in Chinatown, she was unable to carry through on the murder of a young Chinese man (Michael R. Chin) who had been making out with his girlfriend (Gerri Igarashi) before she entered a Baskin-Robbins for work - he unintentionally eluded Thana when he hurriedly walked back to his apartment and entered the locked front door
• and in a local bar, Thana met a talkative, insufferable upstate traveling shoe Salesman (Jack Thibeau) who she was forced to listen to as he rambled on about his unhappy love life after being dumped by his cheating wife (who turned out to be lesbian); later while seated on a park bench in view of the Queensboro Bridge across the East River with him, when he mentioned strangling his wife's cat in their kitchen, in revenge for her infidelity, Thana attempted to shoot him in the head, but the gun misfired; he grabbed her weapon ("Is this some kind of a joke?") and shockingly and suicidally shot himself in the head to save herself the effort (the only death that was self-inflicted by the deceased)
• meanwhile, snoopy landlady Mrs. Nasone - who was worried about her missing dog Phil (that Thana had spitefully tied up to a post at the East River waterfront, but didn't have the heart to shoot and kill) - went to search through Thana's apartment; she discovered a decapitated male head (of the rapist) in a black garbage bag in her freezer; she reported her ghastly find to the police
• by film's end, Thana had dressed herself in an iconic costume for her clothing firm's Halloween costume party, it consisted of a nun's outfit with suspenders, bright red lipstick, high-heeled boots, and a gun strapped to her thigh; she kissed each of the bullets before loading them into her gun; in her bedroom in front of her mirror, the deranged Thana imagined shooting at invisible victims. [Note: In director Abel Ferrera's later film Bad Lieutenant (1992), a nun had been raped by two guys, similar to what had happened to Thana.]

Nun's Outfit For the Costume Party - a Lethal 'Angel of Vengeance'

• at the party, Thana was with her date-dance partner - her despicable boss Albert (dressed as Dracula); as Albert was attempting to kiss Thana all over her body in his upper private office: ("Oh, baby, oh, sweetheart, the mound of Venus") at the top of a spiral staircase, he raised her black dress and noticed her .45 gun tucked into her garter; she removed the weapon from its 'holster' and murdered him (off-screen) with a massive gun-blast

The Beginning of the Massacre at the Party

Thana's Bloodbath Massacre of Males

• indiscriminately from the top of the staircase and then on the floor of the Halloween costume party, she then went on a violent, crazed shooting spree (resembling Sam Peckinpah's slow-motion concluding bloodbath in The Wild Bunch (1969)) - targeting male partygoers; in total, she shot and eliminated six individuals: an unnamed male on the dance floor, a cowboy, a ghoul, a gangster, a guy with a T-shirt reading "Mr. Ed's Pub," and a guy in a white bridal dress
• the film concluded at the end of Thana's deadly rampage at the party when her former best friend from work Laurie fatally stabbed her in the back (literally) with a long cake knife; before collapsing, Thana threatened but then hesitated to shoot Laurie, as she called her "Sister" before falling dead to the floor; it was the only word she had uttered in the entire film
• in her apartment, the mournful landlady Mrs. Nasone was surprised by the return of her dog Phil unharmed and scratching at her door