Violated! (1974) is a once thought lost exploitation film written, produced and directed by Albert Zugsmith. Before turning to directing exploitation films in the early sixties, Zugsmith had been a producer of some regard at the major studios. To this day Zugsmith is best known for having produced films by Orson Welles, Douglas Sirk, and Jack Arnold. Violated!, as the title suggests, has little in common with such prestige productions.
The plot of Violated! follows Terry (Rene Bond) as she investigates her own sexual assault at knife point. Terry, frustrated by the lack of investigation by police, forms her own little squad of victims to pursue the serial rapist and bring him to justice. The narrative template of Violated! is both proto-slasher and early rape/revenge flick. It balances spectacles of sexual violence with scenes of torture and vengeance. What’s unique about Violated! is that Terry’s crew of amateur investigators includes both men and women. Most rape/revenge films pit an all girl group against a single male villain.
Zugsmith’s gaze is as sleazy as one would expect. Women are constantly objectified, even when battling their assailant the camera moves in close for shots of jiggling breasts. This compounds the depravity of the plot and makes any feminist reading virtually impossible. The camera gaze is as complicit in the assaults as the rapist. Not once does Zugsmith counter, juxtapose or subvert this misogynist visual economy.
The “twist” ending is equally disturbing. In the final moments of Violated! it’s suggested that there is a rapist in all men. The man Terry tortures is as much the rapist as any man, and certainly as much as the copycat attacker in the last shot of the film. This suggests that it is a foregone conclusion that all women are meant to be victims and all men victimizers.
