Thriller: A Cruel Picture

(b. 1943) began his career in film as a unit manager and still photographer on Ingmar Bergman’s Persona (1966) and Hour of the Wolf (1968). His own feature directing debut was the self-financed children’s film Hur Marie träffade Fredrik… (1969), a commercial flop. Fittingly, the next film he made was what he once called a “deadly commercial crap film”—Thriller: A Cruel Picture (1974). Like the ensuing project, Breaking Point (1975; directed under the alias Ron Silberman Jr.), the original cut of Thriller was banned in its home country of Sweden, and the film was subsequently cut down and exported to the U.S. After a few more stints as a production manager, Vibenius left the film industry and worked as a broker. Following the renewed interest in 1970s exploitation that began in the 1990s, and in particular due to Quentin Tarantino’s praise of Thriller: A Cruel Picture in the 2000s, Vibenius floated the idea of a sequel, but it has never materialized.