The Virgin Spring (1960)
The 1961 Academy Award Winner for Best Foreign Film, The Virgin Spring also inspired Wes Craven to make The Last House On The Left. The Virgin Spring take a look at rape and revenge from a much more religious point of view than Craven’s shocker, and is a bit more “classy,” if there was ever a word to describe a rape-revenge film. It tells the story of three herdsmen who brutally (is there any other word?) rape and murder a young Swedish girl, only to take refuge in her parents house, where the girls father (played by The Exorcist’s Max von Sydow) exacts revenge on them. While this is harrowing stuff (especially for 1960) the final scene is a beautiful and poignant moment.