General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20267 min read

Ms. 45

Ms. 45 (also known by its working title, Angel of Vengeance) is a 1981 American rape-revenge thriller directed by Abel Ferrara, written by Nicholas St. John, and starring Zoë Lund, credited as Zoë Tamerlis, as Thana, a mute garment-district seamstress who takes up a .45 caliber pistol after being raped twice in one day and begins killing men in New York City.¹^•² Made on a shoestring budget and first shown in grindhouse (theaters showing cheap, lurid exploitation films continuously) cinemas, the film has since been reappraised as a feminist cult classic and one of the most discussed rape-revenge films.³

Key fact	Detail
Director / writer	Abel Ferrara; screenplay by Nicholas St. John (credited N. G. St. John)¹
Star	Zoë Lund (credited Zoë Tamerlis), 17 years old during filming, in her feature film debut⁴^•¹
Production	Navaron Films; shot on 35 mm in New York City in November and December 1979; working title Angel of Vengeance¹^•⁵
Release	Opened in New York City on May 15, 1981, including at the New Amsterdam Theatre on the Deuce; MPAA rating changed from X to R⁶^•¹
Runtime	80 minutes (AGFA and MoMA list 80 min; other listings give 81 to 91 min)²^•⁴
Critical standing	86% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer (35 reviews) and 62 on Metacritic⁷^•⁸
Later life	Restored and re-released by Drafthouse Films in 2013; a 4K restoration from the original camera negative was released by Arrow Video in 2025⁹^•⁵

Spoilers

Plot and style

Thana is a mute seamstress in Manhattan's garment district. After being raped at gunpoint on her way home and raped a second time by a burglar in her own apartment, she kills the burglar, disposes of his body in pieces around Manhattan, and keeps his .45 automatic, first for protection and then for revenge against men generally.¹⁰^•¹⁵ Her spree escalates from men who threaten her, to men she sees threatening others, to men indiscriminately, culminating in a surreal Halloween party sequence in which she wears a nun's habit.¹⁵^•¹⁶

Because Thana cannot speak, Lund's performance relies largely on facial expression; the University of Wisconsin Cinematheque's Maureen Rogers called it a moving and dynamic performance with impressive range given the character's expressive limits.¹⁷ The film's sound design and music, which moves between expressive tenor saxophone and period synthesizer, has been described as a likely influence on Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill.¹⁷ Critics have read the film as a crossbreed of the I Spit on Your Grave-style rape-revenge thriller and the Death Wish-style urban vigilante film, and as a self-aware mash-up of Repulsion, Death Wish, Carrie, and Taxi Driver.¹⁸^•¹⁹ The ACMI collection notes that the gun-loading ritual, in which Thana kisses the bullets and blows a kiss in a mirror, inverts the famous mirror scene of Taxi Driver.²⁰

Production

Ferrara, born in New York in 1951, made Ms. 45 as his second feature after The Driller Killer (1979).¹⁰ According to an April 10, 1981 Hollywood Reporter article cited by the American Film Institute catalog, the film was independently financed with a budget of less than $1 million; the German database FILMSTARTS lists a budget of $62,000.¹^•¹¹ Ferrara later described the financing in blunt terms: he pitched the story to a backer as a woman raped on her way home from work, then raped again by a burglar in her apartment, and was told, "You got the money."⁶

Casting Zoë Lund. Ferrara met Lund while she was a 17-year-old Columbia University student on scholarship from Westchester County; she came to his loft during casting, read the script, and, in his telling, ended up auditioning him.⁶ Ms. 45 marked her feature film debut.¹ She later co-wrote Ferrara's Bad Lieutenant (1992) and died of a drug overdose in 1999 at age 37, according to El País; a 2013 Rotten Tomatoes editorial states she passed away in 1997.¹²^•¹³ Ferrara said of her, "The movie is her, and embodies her."¹³

The film was shot in New York City during November and December 1979, with James Lemmo (credited as James Momèl) as cinematographer and Joe Delia composing the score.¹^•⁵ Ferrara himself appears on screen as the first rapist, credited under the name Jimmy Laine.¹⁴

Genre position and feminist readings

Ms. 45 belongs to the rape-revenge subgenre, in which a female protagonist survives sexual assault and takes revenge on her attackers. Rogers describes it as among the most pared-down examples of the form, and places it alongside I Spit on Your Grave (1978) and the Swedish Thriller: A Cruel Picture (1973) as films often considered classics of the subgenre.¹⁷ The film scholar Carol J. Clover discussed Ms. 45 in Men, Women and Chainsaws (1992), her psychological analysis of the effect of horror films.²¹

The film's reception has split between readings of it as a seedy exploitation picture and as a feminist work. The British Film Institute's program notes describe it as giving "a rigorously feminist reading of the always problematic revenge-for-rape genre," while acknowledging that to some it remains a seedy exploitation pic.²² MoMA characterizes it as conveying "a deeply complex, feminist vision of what endless violations can push a woman to do."⁴ ACMI writes that the film is "the definition of an exploitation film, but in its own way reflected the women's liberation movement."²⁰ Ferrara's handling of the rapes themselves differs from much of the genre's contemporary ilk in that it does not brutally depict them.¹⁵

Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, a film critic and academic from Melbourne and co-editor of the film journal Senses of Cinema, devoted a 2017 monograph to the film in Columbia University Press's Cultographies series, arguing that it is today considered one of the most significant feminist cult films of the 1980s and one of the most important rape-revenge films ever made.³

Release, censorship, and reception

The Motion Picture Association of America first assigned the film an X rating in September 1980; the rating was changed to R by November 1980.¹ A Hollywood Reporter item reported that the film was shown at the May 1980 Cannes Film Festival, and Rochelle Films handled domestic distribution with Warner Bros. taking worldwide distribution.¹ It opened in New York City on May 15, 1981, and screened at the New Amsterdam Theatre on the Deuce; in West Germany it was released as Die Frau mit der 45er Magnum on June 26, 1981.⁶^•¹¹ Ferrara recalled that the film terrified a hardened grindhouse crowd into silence.¹³

Contemporary and later critical response has been mixed to favorable. Janet Maslin of The New York Times gave a negative review, writing that Ferrara "has a tin ear for dialogue and an evident penchant for ludicrous material" while calling him "clearly a talented fellow."⁸ Stephanie Zacharek of The Village Voice called the sexual politics blunt and the picture "riotously cathartic," and wrote that Lund is "a particularly effective avenging angel."⁸^•²³ J. Hoberman, also of The New York Times, described the film as "a highly self-aware mash-up" of Repulsion, Death Wish, Carrie, and Taxi Driver, noting that Ferrara's "camera never falters."¹⁹ Aggregated scores stand at 86% on the Tomatometer and 62 on Metacritic.⁷^•⁸

Restoration and home video

After its initial theatrical run the film circulated largely on VHS, and it was associated in the United Kingdom with the Video Nasties censorship controversy.²⁴ Drafthouse Films restored and re-released it theatrically and on DVD in 2013.⁹^•²⁴ In 2025 Arrow Video issued a limited-edition 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray with a new restoration from the original 35 mm camera negative, Dolby Vision and HDR10 grades, a commentary by Heller-Nicholas, and archival interviews with Ferrara and composer Joe Delia.⁵^•²⁵ The film is currently available on streaming services including the Criterion Channel, and its reappraisal has run alongside a broader mainstreaming of rape-revenge narratives, culminating in the Best Picture nomination of Promising Young Woman (2020).²⁶^•⁹

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Horror films (individual works) › Exploitation and extreme horror films

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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