Naked Vengeance

I played Arnie, one of the five rapists of the female lead played by Deborah Tranelli. Naked Vengeance was one of the early "Chick Vengeance" genre films.

Doing a rape scene was very difficult as the mood on the set is very tense, especially from the women on set. Anyone familiar with film production knows that it is a surreal atmosphere but standing around with nothing on but a jockstrap became almost natural by the end of the long night. Deborah was a real professional, detaching herself from direct contact friendly conversation. Before and after the "rape scene" she was friendly but she got "into character" during the very intense, violent, demeaning, dehumanizing sequence.

I think any woman seeing this movie would be deeply moved, emotionally and stunned by the brutality of the sequence. The entire production crew did a great professional job, though it was a long time before some of the female staff would even talk to me. It was that realistic and graphic. I never understood the horror of rape until I "took part" in trying to reproduce the crime in "ReeL life".

This is not an easy movie to watch. There is so much unnecessary violence. And I don't mean the one dished out as part of the vengeance/revenge part that takes place in the later part of the movie. No I mean the violence you (and the main character of course) have to endure to get to the release - to the resolution we may seek for.

I do not read what movies are about, but I guess the title was quite the giveaway. Still the moment that might make you cringe the most is really quite vividly displayed. Not easy to stomach to say the least. On the other hand, it does dish out quite the vivid revenge too. As the german title for Death Wish would say: A woman sees red (no pun intended).

Not sure if you would call this women empowerment - I'll leave that up to you. Espcially because something horrible (actually a lot of not just one moment) has to happen for the woman to take justice into her own hand. But this is a movie and overall well made - you just have to know if this is even something you want to see.

This was a very fun film to do, and I agree, this is one of Cirio's better films. We shot the film in parts of Baguio City, and at Lake Kaliraya in Laguna Province. We filmed this right after we had finished "The Devestators", which was also another fun one to do.

In the vein of those aggressively seedy, but stock-like revenge thrillers; "Naked Vengeance" is a considerably cut-rate, but amusingly rowdy and efficiently catered b-grade imitation of "I Spit on Your Grave". Carla's life is shattered when she witnesses her husband murdered, so she retreats back to the town she grew up in and stays with her parents at their lakeside cottage. But the nightmare continues for her when some drunken locals break into her home. There they would terrorise her, until her parents walked in on them to only be killed. Abused and left for dead, the law just won't cut it. Revenge… cold-hearted revenge is what she seeks. Her own justice with pain driving it. The men that caused the act, leaving this women's descent into madness (or that's what we are to believe); simply are portrayed as perverts, drooling low-lives and thugs. Even the clueless, narrow minded local Sheriff isn't painted that fancily.

While unimaginatively clichéd, it packs fury (some intensity makes its way into some set-pieces) and instinctively lays out many horrid encounters as she toys around with her initial victims knocking them off one at a time. Jack-cheap exploitation film-maker Cirio H. Santiago provides serviceable direction, as it doesn't waste much time and never does it outstay its welcome. The writing / dialogues might seem rough, but it's simple and formidably to-the-point. Deborah Tranelli (of "Dallas" fame) provides a grippingly strong performance as the traumatised Carla.

My review was written in May 1986 after watching the movie on Lightning video cassette.

"Naked Vengeance", alternately titled "Satin Vengeance", is a routine exploitation film, nicely ated but strictly to formula. Feature has gone directly to the home video market, with theatrical release still upcoming.

Deborah Tranelli toplines as Carla Harris, a former actress whose husband is killed on their fifth wedding anniversary when he tries to prevent a woman from being assaulted in a parking lot.

She goes to stay with her parents in Silver Lake, California, where she grew up. Virtually all the men there, including since-married old high school classmates, hit on her for a date with her increasingly uptight rebuffs angering them. Getting drunk one night, a bunch of the guys decide to visit her parents' home (where Carla has been left alone for the weekend) and get her.

Ensuing gang-rape scene is violent and graphically simulated, with Carla's parents killed by the thugs when they arrive home early. A young handyman Timmy (Steve Roderick) also is shot to death when he threatens to go to the police.

In an unconvincing plot gimmick, Carla is left for dead (though she wasn't shot) and she recovers in a hospital. There follows the genre's standard female on the warpath payoff, including some unnecessarily ultraviolent scene such as a castration and an exploding head effect.

A stupid ending has Carla popping up in New York to unbelievably find and kill the murderer of her husband after she runs out of rapists to wipe out.

Story has been filmed many times before, notably in Meir Zarchi's 1978 opus "I Spit on Your Grave". Filipino director Ciro H. Santiago directs competently, with a solid performance by Tranelli keeping the picture watchable.

As with several other recent features from Roger Corman's Concorde Pictures banner such as "Streetwalkin'" and "Barbarian Queen", film is being released on video cassette in both R-rated and unrated versions as a comeon to gullible fans. Ultimately, such a practice will sabotage the theatrical release, since the target audience will want to see the entire film, not the truncated R-rated theatrical edition.