A weird short thriller shot in leafy Surrey. The protagonist is a skirt-chasing lorry driver who becomes entranced by a naked girl he meets horse-riding in the countryside and he bids to track her down and have his way with her, but all is not what it seems. THE SEX VICTIMS is a rather low key affair that despite an interesting storyline has little going for it; in the hands of a Lindsey Vickers this would have been loaded with atmosphere and suspense, but this is more superficial, which makes the twist ending rather head-scratching. There's a lengthy chase scene which will delight urban explorers and a good turn from swarthy Alun Armstrong, alongside lots of nudity, but the end result feels shallow more than anything else.
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Leofwine_draca7 May 2021
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Astonishingly bad. Amazing that someone actually thought this was acceptable and allowed it to escape out into cinemas as a supporting "short" (not short enough) in 1973. It looks like it was made in summertime so while Sunderland fans were celebrating their FA Cup win a 70s misogynist and borderline rapist was chasing a page three girl, interminably through a forest in Surrey. It does earn a star for the glimpses of the Orchard truck-stop café, which seems to be still going and garnering good reviews. First of all there is a huge spoiler in the IMDB synopsis, so I won't hold back here. I am most certainly no snowflake but the values exhibited in this dross are really Neanderthal. From a technical point of view, this mess is all over the place. For instance, the glamorous pedestrian in the opening scenes who scratches her backside right in front of the camera (how that must have looked on those big 1973 cinema screens) then casually climbs into a lorry, never to be seen again. Who was she? Why was she? The pacing of the movie (let's call it a movie, at a very long 37 minutes) is woeful, as though it were directed by a hyperactive child who got tired half way through and decided to pad it out with the longest chase scene since The French Connection - except here it's a blonde in 70s lingerie (no thanks) on horseback being inexplicably pursued by a lorry driver with an aversion to motorways and a love of narrow forest roads. A soothsaying tramp turns up and seems to know a lot about our protagonist, but his mind is full of naked horsewomen and his suspicions remain dormant. He visits some stables where he encounters ANOTHER blonde (or is it the same one? We may never care) to book a midweek horse ride. As you do. This being the Seventies, he feels obliged to sexually harass the proprietress, invading her personal space, mauling her face and hitting her with a riding crop (she actually corrects him when he calls it that, but I don't remember what it was actually called). Then, either losing interest or realizing he doesn't have the capability, he suddenly moves on from his molestation of this very tolerant businesswoman. Whilst out riding he spots the (now semi-clad) horsewoman (of course) and the long, tedious chase, on horseback and then on foot, ensues. He actually catches her a couple of times but she gets away, and at other times he's within grabbing distance but slows to a jog so that she can accelerate away. Again, like the dog chasing the car, he probably wouldn't know what to do if he caught her. WHY is he chasing her? Why has he elected himself the arbiter of all that goes on in the woodland, the enforcer of dress codes? Anyway, he does catch her, wordlessly grapples with her and gives her a conveniently knicker-showing fireman's lift and before we know it she is happily succumbing to his Yorkie bar-fuelled advances. No sooner has Nirvana been reached than she is demanding he bring his mate next time. He does (it's Brian out of New Tricks - but with hair! Lots of it!) but far from a willing blonde, they find coppers behind every tree! "It took you long enough!" says the main man, a detective. What...they were hiding behind trees ever since the girl was murdered (which we are led to believe was months before) because of the famous adage that the killer always returns to the scene of the crime? Well I bet they were queuing up for that detail! The overtime's good but by heck it gets boring! So with God knows what evidence ("found wandering in a wood hoping for a threesome") they are thrown in a police car and driven off. The girl was an apparition. The stables were an apparition. Was the horse from those stables that he chased her on for an age an apparition? The tramp was an apparition. Fin. Like most "so bad they're good" movies, it's actually quite boring when you have to sit through it (see also Plan 9 From Outer Space - hilarious to talk about and watch clips of but goodness, what a drag). That's the main takeaway from The Sex Victims (who are the sex victims? The men who end up in chokey or the girl who ended up choked and the stable owner?) - for all the humorous aspects it's just plain boring and dreadfully made.