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Ms. 45

Ms. 45 is a 1981 film from the USA, directed by Abel Ferrara, running 80 minutes. reelscum files it under vigilante and rape-revenge.

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Year
1981 · 1980s films
Country
USA
Runtime
80 min
Director
Abel Ferrara
Updated
29 Oct 2026
Obscurity
known (28/100)
Also known as
Angel of Vengeance · Ms .45 (1981) · Ms.45 · Ms. 45

Defined in the glossary: Vigilante, Rape-revenge

Ferrara's best. Zoë Lund is extraordinary and the ending is a genuine image.

Abel Ferrara's second film, and the one where he found his subject. A mute seamstress in New York is assaulted twice in one day and starts working her way through the men of the city with a recovered pistol. Zoë Lund gives a performance almost entirely without words and holds the whole film on it.

It is a rape-revenge film that keeps complicating its own revenge, ending at a Halloween party in an image that stays with you. Ferrara shoots a grimy 1981 Manhattan that no longer exists.

Nastier and smarter than the genre it belongs to.

Something else

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