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Ms .45

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Wikipedia article




'Ms .45' (also known as 'Angel of Vengeance', and mistyped as 'Ms. 45') is a 1981 American exploitation thriller film directed by Abel Ferrara and starring Zo Tamerlis.

Inspired by films such as 'Thriller A Cruel Picture' (1973), 'Death Wish' (1974), and 'Taxi Driver' (1976), the film is a rape and revenge story about Thana, a mute woman who becomes a spree killer after she is raped twice in one day when going home from work. It was critically detested on its theatrical release, but is now generally highly regarded among fans of underground and independent film.

It was acquired by Alamo Drafthouse Films in October 2013 and remastered in HD from the original negatives. The distributor released the film on Blu-ray, DVD, and digital copy in March 2014.

Plot



While walking home from work, Thana, a mute seamstress in New York City's Garment District, is raped at gunpoint in an alley by a mysterious, masked attacker. She survives and makes her way back to her apartment, where she encounters a burglar and is raped a second time. Thanaher name an allusion to Thanatos, the Greek god of deathhits this second assailant with a small red glass apple, then bludgeons him to death with an iron, and carries his body to the bathtub. She goes to work the next day, and while working with an iron, she watches her boss Albert rip the shirt off a mannequin. Thana then goes into shock state, which worries her co-workers. However, when she looks at the trash bin at her office, she decides to dismember the burglar's corpse and scatters the parts across various locations of the city.

After being sent home, she dismembers the burglar's body, keeping his .45 caliber pistol. Thana places the pieces of the body into plastic garbage bags, and stores them in her fridge. After cleaning her bathtub, she decides to take a shower, but as she strips, she begins to hallucinate the first attacker in the mirror grabbing her breast. This sends her into shock, and she notices that organs and body fluids from the burglar are overflowing in the drain. Mrs. Nasone, her nosy neighbor, is an elderly, recently widowed woman. She is also the landlady. She and her small dog Phil also start to notice Thana's odd behavior.

While she is disposing of one of the bagged body parts, on her walk home from work the next day, Thana is noticed by a leering young man on the street. Thinking that she accidentally dropped the bag, he retrieves it, frightening her. He chases her through the alleys of the city and, fearing another sexual assault, she fatally shoots him when she is cornered by him. The event furthers her impulse for vengeance. While running home from the incident, Mrs. Nasone notices she violently ran up the stairs and started throwing up. She insists on calling a doctor for Thana. Meanwhile, Mrs. Nasone's dog, Phil, starts to become attracted to her fridge. Thana escorts her out of her apartment while still in shock.

As the limbs start to bring the attention of the media, Albert brings her into his office and notices she has not been sewing enough and has not been feeling well lately. He decides to invite her to a Halloween party that he is throwing for work, and tells her that there will be "many boys there [her] age" while stroking her neck. She responds to him in writing, saying "I'll try". As Thana's quest of vengeance increases, she starts regularly targeting and killing several men, such as a fashion photographer, a pimp who assaults a prostitute over a debt, several members of a gang, a Saudi Arabian businessman and his limousine driver, and even drives a recently dumped salesman to suicide after her gun jams.

Her boss, Albert, notices her ditching work after going to dinner with her co-workers, resulting in her co-workers having to finish her work. However, she promises to go to the party with him in exchange for staying out of trouble for her absence. Thana notices that Phil is attracted to the smell of the burglar's dismembered limbs. Thana takes Phil for a walk then ties him to a post in the park. She leaves a note saying that Phil ran away but will probably find his way back home soon.

With Albert, Thana attends the costume party dressed as a nun with red lipstick. Meanwhile, Mrs. Nasone enters Thana's apartment and finds the burglar's dismembered head. She jumps to the conclusion that Thana killed her dog, and tells police that she is at a party with her co-workers. At the party, Albert takes Thana upstairs in private and tries to seduce her. In revenge for his borderline-sexual behavior towards her in the past, she shoots him. The party stops and her co-workers run upstairs to Thana, but quickly realize that she is the murderer when she steps out of the room with her pistol. Thana then begins a shooting spree, targeting many of the men present. Her co-worker Laurie picks up the knife from the cake table and stabs Thana in the back. Thana turns around and points the gun at Laurie, but hesitates; she screams in pain, "Sister!" then falls to the ground and dies.

Following the party massacre, Mrs. Nasone is seen crying in memorial for her husband and her dog Phil. Outside her apartment door, Phil has returned and is shown running up the stairs and scratching at the door.

Cast



Production



Principal photography for the film took place over the course of four weeks in February and March 1980.

Many years later Zo Tamerlis described how minimal the script was, which is uncharacteristic of Ferrara's later films.

Reception



On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 85% based on 34 reviews, with an average rating of 7.4/10.

Home media



In 1983, the film was released on VHS by U.S.A. Home Video in its uncut form. 'Ms .45' was released on DVD in the United States on April 25, 2000, by , but was re-edited for DVD release. The re-edit removes less than a minute, total. The cuts include changes to the first rape, featuring Ferrara's cameo, which is split by an insert shot from a later scene. The second rape is more drastically cut, omitting the line, "This oughta make you talk, huh?" The climactic Halloween party shootout was also re-cut to remove an onscreen murder, which now occurs offscreen.

The uncut DVD, Blu-ray, digital copy was released in the US by Drafthouse Films.

In popular culture



In episode 6 of season 1 of 'Euphoria', Kat, who is portrayed by Barbie Ferreira, dresses up as Thana for Halloween.

References




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