Act of Vengeance

This movie is pathetic. An anti-rape film that wants to have it both ways by being exploitive too. The men are portrayed as insensitive buffoons and the victims are self-pitying, careless, indecisive, vindictive and stupid. The gratuitous nudity is another issue that I have with this piece of junk. And the ending in which I guess is suppose to have the audience cheering just seem ridiculous (as I'm sure it did back in '74). A previous reviewer refered to this movie as I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE-lite. ISOYG didn't try to hide the fact that it's trash. This one tries to have it's cake and eat it too.

What's a nice young man like Peter Brown doing wearing a horror mask and forcing terrified women to sing "Jingle Bells" while he rapes the living daylights out of them? Peter Brown, who was that good-looking clean-cut Deputy Johnny McKay throughout TV's excellent "Lawman" series (1958-60). What would marshal Troop think of him now? All those sweet appearances in such TV evergreens as, "Maverick,""Cheyenne,""Colt .45," "Loredo," "Sugarfoot" and countless others have led to this manner of extreme debauchery in a rather unnerving exploitation cheapie full of meanness and skin? Little Peter Brown, wearing an orange jumpsuit, leaping out of the bushes, ripping the duds off hapless women and violating them as breasts flop around to the frenzied squeaking of a happy Christmas tune? I have to give it five big curiosity points for being one actor's most astonishingly bizarre screen turnaround. Peter, you naughty boy.

I thought this movie would be a good movie to watch. It has a couple of my favorite actors in Jo Ann Harris and Peter Brown, and I liked the idea behind the movie - rape victims getting together and trying to capture their rapist. However, I believe the film concentrates too much on the Rape Scenes, showing the Rapes once or twice would have been more than enough. And I absolutely hated them using Jingle Bells during the Rape Scenes. This movie could have been made as a made for TV movie without the nudity and I think most people would have called it an OK movie. For me, there is way too much nudity and the acting is not very good. You get no idea why this guy is raping these women and that would be fine if the movie did not spend a considerable amount of time with him on the screen committing these attacks. For me this movie was OK, but not great.

When Linda (Jo Ann Harris) is beaten and raped by a jumpsuit-wearing, goalie-masked maniac (Hmmm, this villain seems familiar somehow), she goes to the police only to be further humiliated and infuriated. If Linda hasn't suffered enough, her idiot boyfriend proves just how little he understands or cares about her situation. Meanwhile, the rapist strikes again, along with his odd signature of forcing his victims to sing Jingle Bells (!!) during the attack. Eventually, Linda's had enough. She gathers the other victims together and forms the group implied by the title. They set out to "take out the trash". With some recently-learned karate skills, Linda and company cause great bodily harm and massive property damage. Oh no! Goalie mask man is back, and he's not happy! ACT OF VENGEANCE (RAPE SQUAD) is an average 1970's exploitation / thriller custom made for the drive-in crowd of its day. BEST SCENE: Linda and her squad unleash their karate on a local pimp. Hilarious!...

With a totally clueless police force unable to catch a serial rapist, five victims decide on a vigilante solution. Their "rape squad" takes on the hockey masked perpetrator and any other men behaving badly. All the men in "Act of Vengeance" are portrayed as insensitive creeps, including cops, hustlers, pimps, and even boyfriends. While the middle part of the film deals with these various male annoyances, the conclusion in an abandoned zoo, is totally about the "jingle bell rapist". The films greatest weakness, besides some marginal acting, is that very little is revealed about the orange clad hockey man. In the end however, it is what it is, an above average female revenge flick. - MERK

A rapist hidden behind hockey mask is on the loose.He forces his female victims to sing Jingle Bells during rape.A group of five women learn martial arts and team up to stop his dirty deeds."Act of Venegance" aka "The Rape Squad" has the special place in my heart,because it was along with Wes Craven's "Last House on the Left" the first rape and revenge flick I have ever seen.It's an odd and strangely unsettling thriller with sleaze and misogynistic violence.The script is lurid as it condemns the act of rape and sides with its victims but also presents those acts in an over-the-top and exploitative style.A must-see for exploitation fans.8 out of 10.