The Obsessed One (1974)
1/2 (out of 4)
Insanely weird and awful film from The Netherlands has a man thrown in prison for the rape and murder of his wife. It turns out that a group of thugs actually did it so the man breaks free before he reaches the prison and sets out for some vengeance.
THE OBSESSED ONE is a truly awful movie on all levels but thankfully it's so bad that it's easy to recommend it to people who enjoy such trash. It was released the same year as DEATH WISH and I'm going to guess that this was shot in less than a week and that probably explains the cheap look and bad technique. There's really nothing here that I can call "good" as everything from the writing to the acting to the direction are downright horrid.
The amazing thing about this movie is that it seems to be trying to do something good and creative but the end result is just a disaster. I guess you really could compare this to a movie by Edward D. Wood, Jr. where it's clear the director wanted to do something serious but the lack and money and talent just led to some really, really bad. There are so many bad sequences here that you can't help but laugh at them and this includes the rape scene, which is so poorly acted and shot that you'll be laughing when you should be in terror.
The action scenes are all poorly staged and more times than not it seems like the actors are in a rehearsal and not taking it overly serious or perhaps they just didn't know how to shoot a fight scene so the actors were doing everything in slow motion. The performances are beyond awful but these do lead to some rather funny scenes.
I love revenge movies and will watch any that I can but there's no question that THE OBSESSED ONE is a truly horrid film that narrowly escapes a BOMB rating because of how awful it is. The unintentional laughs and the insane look to the film means that it's worth watching.
