Ms .45 - Arrow Limited Edition 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray

Set in the cinematic New York City of the late '70s/early ‘80s, Ms .45 is about poor Thana (Zoë Lund), a mute seamstress who is, at first, forced to kill, but then grows a taste for it. On her way home from work, she’s viciously attacked and raped. She comes home, shocked and terrified, only to find another assailant in her home and is raped again. This time, during the attack, she grabs a nearby object and bludgeons the attacker to death. Over the nights that follow, she’s plagued by memories and nightmares in a post-traumatic fever. She’s disgusted with the acts that have been thrust upon her. But then, she decides to own her actions.

As Thana embraces her violence, so too does she embrace her sexuality. She transforms herself into an angel of vengeance (Angel of Vengeance, appropriately, was the film’s original title), wearing makeup to lure in would-be attackers, like flies into a spider’s web. Before they have a chance to attack her, she attacks first, killing them with her titular .45-caliber pistol. As these acts of violence wreak havoc on her psyche, she begins stalking men who haven’t done anything wrong. The world around her has twisted her into an indiscriminate killer.

Ms .45 is a spiritual counterpart to director Abel Ferrara’s Driller Killer, another film about someone driven to murder through madness, but with a feminist twist. I generally am not a fan of male-directed rape-revenge fantasies, but Ms .45 has the benefit of sincerity to it. It’s not a story that is gleeful in the torture it can inflict on its heroine, but is instead fascinated by how trauma shaped her into the assassin she becomes. It’s a familiar trajectory we’ve seen throughout the ages - the reluctant criminal who finds their true calling, like Michael Corleone in The Godfather, although aesthetically it has much more in common with Scorsese than Coppola.

It helps, too, that Zoë Lund was instrumental in shaping her character. She would also co-write Bad Lieutenant with Ferrara. At first, it seems like a simple narrative decision for Thana to be mute, so that the audience can project themselves onto her. But in stripping her of dialogue and allowing her performance to be conveyed entirely through physical action, there’s something more primal to her in the end. What could have simply been I Spit on Your Grave meets Death Wish becomes something much more interesting, focusing on the psychology of vengeance instead of the blood and guts of it. It’s about the horror or not being able to recognize yourself.

Ms .45 has a palpable sleaziness and grittiness to it. The streets are filthy and littered with trash, and the people who walk these streets are degenerates. There are murderers and rapists around every corner, and as Thana first becomes a victim of these people, she’s transformed into one of them through her acts of revenge. If this all sounds very reactionary, hey, Abel Ferrara just calls it like he sees it.

Vital Disc Stats: The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray
Ms .45 arrives on 4K UHD Blu-ray in a single-disc release, housed in a standard case with a removable slipcover. The slipcover contains new artwork commissioned for this release from Sister Hyde, replicating an iconic shot from the film with Thana wearing a nun's habit, kissing a .45-caliber bullet. The interior case contains classic artwork from the film’s original release. Also included is a collector’s booklet featuring writing by Robert Lund, Kier-La Janisse, and Brad Stevens.

For its release on 4K UHD Blu-ray, Arrow Video has restored Ms .45 from its original 35mm camera negative and graded it in Dolby Vision HDR. Arrow’s work on this transfer is a delicate balancing act. Thematically, Ms .45 should look a little rough around the edges. Clean it up too much and it loses that visual edge. Go too far in the other direction and leave the presentation dirty, scratchy, and littered with debris, why even bother upgrading if you already own it on Blu-ray? I was very pleased with the end result. The picture is sharp, rendered so that fine details are clearly visible throughout, and the colors allowed to pop brilliantly without oversaturation. But, true to its original release and aesthetic, it’s awash in a layer of film grain, with some minor imperfections here and there, like the occasional scratch or dirt speck to allow its way onto the screen. Ms .45 truly has it both ways and offers a brilliant video performance.

Ms .45 has one audio option for viewers, an LPCM mono mix. I had no complaints; I thought it sounded great. Like its video presentation, there are minor imperfections here and there, like some muddy dialogue recording, some hissing on “S” sounds or popping on “P” sounds. These are more of a symptom of the original recording, however, and don’t carry throughout the entire run-time, limited to infrequent occasions. Overall, dialogue clarity is excellent, sound effects like gunshots pack a punch, and Joe Delia’s awesome musical score builds to terrifying crescendos without being too loud. Ms .45 performs the same delicate balancing act, sounding polished and refined without being too squeaky clean, honoring its exploitation roots.

Arrow has put together a great assemblage of supplemental features for their release of Ms .45, both new and archival. We have a brand new audio commentary from Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, plus video essays from BJ Colangelo and Kat Ellinger that brilliantly explore the film's themes, along with older interviews with filmmakers like Abel Ferrara.

• Brand New Audio Commentary - Alexandra Heller-Nicholas
• The Voice of Violence (HD 18:56) - New featurette with film critic BJ Colangelo
• Where the Dream Went to Die (HD 15:55) - New featurette with film critic Kat Ellinger
• Archive Interview (HD 7:45) - Director Abel Ferrara
• Archive Interview (HD 10:06) - Composer Joe Delia
• Archive Interview (HD 10:32) - Creative consultant Jack McIntyre
• Zoe XO (SD 6:21) - 2004 short film directed by Paul Rachman
• Zoe Rising (HD 5:55) - 2011 short film directed by Paul Rachman
• Theatrical Trailer
• Image Gallery

Ms .45 isn’t for all tastes. Hell, it’s not even for most tastes. It’s a grimy, violent movie about the forces that can twist a person’s psyche. For those with a strong stomach, Abel Ferrara’s rape-revenge thriller is an intriguing look at a world gone mad. For all its sleaze and trash, it’s a lot of fun, too, with impossible-to-forget imagery. Arrow Video’s release looks and sounds great, backed by a robust offering of supplemental features. Ms .45 from Arrow Video is Highly Recommended.